Mark A. Hawkins's Blog
October 23, 2025
How Ernest Becker Can Help Us Live Fully
Ernest Becker was a cultural anthropologist whose main goal was to explore the core of human existence and behaviour.
In 1973 his lifelong pursuit culminated in his book The Denial of Death that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize.
THE PARADOX AT THE CORE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
Becker argues that the fundamental driver of human behaviour is a paradox that sits at the core of our very existence: we are animals like all others on the planet, but because we are self conscious of this fact, unlike other animals, we want to believe that we are special.
We want to believe that the rules that apply to other animals do not apply to us. And of course what is at the core of our detest of our “creatureliness” is the fact that all creatures die and so must we. Becker says,
The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity--activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man (Becker, 1973, xvii).
We are the only animals that are conscious of their own inevitable deaths, yet we try to deny it in any way we can.
We instinctively want to live forever.
Just like any animal has the natural instinct for survival, we too want to keep on living, yet we know we have to die.
According to Becker, this painful paradox lies at the heart of human condition that drives much of our behaviour.
WE ALL WANT TO BE HEROES
All of human activity, from simple family life to the founding of the great religions, is a way to deny, overcome, or forget about death. Becker calls this heroism. We are all trying to be the hero that will finally be able to defeat the big bad beast.
But because death is not something that is material, we have to defeat it symbolically.
Becker writes that humans are made of two halves, an animal self and a symbolic self.
The animal self is the one of instincts and nature, the one that will eventually end up being food for worms. Our symbolic self is the one that is conscious and attaches meaning to itself.
We have a name, a job, a favourite hobby, are part of relationships, part of a church and a hundred other meaning that make up who we are.
All of these symbolic selves are housed within what Becker calls a hero system:
Society itself is a codified hero system, which means that society everywhere is a living myth of the significance of human life, a defiant creation of meaning. Every society thus is a religion whether it thinks so or not
(Becker, 1973, p.7).
Our symbolic self tries to overcome or deny death within the preset system of symbols within society.
This means that everything in society has a symbolic meaning to you. Your bank account, your job, the size of your house, your age, your relationships all have a specific meaning to you that is largely determined by the cultural you live in--they do not actually mean anything in themselves.
We all live within some type of hero system based on our culture and upbringing that governs how we should live our lives.
But, not matter what hero system we are participating in, our symbolic selves live within a symbolic world created unconsciously to deny and overcome death.
WE DENY THAT WE ARE ANIMALS
Within this symbolic hero system there are several ways that we try to overcome the terror of death. One way we do this is we try to deny or transcend our animal nature through religion. Becker writes that religion
is an attempt to attain “an immunity bath” from the greatest evil: death and the dread of it. All historical religions addressed themselves to the same problem of how to bear the end of life
(Becker, 1973, p.12).
All of the great religious traditions speak of an everlasting blissful life that awaits us.
What better way to deny death!
We also try to deny and minimize our animal instincts.
This is why many religions are so against the sins of the flesh? These are precisely the behaviours that reveal our animal nature.
We are essentially trying to be gods by denying our “creatureliness.”
WE TAKE ON A CAUSA SUI
A causa sui is a symbolic meaning that we give to our lives or has been given to us by living in our society.
Becker says that we cannot live in full awareness of the truth of our predicament so this meaning provides a character armour that allows us to function in the world without always being in absolute terror of death at any moment.
It becomes of matter of what level of illusion we are living.
Becker says that we fetishize or narrow down the scope of our world to manageable pieces so that we do not become overwhelmed.
Some of us make our lives completely dedicated to family life while others may dedicate their lives to creating a successful business. Some of us will try to create great legacies for ourselves so that we can symbolically immortal.
This will depend on the hero system you live in.
Regardless of what form it takes, the causa sui takes up so much our time and focus that we are distracted from the terror of death.
We convince ourselves of its meaning and importance in the big scheme of things so that we become heroes who will defeat death and live forever.
WHAT I THINK OF BECKER'S IDEAS
I think Becker has hit on something profound that explains a lot of human behaviour, but I do not think it's entirely the fear of death that drives us. Instead, I think the idea of death makes us realize that life is urgent. We must quickly figure out how to best live our lives while we are here.
