X-Message-Number: 7968 From: (Randy) Newsgroups: sci.cryonics Subject: Societal reaction to cryonics Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 22:03:38 GMT Message-ID: <> An interesting website (actually a group of linked webpages) about death at http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/death.html Here is an excerpt from this page that explores societal reaction to death. I think it explains many people's reactions to cryonics. "As Richard Huntington and Peter Metcalf observed in Celebrations of Death, "life becomes transparent against the background of death" (1979:2). In a way analogous to the experimental method of subatomic physicists bombarding and shattering the nuclei of atoms in order to reveal their constituent parts and processes, death similarly reveals the most central social processes and cultural values. Death is a catalyst that, when put into contact with any cultural order, precipitates out the central beliefs and concerns of a people. Abram Rosenblatt et al. (1989) found, for example, that when reminded of their mortality, people react more harshly toward moral transgressors and become more favorably disposed toward those who uphold their values. In one experiment, twenty-two municipal judges were given a battery of psychological tests. In the experimental group, eleven judges were told to write about their own death, including what happens physically and what emotions are evoked when thinking about it. When asked to set bond for a prostitute on the basis of a case brief, those who had thought about their death set an average bond of $455, while the average in the control group was $50. The authors concluded (Greenberg et al. 1990) that when awareness of death is increased, in-group solidarity is intensified, out-groups become more despised, and prejudice and religious extremism escalate. " Randy Cryonics: Gateway to the Future? http://members.wbs.net/homepages/c/r/y/cryofan1.html *********************************** Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7968