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The more I think about politics, I always end up coming back to this quote from a very good video (from a very good youtuber!).
I think in most cases, politics are about values. To piggy back off the abortion example. The go to argument surrounding this typically is bodily autonomy, and although one could argue that this isn't really consistent on a factual, legal level. If I were in the room debating a pro-choice person on the issue, here is how it would go.
PC Person
The fetus is not entitled to its mothers body, consider the court case McFall v Shimp: McFall suffered from a life-threatening bone marrow disease and his cousin, Shimp, was a compatible bone marrow donor. Shimp refused to donate bone marrow. McFall requested Shimp be compelled to donate. The Court considered Shimp’s refusal “morally indefensible,” but still ruled in Shimp’s favor, explaining,
“For a society which respects the rights of one individual, to sink its teeth into the jugular vein or neck of one of its members and suck from it sustenance for another member, is revolting to our hard-wrought concepts of jurisprudence. Forcible extraction of living body tissue causes revulsion to the judicial mind.”
Judith Jarvis Thomson tackles the issues of bodily integrity and moral obligations in her essay, “A Defense of Abortion.” Thomson asks us to imagine a famous violinist with a fatal kidney ailment. One day a bunch of music lovers kidnap you and hook your kidneys up to the violinist’s circulatory system. In nine months the violinist will have recovered, but if you disconnect yourself prematurely the violinist will die. Thomson asks, “Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation?”
When you drive (have sex), you know there’s a possibility you could crash into someone (conceive). Even when you drive very cautiously (use contraception), there is still a chance of a car accident. Should you be in a car crash in which the victim’s life is at stake, the law does not compel you to donate blood or organs to save the victim. While it would be admirable for you to donate, you are not required to do so."
Me:
"Thats cool. Lets say you, for whatever reason, are a psychopath who enjoys taking children, draining them of their blood, hospitalizing them and or possibly killing. If I was king for a day, and assuming your blood was a match, I would sentence you to life in prison, and then order that your blood be drained and given to the remaining children to save them. Fight Me"
I don't find this to be unreasonable, given that we would already use lethal injection for these kinds of people (also a violation of "bodily autonomy"). Draining someone of their blood would be no less worse than forcefully injecting them.
You are free to think I'm a crazy person, fine. But that's not my main point. The same problem exists for issues like nationalism & immigration. You can scream all day about how immigrants are a net gain to the economy, or how they commit less crime. But a ethno-nationalist will simply go "No, I value the culture and heritage of the green people, and I'd rather them go extinct than to have our way of life polluted by the purples.".
Another explicit example of what im talking about is race. A black person does not vote democrat because they are factually good for the economy (whether or not they are is besides the point). If you asked average black voter to produce a study about specific policies that cite this, they would come up short. Support for democrats comes from the idea of racial solidarity, and the fact that black people value the black race, and would like to advance black interest.
I have no clue how one would even go about resolving this. Morals & values are not empirical - you cant prove bodily autonomy and cultural heritage are good in the same way you can prove what foods are and aren't healthy. These things are based on moral intuitions that are fundamentally subjective. I don't think I could ever change my personal mind on that issue to be completely honest, but on a societal scale, this is obviously not sustainable. There needs to be some way to reconcile a difference in moral values.
It's called death.
Each generation fights itself over different moral fault lines. Sometimes it drags on and the next generation inherits parts of the conflict, but they usually pick their own fights (or rather have them picked for them by some nebulous Zeitgeist egregore).
Sums up my opposition to longevity science and geriatric societies.
Death is the primary driver of change. Stubble burning is good for the health of a farm.
How will you meet your own end? Are you ready to go?
One thing is to peruse the concept on the menu and feel somewhat okay with it in theory, but when it's actually served to you, how will you really feel then? The permanent end of your body, mind, memories, and whatever help you give others? Perhaps your soul too, however you define it. Are you ready to give it all up?
I'll die when I die. What's there in it ?
Maybe it's because I was raised in India. When everyone around you believes in rebirth, there is a certain societal comfort with death. I'd rather not die of a prolonged sickness. The suffering in the lead up to death sounds horrible, but the dying itself seems like someone else's problem. I am gone, its those who remain who will have to deal with it.
I'll extend an olive branch. As long as voting rights are limited to those aged 20-70, I'm fine with increasing lifespans.
What's your answer to this question? If you deeply imagine your own end. Do you personally believe in rebirth? What part in/of you gets passed on after death?
I don't need an olve branch. I don't have a dog in the longevity science debate. I'm just hijacking the thread with questions I think are very important to ponder, personally.
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Will people outside that age range also not have to pay taxes, and not get punished if they commit crimes?
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