Various Cleanups
Jul. 5th, 2004 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookofmirrorsThese are things I have had saved for a while to answer. I'm just in such a lovely mood to post, and I feel happier and more energetic today than I have in weeks! :) :) :)
1) Imagine for a while that you believe in God. Perhaps not too strictly, but you do believe. It gives you security, in a way, and a means to somehow make sense of things. One part of your beliefs is that after death you will get to heaven and spend eternity there. Now imagine that science has found a way to make man immortal, by gene therapy or something. It's without risk, it's even quite cheap, and many agnostics and atheists without any qualms already have decided themselves for the immortalizing therapy. Now, would you decide yourself for the therapy as well? Or would you accept death like when you had to accept it when there was still no therapy available? What are the reasons for your decision? How do you feel about it all?
Hmmmmm... this is interesting. If I had to completely give up my right to die (and I do believe that it IS a right), I don't think I would do it. I'd want to be able to do what I could do in my lifetime, and go up and earn my just reward, as it were. ;) (Of course, I believe in reincarnation, and that's my preference, but this question doesn't really allow for it.) But yeah, people need their rest.
However, if I could take the therapy, and there were an option to later stop the therapy and die, or there were a means to kill a person with this therapy that I could choose to implement when I felt I had done what I set out to do with my life, then I would do it in a heartbeat. I think all of us feel the pressure of impending death to some degree or another, and sometimes it's hard to relax and just BE because of it. There always seems like there's a deadline (no pun intended) that we have to beat, something more we have to accomplish, before we can't accomplish any more. There are so many things I'd like to accomplish before I die, and to have unlimited time to do that... would be a dream come true. Think Highlander. One could live so many lives, do so many things, and LEARN so much. Wow.
I would, however, have a few questions about it. For instance, do you remain the same age as you are when you take the therapy? For instance, if I were old, and feeling the effects of that age, I wouldn't want to saddle myself with an eternity of arthritis and age spots. Also, if I were in poor health to begin with, I wouldn't want to continue a long life of cancer or fibromyalgia. (No offense intended to those who do.) Certainly, I have obesity, but that's fixable, and I'd have even longer to do it. Woo hoo! ;) At any rate, I can't 100% be sure I'd do it, but if the formula took me to a state of ideal (arbitrarily set, by me) age and health, and then from there I'd get to be immortal, until I chose to die.
Hell yes. Sign me up.
2) Imagine that science would come up with a pill that guarantees inner peace and happiness regardless of your situation in life. Simply a feel-well pill that heals all anxiety, fear, unhappiness and despair. Would you take this pill? Again, please give some reasons for your choice.
Oh, wow. That's tempting, isn't it? Sounds so lovely. And maybe, if that were absolutely true, I might consider it. But science is already proclaiming this. Take enough pills, and you'll be happy. We can cure your depression and make you a happier, more well-adjusted member of society with this pill. And maybe this one. And this one, too. Are you feeling better yet? Well, try this one. I HATE this tendency of the medical, psychiatric, and psychological community in general. I can't express how much. This concept of fixing yourself with a pill is so demeaning to people, in my opinion. Disclaimer I am NOT trying to say that people who go this route are bad or lazy in any way. What I'm saying is that society encourages people to stifle themselves. People don't want you to be too sad (that's clinical depression - we have a pill for that), too happy (mania - pill for that, too), too labile (bi-polar/manic-depressive - lots of pills for that), too imaginative (schizophrenia - try this pill), too restless (ADD/ADHD - lookie! Ritalin!), or too ANYTHING. They want people to fit inside an easily controllable box, an easily controllable paradigm, with no surprises that might create havoc in the sterile society that they've created. Certainly, you shouldn't be thinking, or expressing yourself. Who the hell do you think you ARE???
Sure, some feelings lead to behaviors which aren't the most loving. Anger can lead to murder, depression to suicide, intelligence/restlessness to revolution. (Well, maybe that last one isn't such a bad thing - but the establishment would say otherwise.) But STIFLING them, MASKING them... with pills, ECT (electro-convulsive therapy), or other means. This is a CRIME against humanity, in my opinion. Yes, there ARE things that actually REQUIRE medication. There are times when the situation is at a crisis level, and medications are needed to subdue the feelings so that someone doesn't hurt themselves or someone else while they work on digging deep to the core of themselves and LETTING THE FEELINGS OUT, rather than supressing them. I understand that. But that's not what our society promotes. I've heard people promote this, but I rarely see it in practice. Feelings are given lip service, and chemicals are the concrete reality most people live with. ARGH. This just makes me CRAZY. But I'll be damned if I let some "professional" tell me that this type of craziness can be fixed with a pill. My craziness, and the craziness of most people I see, is the result of life experiences, the feelings surrounding which have been repressed because it's not OK, to feel, to be too angry, to be too depressed. Society really WANTS a bunch of Stepford Wives.
