The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

The final chapter contains two subchapters: “Something Beyond Our Selves” and “The Sunny Side of Death.” Manson addresses the topic of death and how we should handle it while we’re alive. Manson begins with a personal anecdote about the untimely, accidental death of a high school friend named Josh. His friend’s death left him in a state of depression for the ensuing summer. After struggling to come to terms with it, Manson realized that if life eventually leads to death, then there’s no reason to fear not doing anything since success and failure lead to the same result in the end. For Manson, this marks what he calls “the clearest before/after point” in his life (193). After his epiphany, Manson became much less of the teenaged slacker that he claimed he was and started becoming more motivated to achieve things in life, though as he notes throughout the book, that vision remained somewhat elusive until he reached his late 20s and early 30s.

He discusses 20th-century philosopher Ernest Becker and one of Becker’s significant works, The Denial of Death. Manson presents a highly abbreviated version of the text and picks out two points that he uses to help explain himself.