X-Message-Number: 30041
From: 
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:11:03 EST
Subject: Stodolsky

Stodolsky wrote in part: "[research shows that] there is a  reflexive 
avoidance of death of the self." 

 
First, it is mind-numbing that anyone seriously requires  "research" to learn 
that most people, most of the time, feel a dread of  extinction (provided 

there is a clear and present threat). If you do a lot more  research, perhaps 
you 
will discover that most people, most of the time, get  hungry when they miss 
a meal.
 
Second, it completely avoids the easily observed fact that  many people, a 
significant amount of the time--in particular, those living in  physical 

misery--do not fear death, judging both by their statements and by  their 
actions. 

One example I gave was of dialysis patients, who quite often give  up and accept
death. Obviously, it is possible to theorize or quibble that  at some 

unconscious level these people "really" do fear death but submerge that  fear in
response to other pressures--but this is just jabber.
 
Stodolsky also says that martyrdom is not an exception to fear  of death, 
since the martyrs believe they are going to live in heaven. 
 
First, not all martyrs believe in heaven by a long shot. As  one of many  
examples, the Russian and Chinese Communists who gave  their lives, either in 

battle or by working themselves to death, were atheists  and materialists. They
sacrificed not for any objective reward but for an ideal,  for posterity, 
because they were indoctrinated. In other words, they replaced  fear of death 

either with love of humanity or fear of disapproval or of  conscience. Again, a

quibbler could claim that the "fear of death" was  present but overpowered, but
again this would be dodging the issue. 
 

Finally, and most importantly from a practical level, we have  Stodolsky's 
repeated advice that we need to hire professional marketers for  cryonics, 
including "a social science PhD to deal with social  issues."
 
Oh, boy. Talk about not paying attention. First of all,  professional 

marketers--with or without doctorates in a social science--as far  as I have 
been 

able to ascertain, have a very poor record of results.  They are hired mainly to
cover the butts of the managers. They  are also hired mainly to help the firm 
against competitors, not usually to open  an entirely new market or category. 
What marketers are best at is selling  themselves, and most of them aren't 

even very good at that. More importantly, professional marketing has been tried
in cryonics with  nothing to show for it. Most recently, according to my 

sketchy information,  Alcor hired a PR firm at considerable expense, but as far 
as I 
know nothing much  happened.
 
Next, Stodolsky says we are failing to address the proper  demographics, and 
should for one thing aim at the middle-aged. Presumably this  is because the 
middle-aged are more likely to join. Again, anyone who has been  paying 

attention knows that "more likely" means just very very very unlikely  instead 
of 
very very very very unlikely. There is no way I know of to address  the 
middle-aged exclusively short of paid advertising, which has never worked. 
 
Similar remarks apply to the problem of possible future  hostile pressures. I 
know of no way a marketer or PR firm could do us any  measurable good. And 
while we can't rule out hostile actions, they do not seem  to be building, but 
the opposite. Media coverage in recent years has tended to  be more friendly, 
and when a hostile catalyst appeared in the Ted Williams case,  there was only 
a brief and ineffectual rising. In a way, our very long and  slow growth has 
been helpful in this respect. The early hysterical  warnings against cryonics 

were proven false. We are probably more or less  grandfathered in now--there is
some inertia working for us. And we also remember  that the U.S. tolerates 

all kinds of minorities, many of them much more  offensive to the majority than
cryonics. I'm not advocating complacency, but  caution and realism.
 
P.S. Thanks to the cab driver who inspires no fear.
 
Robert Ettinger 





**************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest 
products.
(http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)


 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=30041