There's a word for people like you...
May. 9th, 2003 01:26 pmDeath is a tragedy.
It is meaningless, unjust, and abhorrent beyond words. Religions concoct elaborate lies about it in the hopes of appeasing our fear of it. Even secular authors, as unable to do anything about it as the religious types, crafted sophisticated tales about how sick and wrong immortality would really be, about how horrible and terrible a truly long and successful life would be. All deaths are "untimely." Death does not give meaning to life; insted, the living give a meaning to death by stealing that significance away from those who truly deserve it, who can appreciate and return it: the living.
The same thing is true of disease and deformity. When some reporter says, "Little Billy's strength in dealing with his missing limbs teaches us all about humanity," I'd gladly give up the lesson in a heartbeat so Billy could walk-- and y'know something, I bet so would Billy. Such condescension, such sophistry, ignores the real pain at the heart of his story. If want to find a hero, go look at Christopher Reeves, who outraged many in the "disabled" community by publicly admitting he would do anything and pay anything to get out of his wheelchair.
( What they call us. )
It is meaningless, unjust, and abhorrent beyond words. Religions concoct elaborate lies about it in the hopes of appeasing our fear of it. Even secular authors, as unable to do anything about it as the religious types, crafted sophisticated tales about how sick and wrong immortality would really be, about how horrible and terrible a truly long and successful life would be. All deaths are "untimely." Death does not give meaning to life; insted, the living give a meaning to death by stealing that significance away from those who truly deserve it, who can appreciate and return it: the living.
The same thing is true of disease and deformity. When some reporter says, "Little Billy's strength in dealing with his missing limbs teaches us all about humanity," I'd gladly give up the lesson in a heartbeat so Billy could walk-- and y'know something, I bet so would Billy. Such condescension, such sophistry, ignores the real pain at the heart of his story. If want to find a hero, go look at Christopher Reeves, who outraged many in the "disabled" community by publicly admitting he would do anything and pay anything to get out of his wheelchair.
( What they call us. )
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