From: Damien Broderick (thespike@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 14:34:42 MST
Michael M. Butler sez:
> >> The function of man is to live, not to exist.
> >> I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
> > I shall.
> > [that might have made sense in Jack London's day; in the 21st
> > century it's an abject surrender to do nothing ...
> Your interpretation is valid, and might have been all that he meant.
Um, no, it wasn't at all what JL meant, and that wasn't what I was getting
at (which is why I said `kinda').
gts or whatever his name is posted it, not Jack London, and gts lives here
and now, at a time when strenuous efforts of research and persuasion
actually *will* prolong our lives indefinitely and richly.
> But consider an alternate reading: I shall not sit around in a
> little cave, taking no chances and making no waves
Yes, that's plainly what the original meant; it wasn't a deathist hymn,
except inadvertently. But it's also just the sort of heroic brandished
slogan that is often taken up by the likes of `ethicist' Dr Kass when they
try to kill us all by telling us we're wickedly wasting our days trying to
prolong them.
Damien Broderick
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 14:37:26 MST