Death and Society: September 11, COVID-19 and Human-Induced Death (PDF)

September 11, 2001 At 8:46 a.m., a plane was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Eighteen minutes later, a second plane crashed into the South Tower. At 9:37 a.m., a third plane struck the southwest side of the Pentagon A fourt...

September 11, 2001 At 8:46 a.m., a plane was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Eighteen minutes later, a second plane crashed into the South Tower. At 9:37 a.m., a third plane struck the southwest side of the Pentagon A fourth plane crashed near the small town of Shanksville in southwestern Pennsylvania. Those who died on the planes included 246 passengers and crew members and 19 terrorists. The people who died at the scene of the World Trade Center totaled 2,752 and included firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical responders. Another 125 people died at the Pentagon. The Death System in Every Society (LO: 4.1–4.2) Death-related practices are the third key element in a general portrait of experiences with death in American society Encounters and attitudes affect practices The attacks of September 11, 2001 have drastically affected American attitudes and practices Practices cannot be fully separated from encounters and attitudes The concept of a death system is used to organize and provide context for the death-related practices selected for discussion here Kastenbaum: one faces death alone and as part of a society The sociophysical network by which we mediate and express our relationship to mortality The interpersonal, sociophysical, and symbolic network through which society mediates the individual's relationship to mortality Every society establishes a system to cope with the challenges that death brings to human existence Formal, explicit, and widely acknowledged in some aspects Largely hidden and often unspoken in other aspects The coronavirus and COVID-19 in 2020 challenged the American death system and altered everyday life Functions of a Societal Death System To give warnings and predictions To prevent death  To care for the dying To dispose of the dead To work toward social consolidation after death To help make sense of death To bring about socially sanctioned killings of either humans or animals Components of a Societal Death System People Funeral directors, lawyers, medical examiners, florists Places Cemeteries, funeral homes, “hallowed ground,” health care institutions Times Memorial Day, death anniversaries Objects Tombstones, hearses, obituaries, gallows Symbols Skull & crossbones, black armbands, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” The American Death System and the Events of September 11, 2001 Appears to act in many important ways to remove death from the mainstream of life, to minimize its presence, and to gloss over many of its harsh aspects Often acts to support distancing or denial of death. These systems protect us in from facing up to the very things that as individuals we most need to know Death systems can change when they are confronted by new situations September 11, 2001 The COVID-19 pandemic The American Death System and the Events of September 11, 2001 (LO: 4.1–4.2) Revealed both ineffective and effective aspects of the American Death System Failures of intelligence agencies and coordination Immediate responses by emergency, aviation, and medical systems Social consolidation among many American citizens  Redefined freedom, rights, and personal liberties in the United States Department of Homeland security Led to military responses by the United States and others Human-Induced Death (LO: 4.3) Accidents: 224,935 deaths in the United States in 2021 Efforts to reduce accidental deaths are strained by an expanding population, an aging population, and increased stresses in life Encounters with the opioid epidemic: 107,000 deaths in the United States in 2021 The largest number of these deaths involve fentanyl In 2022, the CDC published new guidelines for prescribing opioids Homicide: 26,031 deaths in the United States in 2021 (7.8 per 100,000) United States leads industrialized West in homicides Approximately 50 percent of all homicides have occurred between family members or acquaintances (21,084 men, 4,947 women, and 32.3 per 100,000 within Black Americans) Firearms were involved in 20,958 deaths Homicide in schools 2020–2021, 93 school shootings with casualties (43 deaths) Keep in mind that the percentage of youth homicides occurring at school remained at less than 2 percent of the total number of youth homicides Homicide and Its Aftermath Survivors are faced with an unexpected death in circumstances that may be unclear, traumatic, and often involve some social stigma Grief may be further complicated when The agent is a family member, friend, or peer The homicide has been deliberately perpetrated on innocent people Terrorism Terrorism: the intentional use of violence by non-state actors against civilians in pursuit of political objectives For revenge for perceived hurts  For publicity, attention, and glory To force a surrendering or impose a repression on others to show strength Individual terrorism: to express anger or frustration Group terrorism: attempts to do harm for religious, political, or ideological reasons State-supported terrorism: a strategy employed by a political administration against its own or a neighboring population Means employed by terrorists involve various forms of violence War, Genocide, and Ethnic Cleansing War To overcome another society or group (or to repel some aggressive action) Genocide Violent crimes committed against groups intending to destroy the very existence of the group and its members Ethnic Cleansing Involves the forcible relocation of population groups; often becomes a form of genocide Two General Points Produce social disruption resulting both directly and indirectly in suffering and death Difficulties in grasping or making sense of these events and resulting deaths The Holocaust Nazi program to eliminate entire classes of people 1. 6 million European Jews and millions of others “We have the choice between the Holocaust as a warning and the Holocaust as a precedent.” (Bauer, 1986) Its reality and implications continue to resonate within the North American death system The Nuclear Era (LO: 4.3) First tested and used as a weapon during WWII 2. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan Weapons of Mass Destruction  Potential for global annihilation 2. Concerns about terrorists, rogue governments, other “enemies” Nuclear Energy The threat of accidents and natural disasters Death-related experiences in the 20th century cannot be understood without considering these various forms of human-induced death All of these involve mass death or the potential for such destruction “Horrendous death” Death and Language (LO: 4.3) One way in which a society and its death system try to control and influence how death is experienced is evident in language patterns and practices Language about death Death-related language Reflect strong social messages Appropriate emotions regarding death Appropriate behaviors regarding death Language About Death People go to great lengths to avoid saying words like dead and instead using euphemisms Pleasing ways of speaking Substitute a pleasant or inoffensive word or expression for language viewed as harsher or more offensive Usually involve underlying attitudes that seek to “prettify” language Arise out of human experiences with death Overreliance can distance us from important and fundamental events of life itself Can contribute to confusion, misunderstandings, and miscommunication that can cause various types of harm Death-Related Language Is frequently used in talk about events that have nothing to do with actual death and dying  Dead batteries, dead letters, a deadpan expression, and deadlines Death-related language: its purposes Emphasis and exaggeration Dramatization and intensification In the contemporary American death system Death language is frequently avoided when people speak of death itself Is often employed when people are not speaking directly about death Death and the Media (LO: 4.3) Vicarious death experiences: News reports in the media “If it bleeds, it leads” May create a kind of psychological immunity to the impact of death among the general public Represents a highly selective portrait of death and life Terrorism and the media Unusual modes of death come to be seen as ordinary or typical One’s own death is perceived as less likely to happen and more remote Fantasized death and violence: Entertainment in the media Typical portrayals of death are usually very unrealistic or fantasized The realities of death, dying, and bereavement are rarely apparent Death is distorted and associated more with violence and gore More and more people are turning to online and social media sites for avenues of grief resources and support Thanatechnology Impact on society is a looser grip on the genuine experiences of life and death