X-Message-Number: 2595 Subject: CRYONICS Libertarians in Cryonics From: (Charles Platt) Date: Wed, 09 Feb 94 20:31:44 EST Now, Paul, let's be a little more polite and circumspect. After all, you yourself have been known to act in a "communitarian" manner, despite your libertarian ideals. Personally, I would welcome "leftists" to cryonics, not because I necessarily sympathize with their mindset, but because I regard diversity as being more interesting than a monoculture. Also, I find the libertarian ideology as annoying as any other ideology after a while. (I say this as a ten-year member of the American Libertarian Party.) The reason why there are few (if any) "leftists" in cryonics is, I think, that cryonics entails a degree of selfishness which "leftists" would find embarrassing, hard to defend, and perhaps unconscionable. After all, when I pay for my life insurance and my membership in a cryonics organization, I am diverting money to myself which might otherwise be spent on my loved ones. There are many reasons why I think this is a reasonable course of action; but is still self-interested. To libertarians, there is nothing wrong in pursuing one's self interest, because in the long term, this should create more wealth than any amount of charitable donations. I do hope, however, that we don't end up arguing politics here. I am merely trying to explain why things are the way they are, not how they SHOULD be. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2595