It all comes down to what you primarily identify with.

Sentience, for example, is for us completely un-explainable. We all experience it, yet have no clue what it means or what it is. We are trapped in the subjective, monocular vision of the experience of life with no capacity (except for altered states of being) to employ another viewpoint and thus achieve stereo vision and perspective.

So if your primary identification is with this subjective experience of life, then of course you will try to maximize that. Hence the understandable desire to be remembered, to make this one life you have epic and the best.

But -- if we consider that sentience may be much bigger than us, that the entire universe may be sentient, that our subjective experience of life may just be the sentience of the universe resonating with the little node we call our brain, which allows the sentience of the universe the ability of acting through us -- then that leads to a different perspective entirely.

This perspective anticipates the probability of reincarnation, of absorption back into the sentience of the universe once the resonant node we call the brain dies. As individuals we are of course un-duplicatable and un-reproducible -- but that fear and motivation fades when considering that this life may be one of tens or hundreds of such unique individuals we may have the chance to be.

Identifying with the greater sentience, the greater cosmic intelligence, leads to a more thorough and authentic sense of community and society. It simultaneously allows for more empathy, yet also leads to intolerance for the ridiculous competition and selfishness of those who have not yet managed to rise above this specific instance of individuality.

It all comes down to this -- do you believe yourself to be a body who has a soul, or a soul who has a body?