Ask uNcontroLable - Page 32

On December 23 2010 03:27 uNcontroLable wrote:


These are all such loaded questions! It's taken me a while to find time to sit down long enough to think and write them out!

1. There are a lot of laws that remove personal choice for the sake of safety. I understand that each of us is ultimately responsible for our own well-being, and the feeling that we shouldn't have laws telling us how safe we should be. When you drill down through a lot of those laws though, they are really also put in place to protect others, beyond the choice and consequences of that one individual (think smoking laws, etc.). A car crash is traumatic no matter what the outcome. If a person dies (much more likely without a seatbelt), it affects everyone involved. Being inadvertently responsible for another's death can ruin a person for life. I personally am grateful for a law that requires people both to keep themselves safe, and to protect others in the case of tragedy.

2. Yes, because taking personal responsibility for your actions is the honorable thing to do. Being a part of a society and enjoying it's benefits constitutes an agreement to live by it's rules. Breaking those rules brings consequences, with which we are all familiar and which give us the opportunity to evaluate the costs and benefits of our actions. If a person deems it worth the price to commit a crime, they should be willing to face the consequences. Most people aren't. Those who are, like those who would turn themselves in, are honorable in that sense.

To be frank, though, a "thorough and convincing argument" to this point would include a full discussion of the definition of honor, which, at the moment, I don't have time to provide. Sorry!

3. The question certainly makes me uneasy. I am not one to prescribe to the theory of "medicine shouldn't work to improve the quality of people's lives because God wants them just the way they are," - I think that God gave us the ability to practice medicine for a reason - but when we start to talk about altering someone's genetic code... especially when it goes beyond preventative medicine and into changing the very qualities of a human being, like their intelligence and thus, their personality... it makes me nervous. Especially considering how relatively little we actually do know about the human brain, and the many times history has proven that when we play with life at this level, we mess up (think shock treatments for mental illness), I forsee there being some serious medical and psychological ramifications to altering intelligence.

Beyond that, I think the other piece (and perhaps to me the even more worrysome one) that would be the most cataclysmic as the result of that development would be the societal effects. All of a sudden you have a group of people who are medically determined to be more intelligent than the rest. How are they treated? What kind of power will they be given? Assuming that it will be the upper class who can afford such a treatment, how will that affect the stratification of society, wealth, and power? Will it disadvantage the older generations and the impoverished? It's a fascinating subject...sounds like a good sci-fi movie, but a scary reality.

4. A "teach a man to fish" system that provides aid only to the end that it also provides education and rehabilitation to get individuals and families back on track to become self-sustaining. "Focus on education" is, I think, a good answer to a lot of tough questions.

On November 10 2009 17:36 uNcontroLable wrote:


Thanks for saying I'm not boring you. I'm glad you are liking what I've written so far!


Hehe, I actually love telling people about how Geoff and I started. We met when we were both members of the speech team at our university. I was somewhat of an individual event star and he was the same on the parliamentary debate side. We eventually became co-captains, and people jokingly called us "Mommy and Daddy" of the debate team. When I look back though, and try to think of where the very first spark of my interest in him was struck...one moment sticks out in my mind.

Our team was full of drama. I assume it's the same on most speech teams, but our coaches were jerks, our teammates ranged from premadonnas to emo kids... and there was always some kind of huge issue going on. Geoff and I, for our part, hated the drama, and could usually be found off to the side somewhere, waiting for the storm to blow over. We were friends enough at that point, but only to the extent that we were teammates, like co-workers. Well, at this one particular tournament, things got really bad. I don't even remember what the issue was... I think it was something as stupid and routine as no-one could agree on where to go for dinner. Geoff and I were both sitting at this little two-person table in some cafeteria, and we got trapped when the team literally surrounded us and began to throw the drama bombs at each other over our heads. I was miserable. I like to smile, I like everyone to be okay, and I was stressing. I looked at Geoff and we rolled our eyes together. Looking at him and seeing someone on the same page as me in all that chaos made me feel a little better. Then, out of the blue and lightening-quick, while still maintaining eye contact with me, Geoff reached out, grabbed a napkin from the dispenser in the center of the table, and ate it. Just STUFFED it in his mouth, and then sat there like nothing had happened. He did it so quick that none of the people over our heads had any idea what had happened. I started laughing hysterically, and when they looked at him for an answer to why, he just shrugged as if he had no idea. For some reason, probably the stress of the moment, I laughed till I cried, so hard and so long that eventually they forgot what they were fighting about and the evening became pleasant. Oddly enough, I think it was then that I realized, hey... this guy is pretty awesome.

It was after that that we began to spend a little time together outside team events. Soon, we went to the library together to study, and ended up deep in conversation. After I thought about an hour had gone by, my goody-goody conscience got the better of me and I said something to the effect of "Geez, we'd better get to studying, we've probably been putting it off by talking for like, an hour!" He laughed and looked at his watch, then looked back at me, shocked. We had been talking for five hours, and both of us had been enjoying it so much, that niether of us had ANY idea. I can't think of another time in my life where I have had such an innacurate perception of time. The library closed about 15 minutes later. We didn't get any studying done. That night I told one of my roommates about what had happened, finishing with... "I mean, I'm sure nothing will come of it... he's just so, interesting! He probably has no interest in me other than friendship anyway." (Come to find out, apparently he thought I was out of his league... or so he claims. )

During that conversation, the fact that I sew had come up, and Geoff had asked if I wouldn't mind fixing his dress pants that he wore for speech tournaments. He had like, ripped the back pocket or something. I was thinking about our conversation often, and finally decided to see what was really there. Using all my womanly wiles, I constructed a text message about his pants. It was ripe with just the right amount of innuendo... a test, if you will. Enough to give him the opportunity to show interest, but little enough that I could claim I never meant it if he wouldn't bite. We girls are tricksy sometimes. He, of course, came back with an even more cleverly woven piece of cellular prose, and the rest... as they say, is history.

lol...I actually have that text message conversation written down somewhere. If I could find it, would you guys be interested in seeing it? ( I guess I'd have to make sure it was ok with iNc first.)