The Worm at the Core Quotes
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The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
—VLADIMIR NABOKOV
In fact, when death is close to mind, people prefer their out-groups to fit simple stereotypes. Following a death reminder, Americans prefer Germans to be neat and organized, male homosexuals to be effeminate, men to pay for dinner, and women to babysit the neighbor’s kids.
In fact, concerns about mortality influence everything from the mundane to the momentous—what you eat for lunch, how much sunscreen you put on at the beach, whom you voted for in the last election, your attitudes about shopping, your mental health and physical well-being, whom you love and whom you hate.
Examining history, the sciences and the humanities, findings from laboratory experiments, and people’s day-to-day struggles would expose death as the worm at the core of the human experience.
Our longing to transcend death inflames violence toward each other.
Our bodies and animality are threatening reminders that we are physical creatures who will die. To manage our terror of death we have to be much more than that; and a fundamental function of cultural worldviews is to prevent our bodies from undermining our pretentions of meaning and significance. So we transform our bodies into cultural symbols of beauty and power. We hide bodily activities or turn them into cultural rituals.