X-Message-Number: 4388
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: Re: CryoNet #4225 - #4232
Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 11:02:42 -0700 (PDT)

About politics (libertarian in particular) on Cryonet:

While I have sympathy with those who want it banished, I would also say that
total banishment is probably very difficult or even impossible. Most people
are all of a piece: their political opinions and other opinions all bear 
a relationship with one another. I suspect that many cryonicists are 
libertarian because for one reason or another they learned early in life not
to simply respect authority or their associates in matters of opinion, and
so came to think of themselves as individuals more than as citizens or 
members of some society. And that cast of thinking, at least now with cryonics
a VERY minority movement, has something to do with the fact that they became
cryonicists in the first place.

As with many other such thoughts, it's clearly not universal. Christians might
become attracted to cryonics because it speaks out against the hubris of
modern (in quotes) medicine. Socialists might become attracted because it is
a belief that does require close cooperation among its members for success.
(I am neither a Christian nor a socialist, so these are only suggestions). But
if someone is a libertarian, every suggestion he/she makes about how to 
advance cryonics will have a libertarian cast to it --- because of who they are
and what they think.

It seems to me that if you feel you cannot accept libertarianism politically in
cryonet, then the appropriate response is not just to complain but to think of
NONlibertarian ways in which to advance cryonics. Your cast of mind may even
prove valuable because you might see things to do which libertarians would not.
And I would say the same for Christians or adherents of any other religion. We
are cryonicists because we want to be suspended SUCCESSFULLY and eventually
revived. And every one of us will probably (if we are revived) find a society
and people for whom our own ideas (libertarian, religious, socialist, liberal,
etc) are as outdated as monarchism is today.

			Best and long long life,
				Thomas Donaldson


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4388