X-Message-Number: 21867 From: Subject: Sympathy and Compassion / Michael Riskin Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 09:53:16 -0700 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0009_01C329B5.F4A9E460 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" This correspondence represents solely my personal opinion, and is not meant to represent an official position of any organization I may be affiliated with. Michael Riskin ================================================= Government supported charity / welfare exists because we live in a democratic society. Many people who prefer democratically based systems, do so because they feel, and in fact often are, insufficiently prepared to fully understand or rationally manage the totality of their own lives, let alone deal with issues such as extended life and unfettered capitalism, without the advice, guidance, and decision making of other. Whether the insufficiency is due to nature, nurture, or something else, it seems to exist. How else does one explain mysticism, organized religion, and socialism? They are all concepts meant to insure against future potential losses arising from a perceived insufficiency of personal resources in the face of difficult challanges. Humanity, as it now exists, is possibly the missing link between the mystical, survival, old brain, flight or flight based life of our ancestors and the possibly rational, visionary, new brain, long term functioning of future humanity. The current state of human development has lead to the empowerment of governments that makes decisions and that collects and spends funds, all supposedly on the collective behalf, while also allowing the individual a sense of voice in their own fate through free speech and the vote. Many humans do not yet believe they possess the necessary intellect, vision, confidence, facts, or personal resources to fully organize their own lives, let alone that of a society, beyond the sole immediacy of short term physical survival, and even that is problematic. Instead, they delegate that effort and power, by majority vote, to elected and appointed officials. Those elected, do little if anything, to dissuade the electorate that their feelings of personal inadequacy are wrong. Those who argue in this forum against democracy as an ethical or moral system, want the so-called thieves, their enforcers, and their beneficiaries, to agree with the assessment that a purely capitalistic, libertarian system would produce superior results for them personally. It is presented in a righteous, aggressive, this is a "no brainer" manner, as if anyone who disagrees is an idiot. Not usually a good strategy. It doesn't tend to foster trust or belief that genuinely care is part of the equation. It mobilizes resistance rather than support. What may be more effective is sympathy for the shared human plight, the as of yet inability of any of us, to guarantee our survival. And then lay out, in small incremental steps, how one might effectively get from point A to point B while minimizing the much feared consequences of change. You may want others to abandon their empowerment of government, to choose in its stead, alternate practices based on an unproven system presented in an elitist manner.. while asking them to abandon their current entitlements and other resources that apparently support their life survival needs. That's not easy. You want them to believe you on what appears to them to be faith and / or idealistic theory, that your way is better and that you are more trust-worthy than their other intellectual leaders.. L Let's see.no more state supported hospital emergency rooms for your children. Instead, count on the benevolence of your neighbor and your own ability to save and fund and create such activities. Trust, me...this is good for you. That is likely well beyond the risk tolerance of 95% plus of our societies individuals and accounts for the fact that there are perhaps just 1,000 people signed up for cryonics, amongst the hundreds of millions candidates that will not likely live to see the end of aging and biological death. It probably accounts for the small number of vocal, registered libertarians as well. Living and staying alive is difficult business. It is also difficult to hasten the evolutionary process. Those who advocate change, need to exercise patience and allocate resources, based on a business and action plan, that includes intermediate steps to demonstrate its' effectivity to the majority, and thus earn their support in an orderly manner. Anything less is likely unrealistic and ignoring the realities of the world we live we. It is one of the reasons that cryonics is quite so unpopular. Cryonicists and libertarians are seen, and occasionally act and talk, as if no one's life mattered but their own. Even worse, cryonicists and libertarians sometimes imply that a non-believer is an irrational being, barely worthy of talking to. This scares people. It makes us appear callous, cold, un-neighborly, and untrustworthy. As far as they know, we will eat their children if hungry enough. Little do they know that we are just as frightened as they are, and perhaps more. Most of all, be thankful that you have been given the intellect, resources, and personal confidence, to comprehend and tolerate the challenges that face humanity, and have the ability to appreciate the inherent beauty and value of a sentient, self determining life. What may prove more effective in the long run, is a dose of sympathy and compassion. We need to educate others, in a rational, effective manner..not try to lecture them into submission. If we are failing in that regard, there is only one direction to look in for the correct answers and the better solutions.and that is in the mirror. Sometimes it is the teacher's fault that the student fails to learn or even refuses to listen. Libertarian ideas and they way they are presented are not new. I have heard them for forty-five years. In fact, they seem a bit worn thin, not by virtue of their logic, but by virtue of the sameness of the method of delivery and the equality of the consistent failure to convince significant numbers of others. Finally, I say to whomever wants Mr. Swayze to condemn the system that provides for the necessities of his life, let me hear you vehemently and sincerely protest to the 911 rescue team, as they breathe life into your body, that as an absolute, the system stinks. ------=_NextPart_000_0009_01C329B5.F4A9E460 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21867