Nothing proves human consciousness is an evolutionary blunder more effectively than our innate fear of death. It’s inescapable and feels totally fucking useless biologically.
Most of us develop ways to compartmentalize these anxieties, because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. But for some, obsession only festers and grows until it becomes debilitating, and that’s why Zoloft exists.
Casey Jarman falls squarely into the latter camp. He thinks about death so much that he wrote a book about it. In the foreword to Death: An Oral History, Jarman admits that he set out to write about his favorite least-favorite subject at least partially so he could quell his own dread. “Talking to people about death for a year seemed like a pretty solid way to combat my own fear of it,” he writes. “Call it exposure therapy. If you have a fear of heights, spend some time in the mountains. If you’re scared of physical pain, get yourself into a fistfight. If you’re scared of death, what can you do, short of dying?”