Self-quarantine: Deepening natural encounter during COVID-19

The word "quarantine" might conjure up negative associations;for instance, a youth may be given "time-out" as punishment for unruly behavior. A time-out creates space for reflection on one's actions and strips away the positive reinforcement linked to social stimulation. This chapter has two sections. The first section, "Mortality and Ecocide", explores the existential ramifications of how COVID self-quarantine suddenly and dramatically eliminated work hours for workers who were viewed as nonessential. The second section, "Symbolism and Deepening of Existential Encounter", delves into personal mythology study to further understand the human situation on the planet in relation to fear of death and the need for power. The chapter explores how human behavioral changes due to dysfunction correspond with the human meaning-making process and how we construct personal myths. Becker's exposition on death anxiety suggests that, in part, humans crave to unveil the meaning of life to mitigate the existential tension at times caused by the inevitability of death. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

'Heading for Extinction': how the climate and ecological emergency reframes mortality

The discourse of a climate and ecological emergency (CEE), especially as articulated in 2019 by Extinction Rebellion, impinges on two major features of western death mentalities. First, in order to motivate action, CEE discourse induces mortality awareness, death anxiety and grief, and thus furthers the de-sequestration of death and grief. Second, the CEE redirects attention from the death of personally known individuals, to species death;and even if humans survive as a species, it may only be after many billions of humans have died. This anxiety about future collective death arguably comprises a new death mentality. The paper compares and contrasts the CEE with other harbingers of mass mortality such as nuclear war and the Covid pandemic.

Revelaciones de la pandemia de COVID-19.

"Societies unveil their entrails during a crisis and hide or conceal them in normal situations" is the premise of this essay that offers a propositional critique of the foundations of civilization by characterizing some revelations from the COVID-19 pandemic that seriously compromises the globalized world. Especially the neoliberal myth as the only way of human progress, and technological development as the essence of social progress and main reason for scientific research. Among the significant revelations is the dismantling of the Welfare state and public health services, which render the population's vulnerability in the face of pandemics. Planetary devastation favors its emergence, and the correlation between the despondency of human activities and the (fleeting) improvement of planetary life, which denotes the radical incompatibility between the permanence of neoliberal capitalism that degrades everything and preservation and care of life in its infinite diversity, including human life! Another notion of human progress is proposed: the rise of values involved in the coexistence, and the spiritual, intellectual, and moral growth of the human condition in harmony with the planetary ecosystem. Regarding the deep reasons for the catastrophe, it is argued that it is humanity itself by its way of being, thinking, acting, living together and relating to the planet. Therefore, the conclusion reached is the urgent need to undertake an alternative path in the search for another possible world, hospitable and dignifying for all forms of life.

Bajo la premisa de que «las sociedades revelan sus entrañas en momentos críticos y las ocultan o encubren en situaciones de normalidad¼, este ensayo emprende, a partir de caracterizar algunas revelaciones de la pandemia de COVID-19 ­que ha puesto en jaque al mundo globalizado­, una crítica propositiva de los basamentos de la civilización. En particular, el mito neoliberal como camino único de progreso humano y el del desarrollo tecnológico como esencia del progreso social y razón principal del quehacer científico. Dentro de las revelaciones significativas destaca el desmantelamiento del Estado de bienestar y de los servicios públicos de salud, que hacen vulnerable a la población ante las pandemias; la devastación planetaria, que favorece su emergencia; y la correlación entre el desplome de las actividades humanas y la mejoría (fugaz) de la vida planetaria, que denota la incompatibilidad radical entre la permanencia del capitalismo neoliberal, que todo lo degrada, y la preservación y el cuidado de la vida en su infinita diversidad… ¡la humana incluida! Se propone otra idea de progreso humano: el auge de los valores implicados en la superación espiritual, intelectual, moral y de convivencia en armonía con el ecosistema planetario. Respecto a las razones profundas de la catástrofe, se argumenta que es la propia humanidad por su forma de ser, de pensar, de actuar, de convivir y de relacionarse con el planeta. Por tanto, la conclusión a la que se llega es la urgente necesidad de emprender un camino alternativo en la búsqueda de otro mundo posible, hospitalario y dignificante para todas las formas de vida.