X-Message-Number: 1514
Date: 26 Dec 92 02:34:56 EST
From: "Steven B. Harris" <>
Subject: CRYONICS Moral Dilemma #2

<continued from last message>


    <Sigh>. Of course, we are all pretty much *in* this situa-
tion, are we not?  We now live in a Rome which is persecuting its
Christians, and when in Rome, the question is whether or not to
do as the Romans do, if only for the sake of our lives.   The
analogies I used here so far are quite appropriate, I think, for
we (like many people living at many times in history) find
ourselves living in a fundamentally insane society.  Here is the
"Land of the Free" we observe that we have a larger fraction of
our population incarcerated than any other country on the face of
the Earth where they keep records.  We have more people im-
prisoned per capita in the U.S. *by far* than the nearest
runners-up, which are those loving societies which run South
Africa and what was once the USSR.  In the U.S., fully one
quarter of our young black men are in prison, on parole, or under
indictment for a felony, and the number is increasing.  We have
just elected a president whose solution to the growing numbers of
people imprisoned this way is to build "camps" for them.  No word
yet on whether they will be taught there to pick cotton.

   It will not have escaped your notice that the largest numbers
of our citizens in the U.S. are in jail for exactly the same kind
of thing that nailed Steve Rudell, and the system of infringement
of civil rights which has grown and grown in response to the "war
on drugs" (read: the war on the underclass) is exactly the system
which was successfully used to smear Alcor in that wonderfully
MacCarthyistic guilt-by-association ploy that Keith has detailed
for us.  One can make, as I have said, therefore, a very good
pragmatic argument that we at Alcor should do as much as we can
in the future to distance ourselves as much as we can from anyone
who breaks the law, commits civil disobedience, or even annoys
the government in any way.   Yes, our lives may depend on it.  I
can only report, however, that to me it feels like cowardice, and
I am, under this degree of threat, at least, unwilling to do it. 

   One of my favorite stories is about Henry David Thoreau, who
was thrown into jail once because he refused to pay taxes which
he believed would be spent on what he considered an unjust war
with Mexico.  In the story, Thoreau's friend Ralph Waldo Emerson
eventually shows up at the jail, and says: "Henry!  What are you
doing in there?"  To which Thoreau replies, "What are YOU doing
out THERE?"

   In an unjust society it may well be (as Thoreau tells us) that
the proper place for the just man is in jail.  Or if not in jail,
at least out of power, mired in legal battles, and having a hell
of a time.  The problem, of course, is what to do about those who
depend on you while you fight and suffer.  Henry David Thoreau
had no wife and children, and thus had not given (so the saying
goes) hostages to fortune.  In cryonics, our hostages to fortune
are the suspended patients, who trust in us not to destroy them
while playing at some (perhaps foolish) bit of defiance of the
system. 

    I said it was an ethical dilemma, remember?  Each of you
reading this must wrestle with the same question for yourselves,
and come to some solution that will give you peace.  Now you know
my present thinking.  Personally, there are times when I feel
that if we don't do something about the slide toward totali-
tarianism in this country, I don't give a fig whether I'm ever
brought back at all.  In fact, I'd probably prefer not.  You may
feel differently.  Some of the patients may feel differently. 
Merry Christmas.




                                   Steve Harris




Distribution:
  >INTERNET:


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1514