His causa sui is not distracting us from death, but is what we or our culture has deemed the best way to live. Our societies, cultures, and religions provide a built in hero system so that we do not have to figure out our own best way to live.
If you realize that society and culture are reactions to the human condition rather than being something inherently truthful or important, then you can free yourself of a lot of suffering. You don't have to be tied to society's ideas of success, beauty, or what is a good life.
When you realize that society's expectations and norms are completely arbitrary and relative then you can let go of the guilt of not having lived up to them. For a long time, I felt gnawing guilt that I was not good enough because I was not super outgoing. Then I realized that extroversion was a arbitrary cultural ideal without any real truth or value.
After reading The Denial of Death you become sort of like Neo in the Matrix who realizes that the world is a fabricated illusion that can be molded and shaped to your desires.
In 1973 his lifelong pursuit culminated in his book The Denial of Death that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize.
THE PARADOX AT THE CORE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
Becker argues that the fundamental driver of human behaviour is a paradox that sits at the core of our very existence: we are animals like all others on the planet, but because we are self conscious of this fact, unlike other animals, we want to believe that we are special.
We want to believe that the rules that apply to other animals do not apply to us. And of course what is at the core of our detest of our “creatureliness” is the fact that all creatures die and so must we. Becker says,
The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity--activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man (Becker, 1973, xvii).
We are the only animals that are conscious of their own inevitable deaths, yet we try to deny it in any way we can.
We instinctively want to live forever.
Just like any animal has the natural instinct for survival, we too want to keep on living, yet we know we have to die.
According to Becker, this painful paradox lies at the heart of human condition that drives much of our behaviour.
WE ALL WANT TO BE HEROES
All of human activity, from simple family life to the founding of the great religions, is a way to deny, overcome, or forget about death. Becker calls this heroism. We are all trying to be the hero that will finally be able to defeat the big bad beast.
But because death is not something that is material, we have to defeat it symbolically.
Becker writes that humans are made of two halves, an animal self and a symbolic self.
The animal self is the one of instincts and nature, the one that will eventually end up being food for worms. Our symbolic self is the one that is conscious and attaches meaning to itself.
We have a name, a job, a favourite hobby, are part of relationships, part of a church and a hundred other meaning that make up who we are.
All of these symbolic selves are housed within what Becker calls a hero system:
Society itself is a codified hero system, which means that society everywhere is a living myth of the significance of human life, a defiant creation of meaning. Every society thus is a religion whether it thinks so or not
(Becker, 1973, p.7).
Our symbolic self tries to overcome or deny death within the preset system of symbols within society.
This means that everything in society has a symbolic meaning to you. Your bank account, your job, the size of your house, your age, your relationships all have a specific meaning to you that is largely determined by the cultural you live in--they do not actually mean anything in themselves.
We all live within some type of hero system based on our culture and upbringing that governs how we should live our lives.
But, not matter what hero system we are participating in, our symbolic selves live within a symbolic world created unconsciously to deny and overcome death.
WE DENY THAT WE ARE ANIMALS
Within this symbolic hero system there are several ways that we try to overcome the terror of death. One way we do this is we try to deny or transcend our animal nature through religion. Becker writes that religion
is an attempt to attain “an immunity bath” from the greatest evil: death and the dread of it. All historical religions addressed themselves to the same problem of how to bear the end of life
(Becker, 1973, p.12).
All of the great religious traditions speak of an everlasting blissful life that awaits us.
What better way to deny death!
We also try to deny and minimize our animal instincts.
This is why many religions are so against the sins of the flesh? These are precisely the behaviours that reveal our animal nature.
We are essentially trying to be gods by denying our “creatureliness.”
WE TAKE ON A CAUSA SUI
A causa sui is a symbolic meaning that we give to our lives or has been given to us by living in our society.
Becker says that we cannot live in full awareness of the truth of our predicament so this meaning provides a character armour that allows us to function in the world without always being in absolute terror of death at any moment.
It becomes of matter of what level of illusion we are living.
Becker says that we fetishize or narrow down the scope of our world to manageable pieces so that we do not become overwhelmed.
