Description
of death? How has this bureaucratization impacted society?
Explanation & Answer
Most of us have lost someone close but what do you do when an immediate family member dies?! I am not talking about mourning -
there is barely any time for that if you are responsible for funeral
and other arrangements. It has recently come to my attention that the
loss of a loved one requires extensive managerial skills.
Between taking your deceased friend to the morgue, completing the identification process and choosing the appropriate burial wardrobe, one barely has time to organize the funeral, let alone be emotional. Then come the obituaries
- you first have to arrange the funeral in order to announce it but do
not want to arrange the funeral before you know you can make the
obituary deadline for it to be published at least a day prior to the
funeral, so that people can be informed.
How about finance?
Old people often keep a savings account for their own funeral. The more
organized ones even have their burial wardrobe set aside - clean and
ironed - ready at all times.While the idea of this death bureaucratization gives me the chills, I do see some reason behind it. In
a society where we have been so removed from the essence of life that
we barely ever talk about death, a bureaucratic mechanism may just be
the answer to keep people sane during hard times. Nonetheless, I think
it's all rather sad.
"Fun"
fact: Ever thought about what happens to your social website accounts
in the event of death? Deutsche Welle recently ran a report on a new
virtual burial agency called My WebWill. My WebWill takes on the
responsibility for erasing you from Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc in
the event of death, while also giving you the possibility of
transferring your user name and password to a loved one. At the cost of
$17 per year you can leave your electronic credentials to My WebWill,
which in turn ensures that your virtual will is fulfilled, whether it be
transferring electronic poker chips to another user name or
deactivating multiple accounts.
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