X-Message-Number: 15613 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Lame rationalization for deathism. Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 19:53:54 -0800 From the Monday, Feb.12, 2001 edition of "The Objective American" Website, <http://www.objectiveamerican.com/> (content changes daily): [Question to Website's editor:] In watching the development of the human genome project and all the wonderful advances it promises for disease-inhibition and life-extension, I'm afraid I was born too late to take advantage of what's coming. I'm in my late 40s, and from what I'm hearing, it will be decades before genetic engineering significantly curtails disease or advances human life. I seem to have just missed the boat. It's making me very depressed. I know this is probably irrational, but I don't appear to be able to talk my way out of it. Any suggestions? Too Late at Tulane [Editor answers:] Well, maybe you just need a better sense of perspective. Your grandparents' parents missed out on antibiotics, jet airplanes, computers, television, freeways, movies, SUVs, space travel, atomic power, and dozens of other conveniences and delights of modern living. They perhaps caught glimmers of some of the advancements, and, like you, realized they'd not live to see their full dawning. Ditto the pioneers. Ditto Leonardo da Vinci, whose vision of the future was perhaps the best of any man who lived. But do you suppose those people pined away for the future, letting it ruin their present? Not from what I've read! Rather, they marveled at what might come for mankind but continued to focus on the improvements and opportunities available. By doing so, they maximized their productivity, and as a consequence, the progress of humanity itself. This is what you should do. Concentrate your energy on making your life better in whatever fashion is open to you now. It is the only way in which you can bring the future closer faster. The art of living is largely the art of taking advantage of current conditions. It's fine to hope for a better future, but the fastest way to get there is not to pine away for what you haven't got, but rather to embrace fully the positive possibilities that pop up here and now. That's how your ancestors did it. It's how the pioneers did it. It's how da Vinci and millions of others did it. Don't waste your present life in sad daydreams of missed tomorrows. Concentrate on maximizing your present happiness and success. By doing so, you'll find that the future will take care of itself. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15613