X-Message-Number: 6207
Date: 15 May 96 11:52:22 EDT
From: "Kent, Saul" <>
Subject: Conformists

	Mike Perry is concerned that conformists will not sign up for
cryonics until it appears "normal" to do so, but that this won't happen
until many conformists have already signed up.
	I don't think that's the way it works with people who conform.
Conformists don't follow *other* conformists, they follow "authorities".
	If the U.S. government, for example, endorsed cryonics (as 
absurd as that may seem), many conformists would sign up.
	If a very famous scientist endorsed cryonics (a somewhat more
plausible scenario), many conformists would sign up.
	If a respected media figure, such as Walter Cronkite, announced
he was signed up, or was frozen, conformists would sign up.
	Right now, we're relegated to independent thinkers who want
to stay alive real badly, who aren't afraid to face the prospect of
their own death, who don't care what friends and relatives may say about
cryonics, and who aren't procrastinators.  
	It's not surprising that there aren't a whole lot of people who
fit all these categories.

---Saul Kent


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