X-Message-Number: 20737
From: "Steven Lacher" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #20736
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 06:49:28 -0500

Rudi.....


I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.  I want to state emphatically for the public
record, first and foremost, that you remain as always my trusted friend and
insurance and investment advisor.

I CAN totally understand your feelings of frustration, and of rage against the
vagaries of life, the workings of bureaucracy, and the petty vandalism of
people.

But I've got some of that optimism to share that I think you're looking for.

First off, as you know, I'm an atheist, and an objectivist -- so I'll dispense
with that "God had a reason for the NASD, blah, blah" crap.  There's no God,

there's no reason.  And equally I won't talk about how the vandals who mess with
your Christmas display are human children too.  Fuck that.

But there is hope to be gained in all this.  The hope has to do with life
itself, and with you, and many of the rational, forward-thinking folks on this
list.

And the hope is you Rudi. And me, and them.  The rest of the world doesn't
matter.  Poor social mores, poor governing practices don't matter.  None of it
matters.  Because in the end, your life has value because you give it value.
The pursuit of an elongated life through cryonics is the same.

There are people I love who don't wish to pursue that sort of life. (I can
guarantee you at least one of them is reading this right now.)  And they have
their lives, and we're blessed to share them while we can.

As for the rest of the world, the ones who weigh us down, the ones who stand in
our way, our "unloved" who also don't see the validity of what we're doing --
well, their time will pass.  And we will remain.

There's a particular passage from Ayn Rand's novel Anthem that I think is quite
relevant here.  It's right near the end of the book, and it's when the
protagonist of the book, Prometheus, laments the passing of the world of
rational men, prior to the dark times in which he lives.  It is a  collectivist
time in which men have forgotten the use of the word "I", and think of
themselves as part of a whole "we".  I'll quote it for you now, because when I
read your e-mail Rudi, it was the first thing I thought of.


"But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition,

long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blidness
and cowardice, to their fate.  I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how
men who knew the word "I," could give it up and not know what they lost.  But
such has been the story, for I have lived in the City of the damned, and I know
what horror men permitted to be brought upon them.

Perhaps in those days, there were a few among men, a few of clear sight and
clean soul, who refused to surrender that word.  What agony must have been

theirs before that which they saw coming and could not stop!  Perhaps they cried
out in protest and in warning.  But men paid no heed to their warning.  And
they, these few, fought a hopeless battle, and they perished with their banners
smeared by their own blood.  And they chose to perish, for they knew.  To them,
I send my salute across the centuries, and my pity.

Theirs is the banner in my hand.  And I wish I had the power to tell them that

the despair of their hearts was not to be final, and their night was not without
hope.  For the battle they lost can never be lost.  For that which they died to

save can never perish.  Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which
men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth.  It may
sleep, but it will awaken.  It may wear chains, but it will break through.  And
man will go on.  Man, not men."

--long life Rudi,
--your friend,
--Steven Lacher, ALCOR #A-1865

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