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Afraid of Nothing

from Man in the Mirror (2010) by Utopia Now

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This song deals with the fear of death. Its ambiguous title aims at two different things:

(1) The idea that there is nothing to be afraid of, but also (2) the idea that it is precisely the Nothing that one could possibly be afraid of.

Mark Twain said „I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.“ And this is profoundly true. Where is the difference between nonexistence prior to and after life? For all we know, and thus have reason to believe, there is none.

Neither should we forget that we essentially die every night. Think about it: Death (nonexistence) could be best defined as the absence of awareness. Although physically alive, our consciousness rests at night. One may object and ask „but aren’t we dreaming?“ We are, but we are not actively aware of it while it happens. We only recall these dreams in retrospect after waking up (leaving aside techniques called “lucid dreaming”). To most of us there is no active consciousness while we sleep, even though the brain is active. Death, therefore, cannot be any different from our nightly sleep. But it is a sleep from which we don’t wake up to remember that we have slept. We don’t gain retrospective awareness as we do every morning.

This, of course, does not change the fact that the idea of nothingness (fundamentally ungraspable to any human mind) may be frightening, because everything we are is predicated upon the concept of somethingness, of existence and awareness. But it does at least give us sufficient reason to be convinced that there objectively is no reason to be afraid because there will be, quite literally, nothing (in the double meaning of the word) to be afraid of.

lyrics

- Afraid of Nothing -

A dreamless sleep through the ages
disturbed by a flash of light.
Prenatal or postmortem –
it's existence nullified.

Chorus:
And I know there is Nothing to fear.
Nothing was my home before I came here.
And I don't recall any unpleasantries.

Graves of down, torpid minds
in a state of oblivion.
Life returns with the memories
evoked by the morning sun.

Chorus:
And I know there is Nothing to fear.
Nothing was my home before my mind reappeared.
And I will sleep for eternity.

Bridge:
Yet the horror remains deep inside the stomach.
Not a regular fear – it’s philosophical.
When the curtain comes down there will be Nothing,
with no “I” to perceive – it’s unimaginable.

credits

from Man in the Mirror (2010), released June 25, 2010
Music and lyrics written, recorded, and performed by Stephan Serowy.

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about

Utopia Now Berlin, Germany

Utopia Now started out in 2006 but had been known under the name Indigo since 2002, sharing the stage with bands such as Lagwagon, Anti Flag, A Wilhelm Scream, No Trigger, Good Clean Fun, Venerea and many more. However, the band was short-lived and split in 2007. Today the band lives on in the form of an online solo project by the band’s founder, singer, and songwriter, Stephan Serowy. ... more

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