What do the Pyramids, Jeff Bezos, and Immortan Joe from Mad Max: Fury Road all have in common? They are all fighting the same primal battle: the denial of death. They are all fighting the same primal battle: the denial of death.
In this video essay, we dive into the revolutionary and unsettling ideas of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, from his Pulitzer-winning book “The Denial of Death.” Becker argued that nearly everything we call “human culture”—from our religions and nations to our personal ambitions—is essentially a “vital lie,” a heroic defense mechanism against the terror of knowing we will die.
Transcript
THE DENIAL OF DEATH
Man’s natural and inevitable urge to deny mortality and
achieve an heroic self-image are the root causes of human evil.
Ernest Becker
IMAGE: “Mr Mercedes” (2017) :
“So you become a martyr…”
“Its about being part of something bigger that yourself”
Becker’s Book cover: The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death, byErnest Becker, discusses the psychological and philosophical implications of how people and cultures have reacted to the concept of death.
IMAGE: Tv advert for AIDS “Grim Reaper” (1987)
He argues that human culture is fundamentally a symbolic defence mechanism against the knowledge of death.
Further, Becker claims our personal identities are nothing more than “heroic” roles we play within that invented cultural system.
IMAGE: “The Seventh Seal” (1958)
“Who are you/“
“Death”
“Have you come for me?’
“I have long walked at your side.”
Becker argues that most human activity is undertaken in order to ignore or totally reject the inevitability of death.
In Bergman’s famous film l, The Seventh Seal the knight hopes to delay Death’s claim on his life for as long as the game continues. This provides him with a temporary reprieve to accomplish one meaningful act before he dies—to find answers to his spiritual questions or perform a deed that gives his life significance.
IMAGE: Pyramids of Egypt
Built more than 4000 years ago, the Pyramids of Egypt are the ultimate manifestation of the denial of death, a colossal “immortality project”, designed to conquer time itself and grant a pharaoh symbolic eternity.
IMAGE: “Frankenstein “ (2025)
”We are born. And no sooner do we rise, we fall. Death.
But man may pursue nature to her hiding place and stop death.
Not slow it down. But stop it entirely.”
IMAGE”. The Guardian headline “Tech bros want to live forever.”
Images of tech bros.
Like Frankenstein and the Pharaohs of Egypt, modern day inventors Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman and other tech billionaires — are investing in companies trying to extend life by reversing aging at the cellular level.
IMAGE: Newspaper “Putin and Xi discuss longevity and immortality.”
Video: Putin and Xi walking and discussing longevity.
Even world politicians, particularly those who have declared themselves leaders for life, like Putin and Xi, have discussed extending their life.
According to Becker, humanity’s fundamental dilemma stems from our unique self-consciousness.
IMAGE: Baby recognises itself in the mirror. or
HAMLET: Mel Gibson
“Alas poor Yorrick. I knew him Horatio.”
We are acutely aware of our own mortality. This knowledge generates a profound and chronic fear of death, and a desire to postpone it as long as possible, if not forever.
IMAGE: HAMLET: Mel Gibson
“Now. How abhorred in my imagination it is.
My gorge rises at it.”
IMAGE: The Citadel, NUX “What’s going on ?
To cope with the unbearable anxiety of our own mortality, Becker argues that each of us constructs a “vital lie”, a story we tell ourselves, and its explained in our personal, religious and cultural foundation myths.
IMAGE: Warboys worship at V8 Alter of Wheels “By my deeds I honour him.V8.”
This vital lie embodies a cultural Hero System—a structured hierarchy of beliefs, values and roles, similar to Immortan Joe’s organisation with its cult of personality at The Citadel.
IMAGE: Warboys chanting, V8, V8.
Joe at the Citadel
“I am your Redeemer. It is by my hand you will rise from the ashes of this world.”
Within this grand Hero System, we each craft personal Hero Myths, evident in the character of Nux,to navigate and justify our place within the system.
IMAGE: Nux grabs steering wheel.
“That’s my wheel. High octane crazy blood. Fillem me up.
If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die historic on Fury Road.”
Joe putting on his armour.
To protect this entire fragile MYTHIC structure, we develop psychological Character Armour.
IMAGES: Bergman’s Seventh Sea, Death plays chess
Returning to the knight we first saw playing chess with death, we see hime here gain, mistakenly thinking that Death is a priest.
His dialogue reflects the existential crisis Becker describes.
KNIGHT:
My whole life has been nothing but futile wandering and pursuits.
A great deal of talk without meaning.
The knight is tormented by God’s silence and the fear that life may be meaningless, leading to existential dread.
KNIGHT: I want to use my reprieve for one meaningful act.
His chess game with Death is a reprieve he hopes to use to perform one meaningful act, giving purpose to an otherwise futile life.
IMAGES: Sheldon Solomon at podium “The Legacy of Ernest Becker” 2015
“According to Becker, culture consists of humanly constructed beliefs about the nature
of reality, that we share with other people in our group.”
Mr Mercedes: Young terrorist and captive
Terrorist: “We’re gonna do things medieval. Which is appropriate considering you religion”
Victim: “You don’t know the first thing about my religion.
But frequently these stories of culture, religion, and the nature of reality are indeed just that …… vital lies.
IMAGE: Terrorist and victim approach fake Norman Castle.
Victim: Laughs.
Terrorist. What the fuck are you laughing at. You’re gonna die up there.
Victim: That’s not a Norman Castle.
Terrorist: Yes it fucken is.
Victim; Its a folly. A fake.
Terrorist Fake, how ? Its still a castle.
Victim; Its about 150 years old. Built to look older.
Terrorist: Why would people build ruins. That makes no sense.
Victim: Because they wanted to impress people. Because they thought it was romantic.
Because they thought it was English.
Terrorist: It is English.
Victim: Its fake.
“The Matrix” (1999)
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
The Matrix can be seen as an allegory for Becker’s theories. The simulation is the ultimate vital lie.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us.
A Hero System designed to suppress the anxiety of a meaningless, enslaved existence.
Morpheus: Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window. Or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work. When you go to church. When you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth. .
Neo’s journey is a classic Hero Myth, made literal where he must confront death to achieve a form of immortality as the saviour of his people. The film argues, in line with Becker, that while the truth is horrifying and painful, embracing it is the only way to live a genuinely human and heroic life.
Neo: What is the truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell, or taste, or touch. A prison for your mind.
Like the world of The Matrix, John Carpenters film, “They Live” reveals a hidden reality—a fiction built to control humanity. But here, the illusion isn’t a digital simulation of the mind; it’s the stark, socioeconomic fiction of consumer culture, enforced by media and advertising. Both films explore what anthropologist Ernest Becker called a “cultural hero system”: the shared stories a society tells itself to create order and meaning. The key difference is intent.
Carpenter’s “They Live”, portrays this system as something far more sinister: a deliberately malevolent lie, designed not to give life meaning, but to strip it away for the benefit of a parasitic elite. It’s not a comforting illusion, but a weapon.
Becker saw these systems as necessary, if fragile, defences we willingly adopt against our fear of mortality.
Solomon: “According to Becker, culture reduces death anxiety by giving us each a sense that we are valuable people in a meaningful universe.
IMAGE: “The Newsroom” USA tv (2012)
Girl: Can you say why America is the greatest country in the world?
Newsguy: There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we are the greatest country in the world. We’re seventh in Literacy, twenty-seventh in Math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in Life Expectancy …. (continues)
Often the vital lie is not just about the personal, it is nearly always about the political.
Newsguy: We lead the world in only three categories; number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe that angels are real, and defence spending where we spend more that the next twenty six countries combined.
IMAGE: Mike Tyson
Very often we create our own life story, our hero myth, based on someone else’s. Like Mike Tyson modelling himself on Alexander the Great, the warrior who conquered the world,
TYSON: Lennox is the conqueror ? No. I’m Alexander !
Image of Christ
To Christians who follow their religious hero,
IMAGE: Basquiat doing street graffiti, followed by self portrait
To graffiti artists who want to be the next Jean- Michael Basquiat
IMAGE: Young boy kicks football and strikes heroic pose.
Or kids who aspire to emulate their football heroes
IMAGE: “Mr Mercedes”
Here we see a tough cop who has modelled himself on the character created by a famous crime writer. In this scene, the cop, is imagining or hallucinating the dead crime writer, dressed as a priest, giving him a bit of gratuitous personal advice.
Crime writer:
“Your soul in hell, for honour, power, wealth, fame and the love of women on earth.
You know what your problem is? I am your hero. You read all my books. So you saw greatness and maybe craved a little bit for yourself. Because this is about one thing. To give your life meaning. To make it matter that you even lived.
IMAGE: Joe putting on armour and mask at The Citadel.
Warboys at altar and Joe’s speaking to crowd.
This vital lie is a defensive character armour comprising the stories, the myths and personal identities we adopt to convince ourselves that we are significant and, even in the face of death, life has meaning.
We can see the character armour in Immortan Joe’s elaborate costume.
But we should also think of his construction and development of The Citadel, as character armour, a hero system with its own laws, militaristic philosophy, and even a religion that promises life after death in Valhalla.
And, the vital lie, as Becker calls it, is also evident in the story Immorten Joe tells himself and the population at large, about his own identity as a godlike figure, implying that he is above the constraint of death that plagues mere humans.
IMAGE: Breeders
In fact, Joe is extending his plans for a future legacy by creating his own children using his entrapped breeders.
IMAGE: Mars space settlement
Pyramids of Egypt
Apocalyptic explosion and destruction of civilisation
In a similar vein Elon Musk is planning on building a city on Mars. Much like Joe’s Citadel and the pyramids of Egypt, the Mars project can be interpreted as a technological enactment of Ernest Becker’s thesis on the denial of death — a civilization-scale project of immortality.
Faced with the ultimate earthly mortality event — the extinction of human civilization, a long-standing fear of Musks, he proposes an interstellar “hero project”: making humanity multi-planetary.
IMAGE: Musk with children
And like Immorten Joe, Musk is spending millions of dollars enlisting women who will bear his children, a veritable legion who will carry his genes into the future.
Newspaper headline; Musk’s legion of babies.
IMAGE: Musk interview about children.
Video interviewer: You have a lot of kids now.
Musk: Yeah. Its like an army. I’m trying to get an entire Roman legion.
IMAGE: Furiosa and Vuvaline escape from The Citadel
Obviously the escape of Furiosa and the wives from The Citadel is an escape to freedom , from lives of imprisonment and slavery. But we can also read it as a clash of ideologies, of Hero Systems in opposition.
Furiosa yearns for her early Utopian life in the place of the many mothers, the matriarchal Greenplace. The life and philosophy of that community represents an existence directly in opposition to the brutal patriarchal code of The Citadel.
IMAGE: Joe at Citadel: Where are they?
Miss Giddy: They are not your property. You cannot own a human being.
Sooner or later, someone pushes back.
Joe: Where is she taking them ?
Giddy: She didn’t take them. They begged her to go.
IMAGES: War on the Fury Road.
When group hero-systems clash, each must prove the other false.
Furiosa’s escape, and the abduction of his prize breeders is experienced by Joe as a threat to his very existence.
At a personal level, when an individual’s hero myth fail’s or is felt to be under threat through aggression, humiliation or disbelief, it triggers a primal surge of death anxiety and this fuels violence, persecution and war.
IMAGE: The Citadel. Max unveils the dead body of Immorten Joe.
Much human evil is the by-product of death denial defended at all costs.
Finally, the desolate world of Mad Max serves as a stark allegory for Ernest Becker’s central thesis.
IMAGES:
The milkers
The Citadel, under Immortan Joe, is not merely a fortress of survival, but a grand “hero-system” meticulously constructed to deny death’s inevitability.
IMAGES: Doctor listens for baby’s heart beat , then cuts open the mother.
JOE: Get it out. Get it out.
Joe addresses crowd at Citadel. Warboys chanting, V8, V8
Doctor: Another month, could have been your viable human.
Joe: Was it a male ?
Doc: Yeah. A1 Alpha prime.
Joe’s godlike persona, the tribal religion of Valhalla, and his quest for a genetic legacy, are all facets of his “vital lie,” designed to grant him symbolic immortality.
IMAGE: Nux on the highway, releasing petrol into cabins of his car.
NUX: I am the man, who grabs the son. Riding to Valhalla.
This system recruits followers like Nux, whose own heroic identity is a buffer against existential terror.
NUX: I live I die. I live again.
Clash of war rigs on the road.
Fire and fury.
Yet, as Becker predicts, when such hero-systems clash—as seen with the patriarchal violence of Immorten Joe’s Citadel against the matriarchal hope of Furiosa’s Greenplace—the result is the very violence and persecution that fuels the wasteland’s endless war, proving that, in line with Becker, the denial of death and the struggle for eternal significance, is often the primary engine of human conflict and evil.
Image: Title card
The denial of death and the struggle for eternal significance is often the primary engine of human conflict and evil
