It was trendy a generation ago to talk about ‘sexual repression’. The idea being that until the Sexual Revolution, the topic of sex was something that could not be raised in society.
Everyone knew it was going on, but there was a silent conspiracy of silence.
It seems that death has taken over this mantle.
We are struggling with ‘Death repression’
There is something strangely similar in the experiences of speaking about sex and death.
When we hold forth on either topic we are transgressing social boundaries and therefore consciously taking on ourselves a position ‘outside’ society.
Yet at the same time we are directly addressing society about issues that stand close to the core of how we define our identity. We are talking about what it means to be human.
Speaking about sex or death draws us inevitably into a relationship with society that is something akin to prophetic speech.