Introduction

Capitalism leaves no human stone unturned in its generation of ill-effects, including the powerful, profound, sublime, and important existential event of death, your own or that of a loved one.

Did you cremate your deceased loved one, or are you considering it, in part or whole, because cremation is a less expensive method for disposition of their body? Given that the normal operation of capitalism keeps most of us poor, just a few paychecks away from poverty, or simply suffering a general lack of money, if you are electing for cremation because it's cheaper, you have already experienced one of the effects of capitalism on death

Think about it. So-called cremation is actually the complete destruction of the body of your loved one, by high-intensity burning. It's really a rather horrible and grossly inappropriate option, if you think about it. To resort to such a horrible option, the death industry must have done an effective job of persuading you that it's a fine option, and of its "affordability." Regarding the latter, since capitalism keeps most of us poor, or a few paychecks away from poverty, we are compelled to view as attractive any product or service that is less expensive--even those pertinent to such a critical, key, and existential event as death, our own or that of a loved one.

Or perhaps you have elected against cremation but for the option of embalming, whereby, unbeknownst to most, the body of your loved one is turned into an artificially-enlivened chemical-filled sack. Where the entire interior of their body is literally destroyed with chemicals and a long, sharp surgical tool called a trocar, to create the momentary exterior illusion that they are something akin to healthy and alive, while the reality is that they are deceased and slowly decomposing.

Given that 1.) embalming is unnecessary in every respect for most deceased persons, and 2.) it's actually a medical procedure or surgery, 3.) a horrific one that actually comprises the complete destruction of the entire interior of the body of your loved one, for the purpose of the creation of a temporary illusion outside, and 4.) costs a fair amount of money, if you have or are electing for this procedure or funeral "option," you are also allowing the profit-interests of capitalism to undermine even such a profound, sublime, and important event as the death of you or your loved one. Don't do it.

Or did your loved one die in the first place because of the almost singularly hazardous existence capitalism creates, including bad food, soil, water, air, and the deleterious effects of stress that we must all negotiate? If so, you have already experienced one of the effects of capitalism on death

The Real Problem

The real problem for we humans, however, is actually not death.

It is life.

When we have really lived, that is, lived fully and with deep satisfaction, we tend not to experience an inordinate fear of death. Perhaps no real fear at all. It's when we haven't lived, when we intuitively feel that our time here was not satisfying to us, that it was somehow squandered or wasted, that we become stubborn about leaving life and try to cling to it.

We haven't had our fill, after all. We weren't who we should have been and haven't done what we should have done. We can't let the vacation end as we haven't had a good time yet.

Most or many of us know this reality in some way or on some level. We sometimes experience it concretely in those we know, or we see it represented in art. We've known people, or seen portrayed in movies, the dying individual voicing a relatively peaceful and satisfied response to their own impending death. They speak apparent relative comfort about their own impending death, typically uttering words like: "I've had a good life. If it's my time, I'm ready to go."

These are not the words of someone afraid to die.

This is why among its many injuries to Humankind, capitalism is antithetical even to death. More properly, to our experience, the human experience, of death. Capitalism deprives most people of a deeply satisfactory life; in doing so, it deprives them of a deeply satisfactory, which is to say peaceful, death.

This is among the myriad reasons that Humankind must eliminate the scourge, capitalism.