Some of us make our lives completely dedicated to family life while others may dedicate their lives to creating a successful business. Some of us will try to create great legacies for ourselves so that we can symbolically immortal.
This will depend on the hero system you live in.
Regardless of what form it takes, the causa sui takes up so much our time and focus that we are distracted from the terror of death.
We convince ourselves of its meaning and importance in the big scheme of things so that we become heroes who will defeat death and live forever.
WHAT I THINK OF BECKER'S IDEAS
I think Becker has hit on something profound that explains a lot of human behaviour, but I do not think it's entirely the fear of death that drives us. Instead, I think the idea of death makes us realize that life is urgent. We must quickly figure out how to best live our lives while we are here.
His causa sui is not distracting us from death, but is what we or our culture has deemed the best way to live. Our societies, cultures, and religions provide a built in hero system so that we do not have to figure out our own best way to live.
If you realize that society and culture are reactions to the human condition rather than being something inherently truthful or important, then you can free yourself of a lot of suffering. You don't have to be tied to society's ideas of success, beauty, or what is a good life.
When you realize that society's expectations and norms are completely arbitrary and relative then you can let go of the guilt of not having lived up to them. For a long time, I felt gnawing guilt that I was not good enough because I was not super outgoing. Then I realized that extroversion was a arbitrary cultural ideal without any real truth or value.
After reading The Denial of Death you become sort of like Neo in the Matrix who realizes that the world is a fabricated illusion that can be molded and shaped to your desires.
Why Boredom is the Most Powerful Emotion
Some people say that the world drastically changed on June 29th, 2007, the day of sale of the first iPhone. In my opinion, this is the true beginning of the age of distraction. Smart phones changed everything. We could literally carry the world with us a all times, with almost everything available to us at any moment.
This seems pretty good right?
But there is a really dark side to all this quick and easy engagement and distraction.
DISTRACTION AND DIVERSION ARE ADDICTIVE
Humans are genetically driven to seek engagement as part of the survival instinct. In the past, it kept us on the move thinking and doing things to ensure our survival against potential threats. Our ancestors probably always kept themselves busy hunting, building better shelters, and defending themselves against outside threats. Because we are hard-wired to avoid doing nothing, we find the path of least resistance to keep ourselves engaged. In the past, it was not so easy to distract ourselves from being bored. For our ancestors there was very little passive engagement. All their engagement was hard fought and productive.
Even just a few years ago we had to be much more active in seeking out engagement. We had to go to the video store, we went out with friends for coffee and if we wanted to find some information, you had to go to the library. We still have this drive to always be engaged, but it has become so easy to satiate it that our tolerance for it has gone sky high.
We’re addicted.
THE DOUBLE WHAMMY FOR ADDICTIVE DISTRACTION
First, because the basic tasks of living are so easily achieved, we have far more time on our hands. We don’t have to grow our own vegetables, or churn the butter before dinner. Second, there is so much distraction and diversion available that most of us fill that extra time with easily obtained passive engagement. TV, Internet, and social media now offer a constant flow of passive engagement that fills all of our down time and distracts us from life. So we are hard-wired to crave easy engagement and there is so much of it available.
All this distraction is eroding our life satisfaction.
A lot of us spend our days at a job we don’t really like and then come home, eat dinner, and spend the rest of the evening watching TV or surfing the web. It’s no wonder we are so unfulfilled.
Our downtime could be used to examine our lives, change our situation, or do things that really make us feel alive, but because it has become so easy to tranquilize ourselves with passive engagement that offers temporary escape, our lives remain stagnant.
Also, because we have so much passive engagement, we have built a really high tolerance for it and we need more and more of it to satisfy us. This makes it even harder to break out of the passive engagement cycle to change our lives.
BOREDOM CAN MAKE YOUR LIFE MORE SATISFYING
It seems counter-intuitive to say that boredom can help us live a satisfying life, but it’s true.
If we allow ourselves to do nothing instead of immediately flipping on the TV, or grabbing our phones, we begin to realize that those things were just distracting us from things we really wanted to do. By allowing ourselves to be bored we do a few things.
