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Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel |
| — | The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand (via yourfavoritestory) |
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Friedrich Nietzsche I have just begun to think of this oft cited passage in a new way. Nietzsche expressed the paradox that currently faces the United States in terms of our foreign and domestic policy. As the original vision of this country is eroded more and more—this erosion fueled by fear-mongering—the question that worries me is: what are we “defending?” The United States was supposed to be an individualistic nation that respected the rights and autonomy of every human being. We have become a nation of irrational, scared collectivists that occupy countries around the world and pass legislation like the Patriot Act. We force our citizens to purchase things they may or may not want to (Obamacare). We bomb other countries, and torture their citizens. We even assassinate our own citizens (Awlaki) without considering whether they deserve the rights that used to characterize our nation, or whether there is an issue with denying them due process. More and more we are becoming strangers to ourselves; we are betraying the spirit of America. All of these atrocities are committed in the name of defense, in the name of protection. But just what in the Hell are we protecting at this point? |
I am more and more confused by people that forsake their dreams for “practicality.” The worship that parents and grandparents give to this concept is a tragedy and, I think, probably a source of great misery. This whole thing is going to flash by in an instant, why should we forsake our dreams for a median income, why should we fear failure to such an extent that we don’t even attempt to achieve our values, why should we live partial lives—part ours, part society’s? The source of this disaster (like most man-made catastrophes in history) is probably the bizarreness of human group behavior. Practicality=social approval and little else.
ARTBOXMagazine:
Detroit’s abandoned houses.
Someone who blogged this set complained that Detroit is portrayed as a “dystopian fantasy.” But there is obviously something beautiful here—picturesque decay. It’s short-lived (because of the very nature of decay), and communicates a strong sense of nostalgia, a feeling that is notoriously hard to express. Things are cyclical, and beauty can be found in every stage of the cycle. Embrace the beauty before it’s replaced by nice new things, which can also be beautiful. Embrace the “dystopian fantasy” you Detroitians!
I. Life has always been an ephemeral phenomenon. Like a sandcastle on the beach, it leaves without a trace once the tide of death washes in. Of course great individuals leave their mark on posterity, but as far as those individuals are concerned, they may as well have never existed. If you disagree, I ask you to think about a memory that you have no recollection of. Such an imperative is obviously impossible. In your current state, those unremembered moments may as well have never happened. In fact, as far as you’re concerned, they never did. I now ask that you project your life to the death bed on which you will lay. The encroaching tide will erase your memories, and therefore, they never happened; your life never happened. Perhaps we can assume that some will remember you, miss you, sing your praise even, but you will be unaffected. You will not exist. The sandcastle will be no more and, as far as you are concerned, may as well have never been built.
Despite this fact, humans hustle and bustle about, building and destroying, birthing and killing, loving and feuding, all to no end. We are convinced that we must secure a job or an education. We must earn credits with which we can buy things that others made at their jobs in order to receive credits so that they might, in turn, buy the things we’ve created in order to earn credits. Those who have more credits are considered successful, and those with less are failures. Life is preparation: we are taken care of so that we can grow to adulthood; we attend school so that we can someday earn credits at a job; we get jobs so that someday we won’t have to have a job; we retire so that we can prepare for death. They call it a rat race, because you run and try to out-run and all the race leads to is death. But the race has changed.
II. The attainment of eternal life is not out of our grasp. in order to live indefinitely, one need not take a magic serum and sit back while they become immortal. We are certainly very far from such an invention. Rather, one need only last, say, twenty years longer than they would’ve. And in those twenty years, someone will design a therapy to keep us alive perhaps forty more years, during which time they will be able to add an additional 100 years to our lives, etc. Ultimately, we will, biologically speaking, be immortal. We will eliminate the mechanisms that cause us to age and die.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYpxRXlboQ
Unfortunately, it won’t be so easy. There will be manifold barriers to attaining the therapy that allows indefinite existence. One such barrier is economic. This new treatment will most likely be extravagantly expensive, especially when first released, i.e., right when we will need it! Additionally, the end of death means population issues, and politicians will hardly allow full access to the treatments. Upon arriving, the treatments will be bound up in hundreds of regulations, and the power conglomerates will erect barriers that only the bureaucrats and the wealthy will be able to surmount. In whatever nation one resides, the access to eternal life accepts one currency: power.
III. This means we’re all in a race, a race to the top. We all need connections, money—power.
Even if an entire life is spent positioning one to be eligible for the treatment, it is not a waste. For what is 100 years worth in the face of an eternity? Granted, no one receiving this treatment would live an eternity. There will always be accidental deaths—car crashes, wars, murderers—but if you spend 100 years to gain the treatment, and receive only 200 additional years in return, it is worth it. And whether we acknowledge it or not, biological immortality has altered the rat race forever; it has finally given mankind an attainable end, one that is logical to devote an entire lifetime to. In fact, it can hardly be called a rat race, for no longer is it short-sighted, mindless, and without a logical end in mind. It is the race to another lifetime or five or six or seven.
It will be interesting to see how a human populace will react to having the choice to decide when they die with no inexorable constraints. Suicide may lose its morbid connotation as it reshapes itself into the logical conclusion of a long, perhaps happy, life. The suicide rate will likely hover around 95% as man is finally given ultimate control over his biographical conclusion.
And so, Man will claim his position as master of the tides.
