Cosmism > Two Kinds Of Death
Fedorov believed in two kinds of death:
- Death by disintegration
- Death by fusion into some lifeless / distinctionless mass (mass movement, etc)
Thus Death is the opposite of the Trinity, which is unity without fusion, and individuality without disintegration. [p.47-48][#Young2012]
Fedorov speaks of two kinds of death. The one he devotes most attention to is death as disintegration. Whether in the physical universe, in society, in the family, or within the individual, particle is separated from particle, the inner ties dissolve, the whole is shattered. The task of all humanity is to restore to wholeness and life all that nature would disaggregate and drive to death. The opposite of disintegration, in the world as it presently exists, is not wholeness but fusion. This also is a kind of death, in which each unit loses its individuality and particularity, and all discrete parts are amalgamated into a lifeless mass. Fedorov finds death by fusion, like death by disintegration, present everywhere: in mass movements, in blind allegiance to the war cry, and in the swallowing of the lives of individual villages by cities. The task here is to decentralize, to turn the lifeless, shapeless mass back into living units. The world "as it is" operates under the principles of disintegration and fusion; everything is either disaggregated into unconnected particles or amalgamated into huge, lifeless, corporate entities. The "common task" is to reverse the natural flow of life toward death as disintegration and death as fusion, and to restore everywhere a wholeness that insures both the integrity of the unit and the unity of the whole. The model—or icon—for the universe "as it should be" is the mystical consubstantiality ofthe Holy Trinity, in the words ofthe Orthodox liturgy, ni sliianno ni razdel'no, "neither fused nor disaggregated," perfect as both three and one.
[#Young2012]: George M. Young. The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers. 2012.
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Fedorov speaks of two kinds of death.
Death as disintegration
The one he devotes most attention to is death as disintegration. Whether in the physical universe, in society, in the family, or within the individual, particle is separated from particle, the inner ties dissolve, the whole is shattered. The task of all humanity is to restore to wholeness and life all that nature would disaggregate and drive to death.
Death as fusion
The opposite of disintegration, in the world as it presently exists, is not wholeness but fusion. This also is a kind of death, in which each unit loses its individuality and particularity, and all discrete parts are amalgamated into a lifeless mass. Fedorov finds death by fusion, like death by disintegration, present everywhere: in mass movements, in blind allegiance to the war cry, and in the swallowing of the lives of individual villages by cities. The task here is to decentralize, to turn the lifeless, shapeless mass back into living units.
Death as it is
The world "as it is" operates under the principles of disintegration and fusion; everything is either disaggregated into unconnected particles or amalgamated into huge, lifeless, corporate entities. The "common task" is to reverse the natural flow of life toward death as disintegration and death as fusion, and to restore everywhere a wholeness that insures both the integrity of the unit and the unity of the whole.
The Trinity as life
The model—or icon—for the universe "as it should be" is the mystical consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity, in the words of the Orthodox liturgy, ni sliianno ni razdel'no, "neither fused nor disaggregated," perfect as both three and one.
George M. Young. The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers. 2012.