Beware of the death-drive

Many humans have a “death-drive” in addition to a “life-drive”. Their life-drive drives them to try to stay alive for a long time, whereas their death-drive drives them to try to achieve their own death. The famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud discussed the precarious balance/oscillation between the life-drive and the death-drive in his essay “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” in 1920.

For you, the most dangerous thing about another person's death-drive is their tendency to try to drag you along to your death at the same time as their death. This is why it is important to be aware of how the human death-drive operates. It is dangerous to presume that nearly everyone wants to live and be happy.

If a lot of people have a death-wish, then why do they not commit suicide? Because their brain is conflicted: One part wants to die, but another part wants to continue living. This inner conflict leads to strange and contradictory behavior. For example, making an effort to avoid dying in a car accident, but smoking a pack of deadly cigarettes every day.

The death-drive does not mean that a man wants to kill himself, rather it means that he is driven to facilitate things that lead to his death. For example, when a man has a strong death-drive, he makes illogical excuses to obey orders that will almost certainly lead to his death in a deadly minefield or at the frontline of a war in a foreign country (an invasion of another country). He says something like this:

“I've been ordered to go. I know that I have less than a 1% chance of surviving at the frontline, but I must go, because I have a duty to serve and protect my country.”

If he truly wanted to protect his country, then he would fight in a different manner that does not result in his immediate death and a lack of achieving anything for the protection of his country. Furthermore, he would be defending the borders of his own country instead of invading a foreign country.

Thus, his statement is merely a weak excuse to fulfill his goal of dying. In this case, his death-drive is stronger than his life-drive.

Perhaps you do not care about him throwing his life away for nothing, but you will care when he tries to pressure you into coming to the frontline so that you can die together without achieving anything other than your own deaths. This is why it is important to understand the danger of the powerful death-drive that is present in other people.

Another example of the death-drive in operation is when we see people fighting over extremely absurd topics of little or no value instead of working on solving the high-priority problems. A ship is badly damaged, and it is sinking, and yet the passengers are still arguing about whether to respect a woman that identified her gender as “fox”.

The woman that identified as a fox knows very well that a fox is a species of animal and not a gender. Explaining it to her achieves nothing, because she already knew it from the start!

She is intentionally arguing about useless nonsense, because it serves to distract everyone away from constructive life-preserving activities, thereby contributing to her ultimate goal of achieving her own death (and perhaps yours as well). Thus, in the end, the passengers are still on the ship and arguing when it sinks below the waves.

The deniers of global heating are another example of the death-drive in operation. Most of these deniers already know that global heating is really happening, but they lie about it and say that it is a scam, because the death-drive part of their brain likes the idea of killing us all.

So, in effect, the deniers of global heating are trying to kill themselves and drag us along to our deaths as well. In 2022, the United Nations secretary general António Guterres said:

“No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction. We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.”

The human death-drive is insidious.

Another example: Immigration is normally a good thing, and I respect immigrants, but when extremists insist on rapidly taking in a huge and unsustainable number of migrants from the most problematic countries in the world, they are not endorsing reasonable immigration, rather they are indulging their death-drive by trying to rapidly destabilize and destroy their own country (and your family along with it).

Radical feminists/misandrists are another example of the death-drive (or at least a destruction-drive) in operation. Some misandrists pretend to be feminists supporting women's rights, when in reality they are indulging their death-drive by trying to destroy all happy relationships between men and women.

Another manifestation of the death-drive is when people try to persuade or pressure you into joining them in the sacrifice of their lives (and yours) for an allegedly good cause/crusade in return for little or no remuneration, even when it takes you away from your family or your children.

The human death-drive manifests in many different forms or expressions. It is insidious. Beware of the many people that will drag you to a mutual funeral if you do not recognize their concealed death-drive at work. If they are sadomasochistic, their self-destruction and yours will be even worse.