X-Message-Number: 1422 Date: 11 Dec 92 00:06:06 EST From: Charles Platt <> Subject: CRYONET To: Kevin Brown Carlos Mondragon's recent posting, in which he suggests it might be nice to outlive the people whose politics we dislike, has given me food for thought. I've certainly wondered, playfully, who I would most like to outlive. It had not occurred to me to take this further and deliberately refrain from trying to recruit whole groups of people to the cryonics movement. At first, this seems like rather an attractive idea. But the more I think of it, the more I see snags. First, while I consider myself closer to the libertarian mindset than to any other political outlook, I know a lot of libertarians whom I find bad-mannered, antisocial, and even boorish. I also know some liberals (such as my wife!), and some right-wing nuts, who are great company. To me, at least, political ideology is not necessarily the best way of choosing one's company. Also, as I understand it, libertarianism is about liberty. No barriers; no discrimination. The policy of the US Libertarian Party, for instance, is to eliminate all barriers to immigration. Likewise, I would imagine that cryonics organizations with a libertarian mindset should be equally open to all potential members. It would bother me if I felt that Alcor deliberately avoided promoting itself in groups suspected of socialism, or other sins. If socialism is an inferior system (as I think most of us agree), I assume it will die a natural death in the free market of ideologies. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1422