X-Message-Number: 32983
From: 
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:42:08 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: family vs. customers

Charles Platt reiterates his view, shared apparently by at least a few,  
that no one should be subsidized for cryonics, everyone relying on his own  
resources. This seems to me a gross misunderstanding of relevant history.
 
Each-for-himself is a parody of capitalism. There are countless examples of 
 people helping each other, for a variety of reasons. First there is the 
ordinary  family, wherein mostly people help each other with little or no 
expectation of  quid pro quo. Then there are churches and fraternal 

organizations, which elevate  altruism to an ideal and a practice. Tribal 
loyalty is 
very old indeed. 
 
There is also the fairly common perception that cryonics is basically  

selfish in a pejorative sense. Family spirit tends to counter this. CI has  had
a few patients funded partly on a charitable basis, and I think this on  

balance has been beneficial for public relations as well as internal  relations.
 
Both CI and Alcor have derived major benefit from a relatively few large  
donors. This can be viewed as a weakness or a strength. Since I see no 
evidence  that large donors are drying up, I view it as a strength.
 
Robert Ettinger

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