| Original Message |
Luke Parrish (Login lsparrish)
Registered User
Posted Jun 30, 2009 11:44 AM
Is that we don't seem to have much of it around here.
All this fighting that is going on really seems to be a lack of charisma more than anything... People make people mad, without really meaning to. They say insensitive things and expect the other person to be the one who is calm and collected enough to give a rational reply.
I sometimes think we need a psychologist to come in and start lecturing about emotional coping mechanisms. Cryo arrangements are complicated and it is an emotionally complicated thing to handle for anyone -- whether they are a would-be cryonicist or a relative. This adds to the level of volatility in discussions.
I think the greater emotional complexity is the main barrier that keeps people from taking the cryo option in this society... It is so much emotionally simpler to let them bury or cremate you and "have done with it" than it is to make special arrangements for a complex procedure that has to be performed right after you take your last breath, and might not even work.
As for the power of charisma and the art of persuasion it works for anything else. For example, charismatic Jim Jones convinced all 909 members in his community to voluntarily commit suicide. It hard to see why out of everything else cryonics would be the sole exception. (For the challenged: Not for suicide, but for cryo arrangements.)
Thanks for giving us that clarification explicitly -- I can picture The Anticult's response right now if you hadn't. :P
Another thing about emotional complexity is that charisma tends to involve reducing it. Unfortunately, Jim Jones was able to make 909 people feel like it was less emotionally complicated to drink the kool-aid than it was to go on living.
In today's world, most people are making a similar choice, mortal decay instead of cryostasis, for that same reason. |
|
|