First, boredom quickly makes us realize how much time we actually have in a day. When I first let boredom back into my life by not watching TV or going on my phone, I would stare at the clock and realize that I had five hours to kill before bedtime.
Part of me almost wished that I could skip the five hours of doing nothing and go straight to bed. That was a scary thought: I had worked all day only to want to fast forward the part of my day that I was supposed be looking forward to!
BOREDOM HELPS YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO DO
When I was not distracting myself with easy entertainment that numbed my brain, I actively began looking for other things to do, but things that were more meaningful. I decided to finally read a book I had been wanting to for over six months, the one I had told myself I didn’t have time for.
Finally, boredom increases our tolerance for slower, yet ultimately more rewarding activities.
When we give up easy distraction and diversion, our brains begin to recover and we are able to endure slower activities like reading, writing in a journal, building a model airplane, or even long term goals that we never seem to get around to.
So let boredom in and let it enrich your life!
This seems pretty good right?
But there is a really dark side to all this quick and easy engagement and distraction.
DISTRACTION AND DIVERSION ARE ADDICTIVE
Humans are genetically driven to seek engagement as part of the survival instinct. In the past, it kept us on the move thinking and doing things to ensure our survival against potential threats. Our ancestors probably always kept themselves busy hunting, building better shelters, and defending themselves against outside threats. Because we are hard-wired to avoid doing nothing, we find the path of least resistance to keep ourselves engaged. In the past, it was not so easy to distract ourselves from being bored. For our ancestors there was very little passive engagement. All their engagement was hard fought and productive.
Even just a few years ago we had to be much more active in seeking out engagement. We had to go to the video store, we went out with friends for coffee and if we wanted to find some information, you had to go to the library. We still have this drive to always be engaged, but it has become so easy to satiate it that our tolerance for it has gone sky high.
We’re addicted.
THE DOUBLE WHAMMY FOR ADDICTIVE DISTRACTION
First, because the basic tasks of living are so easily achieved, we have far more time on our hands. We don’t have to grow our own vegetables, or churn the butter before dinner. Second, there is so much distraction and diversion available that most of us fill that extra time with easily obtained passive engagement. TV, Internet, and social media now offer a constant flow of passive engagement that fills all of our down time and distracts us from life. So we are hard-wired to crave easy engagement and there is so much of it available.
All this distraction is eroding our life satisfaction.
A lot of us spend our days at a job we don’t really like and then come home, eat dinner, and spend the rest of the evening watching TV or surfing the web. It’s no wonder we are so unfulfilled.
Our downtime could be used to examine our lives, change our situation, or do things that really make us feel alive, but because it has become so easy to tranquilize ourselves with passive engagement that offers temporary escape, our lives remain stagnant.
Also, because we have so much passive engagement, we have built a really high tolerance for it and we need more and more of it to satisfy us. This makes it even harder to break out of the passive engagement cycle to change our lives.
BOREDOM CAN MAKE YOUR LIFE MORE SATISFYING
It seems counter-intuitive to say that boredom can help us live a satisfying life, but it’s true.
If we allow ourselves to do nothing instead of immediately flipping on the TV, or grabbing our phones, we begin to realize that those things were just distracting us from things we really wanted to do. By allowing ourselves to be bored we do a few things.
First, boredom quickly makes us realize how much time we actually have in a day. When I first let boredom back into my life by not watching TV or going on my phone, I would stare at the clock and realize that I had five hours to kill before bedtime.
Part of me almost wished that I could skip the five hours of doing nothing and go straight to bed. That was a scary thought: I had worked all day only to want to fast forward the part of my day that I was supposed be looking forward to!
BOREDOM HELPS YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO DO
When I was not distracting myself with easy entertainment that numbed my brain, I actively began looking for other things to do, but things that were more meaningful. I decided to finally read a book I had been wanting to for over six months, the one I had told myself I didn’t have time for.
Finally, boredom increases our tolerance for slower, yet ultimately more rewarding activities.
When we give up easy distraction and diversion, our brains begin to recover and we are able to endure slower activities like reading, writing in a journal, building a model airplane, or even long term goals that we never seem to get around to.
So let boredom in and let it enrich your life!
