The following speech was given by Russell Means in July 1980, before several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering, in the...
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for scientific progress, I was just saying that I don't think the author's primary concern is necessarily us outliving the Sun or the heat death of the Universe or whatever
That's not the point he's making. What is inherently good about humanity that would suggest there's merit to preserving it? The European attitude would be progress is an inherent good for progresses sake, but many other cultures have different conceptions - that death is just something that will happen, and that it is not tragic more than it's the natural state of the universe.
It is good to be comfortable with the inevitability of one's own death, but I draw the line at anything that would impair our ability to keep death at bay. Death is inevitable. Death from influenza or pancreatic cancer is not. These are surmountable challenges, and to do so is unequivocally good.
I take issue with spiritualism as an ideological outlook precisely because it has a strong tendency to say that something is good because it is natural.
What if everyone dying is good actually?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for scientific progress, I was just saying that I don't think the author's primary concern is necessarily us outliving the Sun or the heat death of the Universe or whatever
That's not the point he's making. What is inherently good about humanity that would suggest there's merit to preserving it? The European attitude would be progress is an inherent good for progresses sake, but many other cultures have different conceptions - that death is just something that will happen, and that it is not tragic more than it's the natural state of the universe.
It is good to be comfortable with the inevitability of one's own death, but I draw the line at anything that would impair our ability to keep death at bay. Death is inevitable. Death from influenza or pancreatic cancer is not. These are surmountable challenges, and to do so is unequivocally good.
I take issue with spiritualism as an ideological outlook precisely because it has a strong tendency to say that something is good because it is natural.