Obsessed with Death
In his 1987 novel, The Thanatos Syndrome, physician-turned-author Walker Percy imagines a town whose inhabitants are reverting to simianism, that is, becoming more ape-like, a reverse evolution, or devolution, if you will. Their speech diminishes into monosyllabic grunts, they display brutish hypersexuality, not excluding paedophilia. They also begin to euthanize the old and sick. Hence, the title. It turns out they’re being poisoned by ‘sodium ions’ in the water (don’t ask, it’s a McGuffin).
Our society can’t blame the sodium for our own ‘death syndrome’, for by and large, we have chosen it of our own accord. Just a few tidbits from the news of late:
SADS – sudden adult death syndrome – continues apace. A famous soccer journalist, otherwise healthy and in the prime of life, ‘died suddenly’ slumping back in his seat while commenting on a game. In an understated comment, one close to him declared:
So for him to not be with us anymore at such a young age, that’s an immense shock.
Someone mentioned that there is a conspiracy theory that he was murdered by Islamic agents for wearing an LGBT t-shirt when he entered Qatar, a country not known for its toleration of the unnatural vice. That would be some refined poison, and the reader may make up his own mind, as sudden death rates continue to spike for ‘unknown reasons’.
Meanwhile, in a more obvious cause of death, a young woman in Toronto was randomly knifed to death in the mid-afternoon while waiting for a train.
Toronto woman Vanessa Kurpiewska, 31, died after she was stabbed shortly after 2 p.m., investigators say.
The perpetrator, apparently, was not hard to catch:
Police say Neng Jia Jin, 52, has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Was he evil or insane? There’s a fine line there, for all sin makes us in-sanus, that is, unhealthy, in body and in mind. But it’s a sad day in the city when one has to start wearing Kevlar in subway stations.
And it’s not just in mass transit. Our schools are filled with potential violent offenders, already well on their way. A friend related to me recently that his sister, a teacher of a combined elementary class, four grades in one, related that those students who don’t show up drunk or stoned, just act up and fight. When two such students were sent to the principal’s office, and their parents called in, the parents started throwing punches. Better sign up for those Krav Maga lessons. And don’t even think of arming yourself, for Trudeau is set to grab all of our guns. Nature red in tooth and claw, except for the few and the privileged in their enclaves. You’re not likely to find a politician on the TTC anytime soon. (Update: Eight teeny-bopper girls allegedly stabbed a 59-year old man to death last night)
And if your fellow citizens don’t get you, the state will. The Liberals are preparing legislation to expand euthanasia yet again, this time for the ‘mentally ill’. This is simply evil, to murder those least capable of making a rational decision. Suicides always think the only way out of their malaise is their own demise, which, of course, is the opposite of the truth. And even if this begins ‘voluntarily’, it won’t end there, for what we are allowed to do to ourselves, the state will eventually do to us. Already, there is pressure upon those dying, or even close to dying, from physicians, family, friends, hangers-on, inheritance-seekers. The next step is just injecting the needle while you’re sleeping, or looking the other way.
Some are trying to escape the mayhem, fleeing north to start hopeful ‘mediaeval villages’ in remote locales. That may have worked in the middle ages, but they don’t exist anymore. One was more free of a tyrannical king in the 1300’s, for said monarch simply had no way, and little means, to find you. They do now. As well, there’s a whole philosophy to ‘living off grid’, which is more brutal and brutish than some might imagine – raw nature really is quite raw, and a perusal of the memoirs of the early pioneers who tamed this country will quickly disabuse the dreamer. There are great benefits to all that we mean by ‘civilization’, which is ultimately the fruit of Christianity, and we should not take it for granted, nor let it go easily.
Death does not have the last word, but life, and life to the full. After all, it’s not ultimately about this transient existence, but what Christ promises for eternity. That’s the real message of Advent, and of the Christ-Mass, just around the corner.
Rejoice, for the Lord is near. +
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