Most people say they do not want to live forever.

by John Doe 30 Replies latest jw friends

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  HintOfLime

  I have no use for retirement. It is a flawed ideal of generations past. It is a pyramid scheme that destroyed GM, and will continue to drag down our economy. The old are dragging down the entire world for their own sake with no respect for the next generation.

  My father (who is nearing retirement age) agrees with me. It's cruel and seems heartless, but only humans go out of their way to preserve something that is to the detriment of the whole. But life, especially human life, is more important than we are individually.

  So count me out. I'd rather be dead than drown the future of humanity in my own neediness. I'm going to die anyway, why drag it out and everyone else down?

  - Lime
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  HintOfLime

  Biolgically, our purpose is served when we reproduce and our children are gone. Yes?

  Yes, which is why I imagine the body really begins to break down around the age where our children are out of our care. At that point, there was no longer any reason for natural selection to reward a longer lifespan. Once the next generation is established, we really don't serve much purpose.

  - Lime
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  John Doe

  but only humans go out of their way to preserve something that is to the detriment of the whole.

  Your view is that retired people are a detriment to the whole? I think we're going to just have to disagree on that. I suspect as you age your view will change.
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  HintOfLime

  Your view is that retired people are a detriment to the whole? I think we're going to just have to disagree on that. I suspect as you age your view will change.

  I doubt it. My father, who is 2 years from retirement agrees with me, and will say the same thing. He plans to start his own business when he retires from his current high-tech job, and continue to pay his own way. Like me, he wants to be working right up until they find him laying on the floor in his workshop, with a tool still in his hands.

  Maybe it's just our genes. We are workers, we are fighters, and we want to do things. Not sit in a home and have other people keep us alive for the sake of keeping us alive. Is that so bad a thing?

  - Lime
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  John Doe

  Wanting to work is not a bad thing. Completely discounting the value of anyone who wants to pursue their own passions during an earned retirement does not share the same luster. Think of this:

  1. older people are our only living link to our history, heritage, and culture
  2. older people are a source of irreplaceable knowledge and experiences
  3. older people are who we all will be soon enough

  Furthermore, consider that:

  1. there is no shortage of workers
  2. there is not a shortage of resources

  For these reasons, I can't see how you can possibly conclude that the retired are a worthless drain on society.
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  Hint of Lime, I'm sure you'd love the film Logan's Run. Chilling movie with a good ending. Or maybe you've seen it already.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan's_Run_(film)
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  HintOfLime

  FHN: Yeah, seen Logan's Run a few times, but it's been a while.

  - Lime
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  HintOfLime

  I'm not saying we should put rat poison in pudding served at senior homes.

  I'm saying that personally, I do not want to go on living forever, and that at the point where I can no longer hold a tool in my hand and perform a useful service, then personally I don't view that as a 'life' anymore. At that point it's all just dying. It runs in my family.

  If other people want to retire and enjoy 10 years of crusing around America in their RV on money they have personally saved, then awesome. Just don't expect me or the revenue I generate for the company I work for to pay for it, because it is not substainable - it is a pyramid scheme.

  - Lime
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  WTWizard

  No specific age--in fact, most people find that things are unbearably stagnant. Our leaders have us so specialized that we are not able to do more than what we are told to, which drains our desire to live. Those trying to break out of that are put back in their places by politicians that have nothing better to do with their lives than destroy people's happiness (while plunging us into economic depressions, keeping us sick and dumb, stagnating technology, creating shortages, and providing the food for religions like Jehovah's Witlesses to plunge the whole world into the Second Dark Ages).

  If people were allowed to create their own companies without having people taking true facts out of context to make it look like they are going to ruin the earth or destroy people, we would have a much better economy. Not only that, but people could do what they want (at that, in full integration), making for more reasons to want to stay alive longer. And, to get there, we need to get rid of Jehovah, who is bent on keeping these parasites in power and sapping your happiness (and everything else).

  DIE, JEHOVAH, DIE!
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  LouBelle

  I'm happy with moving on, whenever that time may be.