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ORIGINAL: bernie

"Freud was right," maintains Norman O. Brown, "in positing a death instinct, and the development of nuclear weapons of destruction makes our present dilemma plain: we either come to terms with our unconscious instincts and drives - with life and with death - or else we surely die."

And where is Freud now?
 
There is no doubt that love of life (biophilia) and love of death (necrophilia) are deeply intertwined in our nature. Like body and mind there is no sharp dividing line either. Thus, the two basic instincts: Eros, the will to live, and Thanatos, the will to die, eternally at war within the individual are indeed representative of the endless struggle within us - that of life against death; that of good against evil.

There is no death, only change.
 

We need to create the conditions that would make the growth of man, this unfinished and uncompleted being unique in nature - the supreme goal of all social arrangements. Genuine freedom and independence and the end of all exploitative control are the conditions for mobilizing the love of life, which is the only force that can defeat the love for the dead (Erich Fromm).
Supreme beings never grow up, only over.

 
Man unlike simple-conscious creatures, however, has to make decisions in respect to what is good and bad on the basis of his knowledge of his nature and the laws which govern its growth. But what is it to be optimally healthy? - Perhaps, we must look at history, at great men, viz., the philosopher-king, the concepts of humanitas - of arete - of educere which is to draw out our humanity to the maximum level of perfection. We must also, above all else, come to grips with our greed - our malignant narcissism - our necrophilia (love of death, "Long live death!") by overcoming our destructive impulses, drives or instincts.

Being vegetarian helps.
 
Thereby we can sanguinely re-create our lives, our consciousness, with a biophilic generative orientation, i.e., a love for "Life in all its manifestations...the complete sum of existence, backwards and forwards, the whole amplitude of time, which is eternity (A.N. Whitehead.)" And with this as stimulus (Cosmic Consciousness) we can respond and adapt ourselves dynamically and productively with our ecosystem, with our world, according to the human principle: "Be true to thyself."; rather than being instinctively determined, negatively conditioned. - "He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew." (Goethe's Faust), "Licht, mehr licht." (Goethe's dying words.)

Make Art, not war over the words - better or worse.