The Denial of Death in Technological Culturalism: The Drive To Be A Modern Hero

by Andrew P. Keltner

Abstract

This paper looks into the works of anthropologist Ernest Becker, sociologist Jacques Ellul, and the field of terror management theory to understand how technological culture has developed from man’s fear of death. It should be seen that the fear of death along with the obsession with technological efficiency leads to a world wherein most of people’s drives are geared toward reaching an immortal state of being, either symbolically or materially. From this understanding we can then see how problems may arise in a technology world, of which I propose four.