X-Message-Number: 17008
From: 
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 14:25:58 EDT
Subject: symbols

P.S. A sidelight of the "selfishness" question is our often inappropriate, 
even absurd reliance on or devotion to symbols or icons. (Also related to 
memes.)

"Shoot if you must this old gray head,
but spare my country's flag," she said.

"Onward, onward, the Lily banners flow!"

"Rally 'round the flag, boys!"

Of course these habits are sometimes useful, but also sometimes harmful, and 
no one has a clear understanding of his own appropriate decision matrix.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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