Death as the Other of High Modernity

We humanise mortality by viewing it as a set of problems, we seek an enemy and kill it, we turn to projects that we can handle and there by attempt to give ourselves a sense of mastery over reality”

Bauman (1992)

This essay will attempt to discus Bauman’s notion of death as the ‘other’ of high modernity, through explaining the methods in which high modernity has employed to sequester death, through medicine and thus institutionalising the dying and those involved. It is also discussed how curtain minorities are linked to death and as a result-attempted genocide is justified to eradicate death. Lastly it is explained how those exposed to death are affected.

Up until the late 18th and early 19th century, death was a public affair. Literature such as ‘The book of the dead’ and the ‘Artes Morendi’ (How to Die well) gave society a common education that enabled one to know what was expected in the presence of death. Because death was an aspect of everyday life before the late 18th century the literature was used as a copping mechanism and ‘tamed’ Aries (1991) death. Death was explained in the literature not as an end, but as a transitional event and what could be done to be granted

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’ Delbo (1995) demonstrates the dehumanisation of Jews sent to the concentration camps in Auschwitz, likening the death of her pet dog Flac to a prisoner in the camp about to die: ‘Like a fragile stalk that must to break. Aries comments on the religious notion of life after death as ‘continued existence or obstinate denials of immediate destruction. The Consequences of Modernity Cambridge: Polity 1990

Hills, S. The magical technologies of medical science, are seen to cure any ailment that will potentially lead to death, when they fail to overcome death, status in the profession however is not lost. The heightened individuality makes death a private event that is controllable by lifestyle, it is now ones fault if they partake in risk taking behaviour, death is ‘perilously close to be declared a personal guilt’ Bauman (1992). Bauman (1992) argues here, that if humanity can identify a section of society that may be in fact the bringer of death, than mastery over death is accomplished. If focus is placed upon the triumphs in avoiding death, then the mysteriousness and finality can be sequestered. ‘Each victory is an occasion for rejoicing, once again death has been stoped in its tracks and pushed back. As one survivor commented “ I feel dead now,’ another saying ‘I have no energy. It has been proved that replacement of religion by the reasoning of medical science has left high modernity with a lack of social edict surrounding death, leaving humans with silence, initiating death as the ‘other’ by being untamed. ’ Thus by labelling a community as the ‘other’ by being associated with death, the community can be dehumanised and justifiably blamed for death.

As medicine has replaced religion in death, there is a new obsession with survival, as death now means the caseation of life.

Approximate Word count = 2667
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

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