[extropy-chat] Christopher Reeve Foundation: Request

[Mike Lorrey]

--- "natashavita at earthlink.net" <natashavita at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> I mean:
> 
> I am concerned with the fact that terrorism is thought to be the No.
> 1 world issue concerning human abuse, while disease and death are
> accepted in their "natural"-cloaked disguise.  

It isn't so much that they are 'cloaked'. It is that terrorism unfairly
targets civilians who are not directly responsible for the policies of
their government that motivates the terrorist response.

Death, on the other hand, is fair and equal: everybody dies at one
point or another. Attempting to cheat death is seen as an attempt to
cheat your fellow man. Death fairly comes soonest to those who take the
most risks with it: choosing to be a combatant, to smoke, abuse drugs,
engage in promiscuous sex, drive fast and/or drunk, base jumpers, fire
fighters, submariners, etc etc....

Death is also seen as a lottery, a crap shoot. You die "when your
number is up". Games of chance are seen as fair so long as everyone
freely chooses the level of risk they want, and win or lose accordingly
to the roll of the dice. Immortality is playing with a loaded deck,
with loaded dice. It is counting the cards with x-ray vision.

You will note that news media, when they talk about cryonics, almost
always seem to mention the high price of a suspension, but rarely talk
about how suspension can be paid for with life insurance. This is
intentional, in order to portray cryonics as a frivolous waste of
money, which "could be better spent on real problems in our society".
The same sort of excuse making they make with space exploration, SETI,
or other blue-sky research.

> 
> The most deviant terrorist in the world is death - no matter how it
> is packaged.  

Lets not play the game of incrementalist redefinition of words. It is
cheap and beneath our intelligence.

Rather, I'd focus on emphasizing all the ways that Death cheats the
popular conception of its perverse fairness: kids being killed by drunk
drivers, poisoned by toxic homes and/or families. Victims of violent
crime, of disasters, and of government incompetence and oppression. The
"Do it for the children" meme does work, and work quite well.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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