X-Message-Number: 5068 Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 15:17:48 -0500 (EST) From: Robin Helweg-Larsen <> Subject: Re: Non-cryonics issues, Stodolsky, anti-big-government, etc I have to put in my 2 cents' worth. Bear with me, it touches on cryonics issues in the end! Stodolsky wrote: > > For comparison, in Denmark the doctors are, for the most part, organized > in a Union which bargains directly with the Association of Counties over > salary, etc. There is virtually no involvement of lawyers, including those > associated with insurance companies, etc. in medical affairs. The > elimination of this type of overhead results in about twice as much > medical care per unit of expenditure. > This in itself is an argument in favor of government involvement and regulation. I've also lived in Denmark for five years, and am familiar with the need to have a social security number (which incorporates your birth-date in it), and to inform the police of your new address within five days of changing residence, etc. This doesn't bother me (boarding school was a lot worse). Maybe there are downsides to the government involvement in the medical industry in Denmark. But there are obviously upsides too. The thought of a country with no government, just the natural grouping of the lawyers, and the various cliques of doctors, etc, is worrying. Add some sort of civil defense force for natural disasters; and a way of regulating disputes; and a way of enforcing agreements.... well, sounds like a government to me.... would it be a government of lawyers, without elections to replace the worst ones? Any interaction between individuals, including within a family, school, business, sport, whatever, entails the same forces of selfishness, cooperation and structure to prevent violence and loss, various types of generosity, etc. When this is on a scale of more than about a hundred people, we start calling the social regulation "government", whether it is consensual or imposed, formal or informal. So what's the big deal? Now some people don't like the idea of "government" knowing anything about them. One can only speculate why. Those of us who enjoy writing tend to love telling people more than they want to know anyway. But here it comes: When you're suspended, and can't act for yourself, you better have a good government at all levels: your cryonics organization, your national government, etc. And.... maybe you want people to go through your mind and reconstruct your personality? Guess what! They're going to know more about you than you even know yourself - they'll have to, to be able to do a good job! They'll know your conscious, subconscious, unconscious, preconscious, reflexes, predilections, crimes and misdemeanors. Whatever government is around better be a good one! Always optimistically, Robin HL Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5068