X-Message-Number: 31445
From: Mark Plus <>
Subject: Cowell and Cryonics, part 1 of 2
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 12:11:27 -0800


http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/03/cowell-and-cryonics-a-dream-for-our-times/

Cowell and Cryonics: A Dream For Our Times

by Alex Doherty / March 6th, 2009


I don't often find myself thinking about pop impresario Simon Cowell, but last 
week I came across the news that the reality show star has declared his 
intention to have himself cryonically preserved when he dies in order to be 
revived by doctors in the future. Cowell's intentions were of course met with 
predictable derision as the typically bizarre behaviour of the senselessly rich 
and famous, and his press agent quickly moved to say that Cowell had merely been
joking. Often what we find amusing are ideas that take conventional attitudes 
and reveal their absurdity by taking them to their logical conclusion. Cryonics 
is a perfect case in point - an idea that while bizarre is entirely in keeping 
with our culture and the dominant values of our age.


In the UK there has lately developed a movement perhaps best described as a sort
of militant atheism. With biologist Richard Dawkins as its figurehead this 
movement has identified religious fundamentalism and the various brands of new 
age spiritualism as the greatest threats to rationality and progress. I would 
prefer to argue as others have that there are two other brands of fundamentalism
much more pervasive and of far greater threat to humanity - the cryonic dream 
of a radically lengthened life span being entirely typical of both.

Consumerist Fundamentalism


We live in an age of aggressive state managed capitalism, a system predicated on
endless economic growth and the sating of endless desires. Boosted by the PR 
and advertising industries the ideology of consumerist fundamentalism is near 
inescapable. Like other brands of fundamentalism, the consumerist variant flies 
in the face of reason, elementary facts about the world we live in and the 
realities of human psychology. Based as it is on the expectation of constant 
economic growth consumerist ideology is obliged to pretend that we live on a 
planet of infinite resources. So despite the fact that it is now clear that we 
are endangering the possibility of decent life for ourselves on Earth (much less
the other forms of life we "share” the planet with) the ideology is incapable 
of adapting to reality but instead continues to pretend that unbridled 
consumption can be sustained in the long run. The academic and activist Robert 
Jensen puts it this way:


    Imagine that you are riding comfortably on a sleek train. You look out the 
    window and see that not too far ahead the tracks end abruptly and that the 
    train will derail if it continues moving ahead. You suggest that the train 
    stop immediately and that the passengers go forward on foot. This will 
    require a major shift in everyone's way of travelling, of course, but it 
    appears to you to be the only realistic option; to continue barrelling 
    forward is to court catastrophic consequences. But when you propose this 
    course of action, others who have grown comfortable riding on the train say,
    "Well we like the train and arguing that we should get off is not 
    realistic.


The high priests of consumerist fundamentalism also pretend that the 
accumulation of consumer products will bring us happiness despite the fact that 
psychology and simple common sense, (it takes a minutes perusal of the celebrity
press to see how miserable, delusional, and quasi psychotic many of the 
supposed winners of our society are), tell us otherwise. There is by now a 
substantial body of data showing that once basic survival needs are met extra 
income and consumer products have minimal effects in terms of long term 
happiness. Directly comparable to substance addiction - the acquisition of new 
products provides the consumer with a fleeting feeling of pleasure quickly 
followed by feelings of deflation and unhappiness - and like the addict the 
consumer feels compelled to to return to the source again and again in the hope 
of finally finding lasting happiness. Psychologists and writers such as Oliver 
James, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Clive Hamilton and many others have told us 
what does contribute to human well-being: community, meaningful non-alienated 
work, relative economic equality, shared goals and values, and an altruistic 
other-centred orientation. These are all of course values and attitudes that the
dominant institutions of our time at best fail to provide, and at worst 
actually destroy.

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