"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> From: "Samantha Atkins" <samantha@objectent.com>
> > Victimless crimes should not result in prison sentences. A lot of
> > people are in prison on pot charges. That is a major travesty.
>
> It likely happens because druggies are easy to apprehend, convict, and
> imprison (easier than more sober felons, anyway), and the US prison industry
> is an economic growth enterprise. The most violent and successful criminals
> tend to avoid drugs, of course.
I resent calling common citizens who chose to light up a joint rather
than pour themselves a stiff drink after work, "druggies". It disowns
both the real people and lifes wasted and the problem.
>
> > If I spent all my time in the future jacked in working on very
> > sophisticated problems and tend to forget about physical reality matters
> > unless reminded, am I then an addict or simply engrossed in my work?
>
> Yeah, the old "workaholic" tag. It seems to me the world would benefit from
> more people getting engrossed in work, and fewer people trying to pathologize
> the life styles of others.
>
Agreed.
> <snip>
>
> > Although admittedly I often dream of playing Technological Boddhisattva
> > and secretly uploading or backing them all up so that ultimately, if
> > they so choose, there always is another chance to grow and succeed.
>
> If you released the information about their back-ups, they mightn't have the
> same sense of urgency to succeed in their present lives. Buddha used the
> opposite trick of teaching people that they would have to re-live their
> miserable lives over and over until they got it right, thus imparting a
> different kind of urgency to avoid the cycle of ego suffering.
>
Actually makes sense in the back-up scenario as you can get out of
reliving one basic worldview until you really do release your hold on it
and undo its hold on you. Else *you* wouldn't grow. If it was done any
faster then *you* would not be you.
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:46 MDT