The Good Death

[Hobbes]

and the right way to die.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2280706814

American Experience, one of the best documentary series on TV IMO.
This is one episode of a series on the civil war.

This thread is about the consequences of the civil war, not the causes.
I'll ask the moderators to lock the thread if you go there.

This is purely about the way America learned to deal with death on a scale such that in contemporary terms would equal 7 million dead.

Pay particular attention to the attitudes that early Americans held toward death before the war and how those attitudes were changed by the war.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

This is purely about the way America learned to deal with death on a scale such that in contemporary terms would equal 7 million dead...

I'm fairly confident that everyone involved in the American civil war died.

Good video

 

[Hobbes]

I thought it was interesting.

Memorial day(Decoration Day)
Ambulances
Enbalmation
National Cemeteries

To me it links the present with the past and I find that interesting.

 

[Lurker66]

Good video, i have several questions and thoughts.

I wonder if the average citizen on either side argued if the war was about states rights or the institution of slavery? Both issues would seem petty to me considering the sheer numbers of dead.

Absolutly unimaginable today.

I wonder if the common soldier who survived and witnessed the horror of seeing that much death, thought the "cause" was worth the cost?

I must agree with Lincoln, i cannot imagine a divided United States or seeing the institution of slavery exist. Knowing polititions and understanding politics, there was no way there could have ever been a political compromise. It could only be decided by war.

 

[Billybob]

It's said some in the North bought replacements and some in the South sent their young men to Europe, guess they didn't think it was worth it.

In the past death was a more integral part of the family and life. Have we distanced ourselves so much from the process and experience of death that we've lessened our valuing of life and lost some of our humanity?

 

[Lurker66]

I think thats a possibility. Cremation and the shear cost might also play a role.

 

[Billybob]

I was thinking more about being there for the actual event rather than just getting a call from the nursing home.

 

[Lurker66]

Yes, that too. When my gradmother passed at a nursing home 3 years ago, we had over 40 family members packed in her room and hallway. I would hate to die alone.

 

[Billybob]

Yes, that too. When my gradmother passed at a nursing home 3 years ago, we had over 40 family members packed in her room and hallway. I would hate to die alone.

Sounds like you've got good family and wont have to worry about it.

 

[Billybob]

When my brother passed I'd been at the hospital for days. His wife convinced me to go home and have a break, he passed less than an hour later just him and her in the room, not sure but I like to think it's how they both wanted it.