Chapter 7, Death, Chapter 8, Government Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 7, Mencken opens with a discussion of suicide, which he often sees as rooted in the notion that death is very painful, when in fact it usually is not. He then discusses objections to suicide. On the report of a suicide, he comments that nothing is mysterious about it. Reflective and skeptical men even have a reason to stay alive, for the sense of humor of life. Mencken notes that there are few books written about human death itself and calls out to America's poets to write a funeral service for those that are obviously damned.

Government, to Mencken's mind, is always a conspiracy against superior men. All governments do this and few governments are preferable to others. Most average men understand that governments are lying to him and the government is usually antagonistic...