I appreciate your point. I actually didn't mean trying to do a hard sell of cryonics, but just to present it in the most sympathetic way possible (which I'm sure was not at all clear, since this piece is still a draft and I never meant to post it).
Appeals to justice and fair treatment are far more effective when the suffering parties are seen sympathetically.
I remember this one time I read an article about an issue with the Anglican church here. This church as a whole is very socially liberal in Canada, a-ok with gay marriages or whatever, that kind of thing. But there was this one local congregation that was socially conservative, and they were all, "we wanna leave cuz that's morally wrong" or whatever. And the main church is like, "Fine, but our organization owns the building, so we're taking our ball and going home," and the local congregation goes, "But that church is our community's. Our ancestors were the ones who originally paid for it, and they'd agree with us about this!"
And I go, "Hm, yup, my sense of justice and fair treatment say the local congregation is in the right. If the decision was my responsibility, I'd have to give the building to them."
But it's not my responsibility, and I certainly never felt any impulse to try to make it. Because those homophobic nutjobs are a bunch of jerks and I can't wait to see the historical back of them, so... how much can I really bring myself to care?
And I'm pretty sure I'm much better than the average individual at applying consistent standards of fairness even to people I don't like.
Anyway yeah, a simple elegant sympathetic presentation of cryonics should be best for appealing to anyone who'd listen to the ''tolerant compliance" angle, as well as planting seeds for full support of cryonics in a fair portion of those people.
[Edit: I did not mean to post this, just save it as a draft (I only remember pressing the 'save and continue' button, not the 'submit' button. That shouldn't've posted it, right?).
Anyway, that's why it dissolves into slightly cryptic point form notes to myself at the end. