Book Review: Sheldon Solomon's The Worm At The Core

iStock Image. By Andrew Shi '15, Managing Editor

The Worm At The Core: On the Role of Death in Life. By Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski. Random House. On Sale: May 12, 2015. $28.00

Is the death at the core of human behavior and civilization? That is the assumption under which psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Psyzczynski operate as they set out to explore the role of death in society in their new book, The Worm At The Core: On the Role of Death in Life. The book outlines and expounds on the author's Terror Management Theory (TMT), the conclusion of thirty years of research, which draws on hundreds of experiments. TMT ambitiously postulates that the fear of death and the desire to overcome death is the driving force behind a large swathe of human behavior. It is death that encourages virtue and vice: rigorous exercise regiments and smoking, sexual promiscuity and gambling. Death is the fulcrum of beauty customs, including tattoos and piercings, and exacerbates homophobia and racism. It is death that inspires the greatest creative works, creations that will grant their authors symbolic immortality, and death that rouses science to push the boundaries of nature in an endeavor to secure literal immortality.

Death and its effects surround us, even if we are not fully aware of it. The Worm At The Core draws back the curtain and shows how death can explain nearly every facet of human civilization: religion, science, art, politics, history, human evolution and human development. Despite death's pervasiveness in the living world, the authors conclude that its inevitability should not entail a resigned languor in our daily activity. Rather, death should inspire a newfound appreciation of life, and perhaps even a reorganization of priorities and revision of lifestyles.

 

Such an ambitious theory is bound to raise questions about its plausibility, and some of the evidence the authors present is not always convincing. Many of the experiments cited in the book establish a correlation between thoughts of death and certain actions such as chauvinism or binge smoking. Yet it may be that death is not the causal variable, but rather the confounding variable. Death might incite a second emotion, sorrow, for example, that then encourages unhealthy behavior. Might the thought of a cheating partner also encourage binge-eating, or even racism if those thoughts engender a pessimism that leads to hostility?

 

Yet some 300 experiments and strong logic do present overwhelming evidence in support of TMT. Aspiring, expansive and thorough, The Worm At The Core will demand the reader to rethink not only their actions but also the society they live in. The book is very well written and incredibly accessible to the layperson without previous knowledge of psychology. TMT will challenge our reality and can yet prove to be one of the most important theories of this generation. It is well worth the read.

In Contrast to the Editorial: Picking Your Own Requirements

By Sean van der Heijden, Editor

There’s always that one class that we really don’t want to take—for some of us it’s the QR2 requirement, or art, or foreign language. We know it won’t serve us any purpose—we just have to get it done. The question is, how to avoid taking that class?

Well, our editorial board was split over this week’s topic—should we have requirements that every student needs to fill? How many should we have—if at all? We reached a compromise, but there was an alternate proposition that some of use agreed with: students must only complete five out of seven of the all-college requirements.

There are a few loopholes but the concept is pretty straightforward: the college would leave it up to the students to decide which of the all-college requirements they want to take. Having requirements in general is important—I have taken a variety of courses including neuroscience, art history, even a course on the Wizard of Oz, all of which I enjoyed. I never would have taken them if it were not for the requirements. I definitely learned a lot from them that I’ve used in other courses and in, well, life.

That being said, we all just try to push through some of the requirements. Let’s call this class “X” to avoid controversy… If I already learned “X” in high school and my major has nothing to do with “X,” then why should I have to waste time and money taking said class?

That’s why this proposition is both economical and practical. Classes are expensive, and wasting money to get through a class where you’re just going to throw all the notes away after and forget everything isn’t the best system. Letting students choose which of the five classes to take lets them maximize their tuition and focus more time onto what they really want to study, or allow them to experiment more in different departments.

But should some requirements be non-negotiable? We all agreed that the expository writing requirement was necessary, and most of us thought the QR2 requirement should stay. These are issues that the Curricular Committee could deliberate, but for the most part, allowing students to have more of a say in what All-College requirements they take seems incredibly beneficial.

Chamber event links international students and the community

0206-international-mixer A group of Skidmore’s international students got the inside scoop on their adopted hometown of Saratoga Springs and the area’s career opportunities, thanks to a recent gathering hosted by the Saratoga County Camber of Commerce. The event, held at the chamber offices, brought together some 15 Skidmore students with area professionals to swap ideas and learn from one another.

The annual mixer, launched last year, was the idea of Darren Drabek, academic counselor and coordinator of international student services at Skidmore, who was looking for ways to connect his students to the community and increase their awareness of the local business and service economy. Skidmore’s Office of Community Relations proposed the idea to the chamber of commerce, and the staff there took off with the idea, rounding up local professionals willing to share their expertise.

Said Drabek, “Student exposure to local businesses is often limited to the bare necessities or to entertainment. We created this event to encourage a deeper understanding of other facets of the Saratoga Springs professional community. Our office seeks opportunities for visiting students to learn what their American counterparts have observed for years in the working culture.”

Participants filed into the chamber’s conference room and were immediately greeted by the warm smiles of chamber representatives, Skidmore faculty and staff, and business leaders. Pizza and refreshments were served as the community members settled around a large oval table.

Skidmore students from China, the Bahamas, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Libya, Lithuania, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa, and Swaziland shared their passions and how they each wanted to become involved in the community. These aspiring engineers, computer scientists, business professionals, doctors, and humanitarians all had something they sought to learn from industries in the U.S.

Representatives from a variety of sectors—healthcare, nonprofit, marketing, technology, and law—introduced themselves and spoke about the specific qualities they look for when hiring. Dave Shacket, president of the web development company WebInstincts, values flexibility and a good attitude when working collaboratively to solve problems. Matt Jones, principal of the Jones Firm, seeks good writers and self-starters. Sue Malinowski, executive director of CAPTAIN Youth and Family Services, looks for passion, commitment, and a willingness to work around the clock for a cause. Mad Glory, Allegory Studios, Saratoga Bridges, Fingerpaint Marketing, and Saratoga Hospital were some of the other businesses in attendance.

Later in the program, students and business representatives mingled and swapped ideas, advice, and experiences. Stella Langat ’16 recommended the creation of an app that would list Saratoga businesses and their available internships and other career opportunities. Hailing from Kenya, Langat is an economics major and environmental science minor who wants to acquire the skills to one day manage her own company. Right now, she is focusing on the marketing side of things.

Said Langat, “I believe in my confidence, personality, and my ability to network, and I know those are very important when launching a new brand, or marketing a startup. I want to be able to market a small business to become big.”

Themba Shongwe ’18, a prospective business and economics major, is interested in one day registering his own non-government organization in his native country of Swaziland. In addition to the business classes he is taking at Skidmore, networking events such as this add to his reservoir of administrative wisdom.

Said Shongwe, “It’s about learning organizational structure and the financial side. I believe functional NGOs have the potential to have an impact in my country. With impact comes influence, and I would like to positively influence the direction that education is going. That’s my goal. That is the highest point of my dreams. And it all starts with learning the skills I need to run an organization.”

Reel Talk: Winter Preview

puyallup-movie-theater By Sean van der Heijden

As we get closer to break, a ton of producers are churning out movies for all the people home for the holidays. A ton of big-budget films—like the final film in the Hobbit Trilogy, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Angelina Jolie’s WWII biopic Unbroken, and the fairytale musical Into the Woods—are all slated for release in the coming weeks. Here are a few more under-the-radar films that look promising and might be worth seeking out:

  1. Wild: dir. Jean-Marc Vallée, starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern.

In her first serious role in almost 10 years, Witherspoon is getting a ton of attention for leading this true life drama about a woman who embarks on a 1,000 hike along the Pacific coast. Laura Dern plays her drug-addicted mother, and both roles look pretty raw and gritty. Wild comes out this weekend on Dec. 5.

  1. A Most Violent Year: dir. J.C. Chandor, starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac.

A drama about an immigrant father (Isaac) struggling to keep his family afloat in 1980s NYC, Chandor’s latest film is hinging its success on Chastain’s brutal performance as the corrupt wife of Isaac’s businessman. The film looks clean and moody, and could surprise audiences. It opens on New Year’s Eve.

  1. American Sniper: dir. Clint Eastwood, starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller.

While Eastwood has had a couple misses lately in terms of his directorial efforts, this one looks really intense. The true story of Chris Kyle—the most deadly sniper in US history—the film is aiming to take a realistic look at the effects of war without glorifying Kyle’s achievements. The film opens on Christmas Day in limited release and goes wide on Jan. 16.

 

  1. Still Alice: dirs. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, starring Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin, and Kate Bosworth.

A few months ago, nobody had heard of this film, but now Julianne Moore’s performance is almost guaranteed to win her a long-deserved Oscar. Centered on a linguistics professor (Moore) who gets diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, it’s a crushing and taut looking film definitely worth watching. It opens on Jan. 16.

 

  1. Big Eyes: dir. Tim Burton, starring Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Jason Shwartzman, Krysten Ritter, and Terrence Stamp.

Burton hasn’t really had a good live-action film since Sweeny Todd seven years ago. Big Eyes could go either way, but represents a change from the dark zaniness of his most recent films into something a bit more accessible. Based on pop-culture artist Margaret Keane and the husband who claimed to have painted all her works, the film opens just in time for Christmas.

 

Some other films coming out soon are Paul Thomas Anderson’s drug-fueled adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice and Chris Rock’s comedy about acting Top Five, both of which open on Dec. 12. Also, the Seth Rogan-James Franco comedy The Interview about assassinating North Korea’s dictator opens for Christmas. Liam Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills one last time for Taken 3, which opens Jan. 9, along with the MLK historical drama Selma about the fight for civil rights in the 1960s—which has recently been surprising a lot of critics, but has yet to screen for audiences.

 

*One notable omission: The Imitation Game—about WWII logician Alan Turing and staring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightly—was slated for release on Nov. 21 and thus made my Fall Preview earlier in the year. However, it was pushed into a limited release on Nov. 28 and goes wide on Dec. 12. It looks great and has been getting pretty solid reviews.