Grrrrr.... Did I mention you probably shouldn't get me started on this subject?
1) Imagine for a while that you believe in God. Perhaps not too strictly, but you do believe. It gives you security, in a way, and a means to somehow make sense of things. One part of your beliefs is that after death you will get to heaven and spend eternity there. Now imagine that science has found a way to make man immortal, by gene therapy or something. It's without risk, it's even quite cheap, and many agnostics and atheists without any qualms already have decided themselves for the immortalizing therapy. Now, would you decide yourself for the therapy as well? Or would you accept death like when you had to accept it when there was still no therapy available? What are the reasons for your decision? How do you feel about it all?
Hmmmmm... this is interesting. If I had to completely give up my right to die (and I do believe that it IS a right), I don't think I would do it. I'd want to be able to do what I could do in my lifetime, and go up and earn my just reward, as it were. ;) (Of course, I believe in reincarnation, and that's my preference, but this question doesn't really allow for it.) But yeah, people need their rest.
However, if I could take the therapy, and there were an option to later stop the therapy and die, or there were a means to kill a person with this therapy that I could choose to implement when I felt I had done what I set out to do with my life, then I would do it in a heartbeat. I think all of us feel the pressure of impending death to some degree or another, and sometimes it's hard to relax and just BE because of it. There always seems like there's a deadline (no pun intended) that we have to beat, something more we have to accomplish, before we can't accomplish any more. There are so many things I'd like to accomplish before I die, and to have unlimited time to do that... would be a dream come true. Think Highlander. One could live so many lives, do so many things, and LEARN so much. Wow.
I would, however, have a few questions about it. For instance, do you remain the same age as you are when you take the therapy? For instance, if I were old, and feeling the effects of that age, I wouldn't want to saddle myself with an eternity of arthritis and age spots. Also, if I were in poor health to begin with, I wouldn't want to continue a long life of cancer or fibromyalgia. (No offense intended to those who do.) Certainly, I have obesity, but that's fixable, and I'd have even longer to do it. Woo hoo! ;) At any rate, I can't 100% be sure I'd do it, but if the formula took me to a state of ideal (arbitrarily set, by me) age and health, and then from there I'd get to be immortal, until I chose to die.
Hell yes. Sign me up.
2) Imagine that science would come up with a pill that guarantees inner peace and happiness regardless of your situation in life. Simply a feel-well pill that heals all anxiety, fear, unhappiness and despair. Would you take this pill? Again, please give some reasons for your choice.
Oh, wow. That's tempting, isn't it? Sounds so lovely. And maybe, if that were absolutely true, I might consider it. But science is already proclaiming this. Take enough pills, and you'll be happy. We can cure your depression and make you a happier, more well-adjusted member of society with this pill. And maybe this one. And this one, too. Are you feeling better yet? Well, try this one. I HATE this tendency of the medical, psychiatric, and psychological community in general. I can't express how much. This concept of fixing yourself with a pill is so demeaning to people, in my opinion. Disclaimer I am NOT trying to say that people who go this route are bad or lazy in any way. What I'm saying is that society encourages people to stifle themselves. People don't want you to be too sad (that's clinical depression - we have a pill for that), too happy (mania - pill for that, too), too labile (bi-polar/manic-depressive - lots of pills for that), too imaginative (schizophrenia - try this pill), too restless (ADD/ADHD - lookie! Ritalin!), or too ANYTHING. They want people to fit inside an easily controllable box, an easily controllable paradigm, with no surprises that might create havoc in the sterile society that they've created. Certainly, you shouldn't be thinking, or expressing yourself. Who the hell do you think you ARE???
Sure, some feelings lead to behaviors which aren't the most loving. Anger can lead to murder, depression to suicide, intelligence/restlessness to revolution. (Well, maybe that last one isn't such a bad thing - but the establishment would say otherwise.) But STIFLING them, MASKING them... with pills, ECT (electro-convulsive therapy), or other means. This is a CRIME against humanity, in my opinion. Yes, there ARE things that actually REQUIRE medication. There are times when the situation is at a crisis level, and medications are needed to subdue the feelings so that someone doesn't hurt themselves or someone else while they work on digging deep to the core of themselves and LETTING THE FEELINGS OUT, rather than supressing them. I understand that. But that's not what our society promotes. I've heard people promote this, but I rarely see it in practice. Feelings are given lip service, and chemicals are the concrete reality most people live with. ARGH. This just makes me CRAZY. But I'll be damned if I let some "professional" tell me that this type of craziness can be fixed with a pill. My craziness, and the craziness of most people I see, is the result of life experiences, the feelings surrounding which have been repressed because it's not OK, to feel, to be too angry, to be too depressed. Society really WANTS a bunch of Stepford Wives.
Grrrrr.... Did I mention you probably shouldn't get me started on this subject?
