I managed to find a list of the more common deathist memes in a message concerning the public acceptance of cryonics at this page..
http://www.aleph.se/...death_memes.txt
Also, even though it sounds perverse, death may have a number of "advantages" that people do not often like to admit. Here are some possibilities:
(1) inertia, tradition, being part of the group, respectability (All my friends died. The great heros of the past died. If it was good enough for them it ought to be good enough for me.)
(2) Death is part of the "Natural Order of Things"
(3) Through death good people can receive their reward (heaven) and the others receive their due punishment (hell).
(4) Death makes life simpler by reducing the number of things to concern oneself about (those things that will happen in the next 50 years or so).
(5) Death makes room (at the top) for new people and new ideas. [This supposes that old dogs can't learn new tricks.]
(6) If people don't die, our world population will explode. [The world population would actually not be increased by a large factor if old people did not die. This is because population is increasing geometrically with a doubling time of just a few generations and the last term in that geometric series is a large part of the sum.]
(7) Death provides an end to pain (especially for old people who are lonely, miserable, and sick).
(8) Death allows one to quit the game (without being called a quitter).
(9) Death makes our limited life more valuable (Cult of Evanescence)
(10) Nobody ends up any better (off) than you (Great Equalizer)
(11) Death allows everyone to be a victim (since everyone ends up dead). [Playing victim is actually a way to avoid responsibility.]
(12) Death puts a time limit on getting your work done and thereby helps ensure that you get it done rather than indefinitely put it off. (Parkinson's Law) [However, market windows also put a time limit on getting things done without having to invoke death.]
