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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SirRealist who wrote (4745)	10/13/2001 1:30:14 PM
From: Jill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I think we fear death--suddenly--just zooming like a "missile" into an ordinary day. One doesn't have that same sense when smoking a cigarette (from what I can tell--I don't smoke)--its an accumulated risk, and one can deny it. Or when driving a car, one can easily maintain the illusion of total control. But when the "ordinary" might kill you--when the air might contain something lethal, or an airpline might turn into a missile, or an innocuous white powder might be carrying an infectious agent, there is a sense that no place is safe. So it's not just "death" that people fear, but the loss of control, and the transformation of the benignly ordinary into the terrifyingly lethal. I agree w you about mass vaccination--some gulf war vets think the vaccines damaged their immune systems. I guess you can't blame people for trying to take action to regain a sense of control, whether it's cleaning out their closets or buying a gas mask. And making profits from 'war' is as old as can be, so I guess its part of the old entrepreneurial spirit that we revere in America. But, I mean, if you buy expensive freeze dried food instead of stocking up on a few cans of Goya beans, you have to realize it would only be necessary if you were going to be starving for years! <g> I mean, canned food lasts a year.

To: SirRealist who wrote (4745)	10/15/2001 9:55:40 PM
From: Selectric II	Respond to of 281500

On radio yesterday, a public poll of smokers voted they'd rather continue smoking than add a year to their lives. Reminds me of a story: The patient visits his doctor complaining of chest pains. The doctor says, "You must stop smoking, drinking, and running around with loose women." The patient inquires, "Will I live longer, doc? To which the doctor responds, "I don't know. But it sure will seem like it."

To: SirRealist who wrote (4745)	10/15/2001 11:48:56 PM
From: bonnuss_in_austin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Indeed, Sir Realist ... what an excellent analysis! I see so much around investing boards -- not only on SI -- from obvious boomers struggling to avoid coming to grips with their own ultimate mortality. You gotcher -g- -- in Sheriff Dubya parlance -- gun types, usually Vietnam-era military vets -- they're gonna 'fight it off, killing anybody who might threaten them by 'constitutional right to bear arms' -g- ; you gotcher food/exercise freaks; you gotcher hypochondriacs ... LOL. What an EXTREME generation! Most of all, I see boomers almost hysterically trying to 'become rich,' or 'rich enough,' to avoid 'the trappings of death' altogether. The final illness, etc. Believing that money 'is the answer.' The whole hodgepodge seems to seek life into years when bodies will fail -- one way or another. Just my opinion, but some of us who have had direct experience in and around 'nursing homes,' -- even 'the best,' extremely expensive, 'first class' facilities -- where grandparents or parents have been confined, form realistic opinions of what it might be like to actually live in one. And prefer 'premature' death to such an existence. bia