I didn't attend Jack Layton's state funeral, but I did watch it on television. And then this morning I read "Imagining the Downside of Immortality" by Stephen Cave ("Sunday Review", NY times, August 28, 2011, 5), who has, it seems, written a book, Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization. His premise is that if we lived forever, it would be "the end of us" because "our culture is based on our striving for immortality" and "[i]f we were all immortal, the motor of civilization would sputter and stop". Underlying this view is the notion that because we fear death, we have developed ways to give us immortality, whether through religion, our children, our achievements. It appears that there have been empirical studies to support the conclusion that if there was no death, "[w]e would have no need for progress or art, faith or fame...we would have nothing to do, yet in the greatest of ironies, we would have endless eons in which to do it. Action would lose its purpose and time its value".
I do not doubt that there are those of us whose actions are much influenced by the desire to live on beyond their time on earth (and I'm not just thinking of those who want to be frozen, to rejoin human society when a cure has been found for their disease or longevity has been increased significantly). I also do not doubt that one reason for religion is that it allows believers to contemplate an afterlife when they might meet their loved ones again, or when good people treated ill on earth would receive their appropriate reward, or when those whose lives have been defined by evil, receive their just punishment. According to Rev. Hawkes, Jack Layton spoke of standing next to his father again, and I doubt that I was the only person who wished that he knew what outpouring of affection and respect his death brought forth. There are also those of us who realize remembrance of us after we die will be short-lived, since we lack descendants and have achieved little that will outlive us (or be associated with us) for very long.
But what a narrow view of life Mr. Cave's assessment reflects. It leaves little room for the creation of poetry or art because of the fulfillment it brings the poet or artist today. It leaves little room for the activitists and even, dare I say it, some politicians, of whom Jack Layton seems the epitome, who try to change the world for the better because they care about those for whom they fight or because they wish to live in a better society today, not after their death. It is hard to imagine that Jack Layton would not have fought as hard for the causes he initiated and supported had he thought he would never die. (It might be correct to say that knowledge of the inevitability of death sometime is a motivation not to waste time, at least for some, but this is not at all the same thing as doing these things because you want credit for them after death.) It may also be that there are those who do good because they do not want to be rememembered for doing bad.
The eulogies and Rev. Hawkes's sermon, the anecdotes from various sources, consistent with what we have heard before, confirmed that rarity, a man for whom the personal is the political is the personal, for whom the private and the public seemed to blend into each other. Uppermost in my mind now, but knowing there are others who work for a more just and fairer society for the same reasons, Jack Layton devoted himself to addressing injustices because it was the right thing to do, because he could, because he had a vision for today. I imagine that he hoped that the vision would continue and be even richer (in the best sense) after his death, but I doubt very much that his efforts were motivated by wanting immortality. Nor can I believe that the greatest poets and artists and writers, nor scientists, nor football players would not find satisfaction in what they do if they thought they would live forever. This ignores the desire for fame in life, for riches, for a sense of personal achievement, the desire to please others and make them proud of us, to contribute to the greater good and yes, control others and make them admire us. Whatever downsides immortality might have, and without ruling it out completely, I suspect that whether for good or ill, human beings are motivated by more complex aspirations than beating death.
