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Originally Posted by ScottGem

I'm not titled "Renanissance Man" for nothing <eg>

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I want to be like that when I grow up.

Is that even spelled right, Scott?

C'mon dude, you've got a reputation to uphold.

I would say Stephen Hawking, Warren Buffett, Mark Steyn.

I'd like to see Ex debate Glenn Beck for the championship. Needkarma to moderate. Advertise it as "The Histrionic event of the Year."

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Originally Posted by Catsmine

"The Histrionic event of the Year."

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Hello again, Cats:

You think I'm histrionic?? ME?? Maybe I'm a little melodramatic at times, but HISTRIONIC? Like the Beckster?? Booo, hoooo...

excon

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello again, Cats:

You think I'm histrionic???? ME??? Maybe I'm a little melodramatic at times, but HISTRIONIC?? Like the Beckster??? Booo, hoooo....

excon

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You could handle it.

Sorry ex, I spoke too soon on nominating you. Peter Singer has the answer to everything:

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Here is a thought experiment to test our attitudes to this view. Most thoughtful people are extremely concerned about climate change. Some stop eating meat, or flying abroad on vacation, in order to reduce their carbon footprint. But the people who will be most severely harmed by climate change have not yet been conceived. If there were to be no future generations, there would be much less for us to feel to guilty about.

So why don’t we make ourselves the last generation on earth? If we would all agree to have ourselves sterilized then no sacrifices would be required — we could party our way into extinction!

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Brilliant.

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Originally Posted by speechlesstx

Sorry ex, I spoke too soon on nominating you. Peter Singer has the answer to everything:

Brilliant.

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I think Professor Singer is expressing what a lot of pessimists and skeptics feel about the state of the world at the moment, and perhaps more importantly the direction in which things are headed. Singer is putting forward a nihilist position which points to the slow but inevitable disintegration of society and its moral values. There is a fear that future generations will be left with a society in which life is 'nasty,brutish and short'

One needs to be personally satisfied with one's life and feel that we are able to contribute to the betterment of society. If we end up thinking it is better to be a pig satisfied than a human dissatisfied then we have embraced a nihilist position.

What Peter Singer fails to recognize is that a society with no loyalties and no purpose doesn't always ' party its way to extinction ' .People in such a situation may find pleasure in mindless destruction and killing.

It would seem that a nihilistic society could be very similar to the society he is trying to avoid. Professor Singer might object by saying that one final nihilistic society in better than many future nihilistic societies.

Tut

To me it's as simple as this, who am I to deny future generations the opportunity to love and be loved?

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So why don’t we make ourselves the last generation on earth? If we would all agree to have ourselves sterilized then no sacrifices would be required — we could party our way into extinction!

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No doubt his medical records show he is leading by example.

Tut and Steve ;Great observations of the Singer essay.

I wonder if the NY Slimes will find an op-ed to give a counter-point ? Interesting that they give valuable space up in their publication to a 21st century eugenicist (he has in the past has advocated the infanticide of disabled infants) .
Of course the west has been acting out his vision for some time now with a vengeance. Many already have adopted a zero growth philosophy ;and some murder their children ,mostly because they would be an inconvenience. In the US alone 50 million + babies have been snuffed since Roe . We are in numbers now that have been equated with the most notorious tyrants of the 20th century. (this is a really strange position for a son of parents who barely escaped the holocaust)

Singer of course suffers an Al Gore-like hypocrisy . He has fathered 3 children into his dystopia .When his mom was in a nursing home being kept alive it was pointed out to him that he was a hypocrite . He said it's different when it's your mom.
Wonder what other exceptions he would make. Maybe he envisions an uber-race of Princeton graduates ?

Poor OP, he/she asks a question only to be pummeled with some abortion diatribe.