A "simple" question...about death?
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One could argue that a soldier in a hostile environment like Iraq where death is a daily occurrence is in the ideal predicament of ‘contracting’ a similar fate.
Sure logic says that his level of exposure is proportionate to his chances of being mortally injured, but for the sake of this discussion one can conclude that death is contagious in this example. -
@tomsdesk said:
Interesting....
So, is death (the aura of it) a human condition? Can this condition become societal? One can certainly live for death, live with death...can we live death? If circumstances are such that one can be convinced death is a preferable option to life...can death societies develop? What circumstances would that take?
Wouldn't this then be an epidemic?
I think most of us think of death in terms of it's causes. The aura of death as a human condition is too abstract for me without the cause(s) of death. Widespread disease, suicide, and homicide are 3 very different scenarios but the end is the same: death. All are dependant on behaviors (contracting the disease, killing onesself or another) so is it the behavior the epidemic? Is the aura of death the motivation for the behavior so the causes of death don't really matter? It seems we've already tried to control/avoid death-causing behavior with laws and religion (suicide IS illegal, right?).
Engaging topic Tom.
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Tom, is death all that bad?
As I see it life and death are mutualy arising....totally connected like the two Yin/Yang fishes.
Both are needed to define and give meaning to the other. So death is always with us.....not something we can catch
And as for the morticians...I think they would be surrounded by a lot of negative, morbid energy......rather than viruses or physical toxins.
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If you look at the total odds of dying, than indeed one could conclude that each living being is infected by default at birth:
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Hmm ... ask Thomas Lynch.
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Pretty slim, as long you don't walk into a Texan bar shouting "Dubya's plays with Barbie dolls!"Not the hardest thing to avoid.
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Actually Stinkie with the approval rating and confidence polls out right now, walking into a bar saying the above may get you a few free beers.
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Try it and post the video on Youtube. Come on ... you know you want to!
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That's a great graphic kwisten, thanks. I dind't see Terrorism on there anywhere. I wonder just how far off the bottom it would fall below 'fireworks discharge'?
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Eric, im always up for a bit of a challenge, so very roughly, your chance of being killed by a terrorist act in any single year is 1 in 2,400,000.
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Hmm. Calculate this one for me (I'd do it myself, but I suck at any kind of math):
- what's the chance, statistically, of being fatally injured by the impact of Stahlhelm wearing dwarf that's been shot out of a cannon?
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I thought that was common knowledge...1/10
puts on Stahlhelm wearing dwarf helmet
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Granted, I should've known that. I really should've paid better attention in school.
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Death is fatal lethal mortal deadly indeed but it's nothing against your mother-in-law
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@unknownuser said:
what's the chance, statistically, of being fatally injured by the impact of Stahlhelm wearing dwarf that's been shot out of a cannon?
Hey Stinkie , that's exactly the mental image I have of you sitting behind you're octocore.
A fighter dwarf with super powers. -
Gee, Kwist, that's so ... so ... Well, touching isn't quite the word I'm looking for.
For the record: I never wear a Stahlhelm. That's for the overly serious. Me, I wear a fez.
Joking aside, I did notice that I ponder upon death more often than I used to. As the years pass, the inevitable tête à tête with the Reaper seems to become less of a concept.
If I could chose, I'd pick eternal life. How 'bout you lot? Sure, you'd be bored every now and then, but think of all the stuff you could learn.
Some consider death a cruel joke. I believe it's a vile insult. Yeah. I'm gonna smoke a Gauloise to that.
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He he, I think eternity would make me lazy...
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Hm. When you have unlimited amounts of time, 'lazyness' becomes an obsolete concept.
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Funny you should bring this up on TAX DAY (for those of us in the (US of A).
Benjamin Franklin said, "The only things certain in life are death and taxes." I'm not so sure about that. I think it's pretty certain that you'll get a chuckle out of one or two of the following quotations about Death and Taxes:
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." -- attributed to Albert Einstein
"If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see how bad it is with representation." -- Farmer's Almanac
"The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward." -- John Maynard Keynes
"Death and taxes may be certain, but we don't have to die every year." -- Unknown
"If you die in an elevator, be sure to push the UP button." --
Sam Levenson"Optimist: Someone who sets aside two hours to do his income tax return." -- Unknown
"I wouldn't mind paying taxes -- if I knew they were going to a friendly country." -- Dick Gregory
"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today." -- Herman Wouk
"Tax reform means, 'Don't tax you, don't tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.'" -- Russell Long
"The way taxes are, you might as well marry for love." -- Joe E. Lewis
"I don't mind dying, the trouble is you feel so bloody stiff the next day." -- George Axlerod
"It used to be that death and taxes alone were inevitable. Now there's shipping and handling." -- Bert Murray
"Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead." -- Scottish Proverb
"I never see the prettiest thing -
A cherry bough gone white with Spring -
But what I think, 'How gay 'twould be
To hang me from a flowering tree.'" -- Dorothy Parker"Indoors or out, no one relaxes
In March, that month of wind and taxes,
The wind will presently disappear,
The taxes last us all year." -- Ogden Nash"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has." -- Will Rogers
"The report of my death was an exaggeration." -- Mark Twain (after reading his own obituary)
"The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination." -- Ronald Reagan
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