There is one very, very important twist to the value of life that has been
missed by all. To Mr. Harris I would ask the following: What do you think is
the value to you of the life of a total stranger versus the life of one of
your family members? I am always amazed how industry and academia can spew
the merits of ignoring the risk to the few for the benefit of the many, as
long as the few does not include their immediate family members. Another
baffling concept is the reduction of life to just longevity while ignoring
quality. This is not surprising given that we know have an agricultural
system and a society that survives on life support.
I am also somewhat frustrated by science's cavalier "risk / benefit" horse
crap scenarios. In general, I usually find that these analyses are framed in
a way that creates benefit for the company or interested party and risk for
the consumer or end user. Finally, while I am on this rant, I would like to
know why researchers only include the benefit from avoiding negative
externalities (such as cancer), while blissfully ignoring the positive merits
of choosing certain life choices. If there is any inkling of truth to the
teachings of Rudolf Steiner, the evolution of humanity is in good part hinged
on the agricultural practices and dietary choices of the civilization. But
alas, the spiritual and esoteric domains have no role to play in reductionist
science, and hence, the devaluation of humanity into simplistic monetary
terms. If you think it is difficult to put a value on disease avoidance, can
you imagine trying to figure out the financial benefit of raising
consciousness, awareness, spirituality, or morality?
Alan Ismond, P.Eng.
Aqua-Terra Consultants
PS: I presume it is O.K. to use the "S" word (spirituality) on this listserv.
After all, I understand that Prince Charles was bold enough to do so in a
recent talk that he gave.
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jul 21 2000 - 09:00:32 EDT