"Some Cheerful Reflections On...Death"
by Ray Jason
“Death twitches my ear;
'Live,' he says...
'I am coming.”
- Virgil
"There are some topics that are never discussed in “polite company.” Fortunately and deliberately, I have surrounded myself with “impolite company.” My friends and I will wonder about the Grassy Knoll. We will question the free-fall speed of the Twin Towers. We will ponder the implications of the Dancing Israelis. In fact, on a really bold day, we might even dare to discuss the JQ.
In these reflections, I will be dealing with “natural death.” This would be someone who has lived past 70 years or so, and then experienced declining health until their body can no longer sustain itself. (I'm 72 - CP)
“Tragic death” is an entirely different category. We witness this in Gaza on a daily basis. When an IDF storm-trooper walks through a hospital casually shooting doctors and patients, those victims did not suffer a natural death. As for the cowardly soldier who butchered them, we can only hope that an Afterlife and a just God awaits him. A suitable Fate for him might be an eternal cycle of re-incarnation every day, followed by an afternoon visit to the Celestial Wood-Chipper – feet first.
Has the word “longevity” caught your attention recently? Only ten years ago you would rarely hear it or read about it. And yet, nowadays, it seems to be everywhere. I’m surprised that children’s breakfast cereals are not yet advertised as being “longevity friendly.”
Now don’t get me wrong. I believe that despite the difficulty and sadness and injustice of Life, it is still a wondrous blessing; and I cherish it dearly. For me, the ideal existence is expressed in Mr. Spock’s Star Trek advice: “Live long and prosper.” I would define that as still having most of one’s physical and mental capacities even as death approaches.
So, what is driving this new obsession with Longevity? IMHO, two things are propelling this phenomenon … Fear and Pride. For Ordinary People, their severe Fear of Death, probably stems from social programming. Their parents, teachers and talking screens ceaselessly instruct them to dread the Reaper. However, for the self-proclaimed Elites, who I prefer to call our Malignant Overlords, their motivation seems to be Pride. They see themselves as being so “special” that they deserve Immortality.
Fear: For most people, their death will be a minimal-pain experience. They will not spend their final hours being interrogated by pathological torturers. For many, it will be peaceful and they may even be surrounded by loved ones. Once death has claimed us, we most likely experience The Big Sleep. We are just gone … and therefore unconscious. The dead person feels no physical pain. Plus, they do not experience emotional longing for the loved ones who live on.
I have always believed that Death is harder for those left behind. This is probably because Society hammers us with the idea that Death is the opposite of Life. But, I believe that it is actually a part of Life. In fact, that belief is the main reason that I am writing this essay. I am trying to help lessen people’s grief by pointing out that Society has made the experience overly and unnecessarily traumatic. Whereas, I believe that Death is simply the final chapter of every individual’s life story.
Something else that might help soften Death’s blow, is the realization that it is universal and inescapable. One needn’t worry that the used car salesman that screwed you in Topeka will escape Death. In fact, it is the one aspect of Life in which true Equality is actually achieved.
Pride: Most normal people just wish to be left alone and to have a decent life for their family. They realize that death is inescapable, but they also know that their legacy will be carried on by their children. That is sufficient comfort for them. But the Malignant Overlords are consumed by gluttony. Their desire for more, more, more of everything, everything, everything, has overpowered them to the point that they now seek Immortality.
I assume that down through the centuries many rulers have perceived themselves as so radiantly perfect that they should not be allowed to die. Unfortunately, life extension technologies are starting to catch up to the swaggering fantasies of super-rich egomaniacs.
With massive financial resources, they can swap out their blood with transfusions from young donors. They purchase heart transplants as casually as buying a new yacht. And the most horrific of the monsters, use adrenochrome in their lust for eternal life. They indulge their vanity by using cryonics, in which their body is frozen in the hopes that it can be thawed out and revitalized in the future. And their latest grasp at Immortality is through Trans-humanism. This technology would mate their natural, carbon-based body with an artificial, silica-based entity.
Even if this becomes possible, what will they have achieved? Yes, they might have bequeathed themselves an endless future. But, in doing so, they will have transformed themselves into a neuro-linked, artificial-intelligence cyborg. This might seem blissful for a while until they are plugged into The Main Terminal. And then how long is it before they become slaves to the Borg?
Which would of course be sweetly ironic, since they would get to experience what we have gone through under their rule. They would get a taste of what it is like to be The Little People …The Little Carbon People."
Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.
o
"Amen"
"No, I don't feel death coming.
I feel death going:
having thrown up his hands,
for the moment.
I feel like I know him
better than I did.
Those arms held me,
for a while,
and, when we meet again,
there will be that secret knowledge
between us. "
- James Baldwin
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