X-Message-Number: 32701 Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:49:29 -0700 Subject: Guilty for existing? From: MARK PLUS <> The surprisingly negative comments appended to Kerry Howley's essay about male cryonicists and their hostile wives, as well as similar comments posted about it on other websites, make me judge this piece a failure in cryonics education and reputation building. Three observations: 1. Something about the cryonics idea still fails to communicate effectively, despite nearly 50 years of effort. 2. The essay focuses on a submissive and geeky beta male cryonicist with a wife who doesn't respect him. I suspect that if instead it had profiled a confident alpha male cryonicist with a younger, attractive and more deferential wife, signs of financial success and the implication that he still has his "game" going for him, the essay would have generated fewer derogatory responses because of our natural disinclination to challenge dominant males. 3. I get the impression from the negative comments that a surprisingly large number of people feel guilty for existing. Yet when they encounter cryonicists who display freedom from this guilt, something about us makes them angry. I, for one, certainly don't feel guilty about my existence, and about wanting more of it. Do you? -- Mark Plus Life is short: Freeze hard! Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=32701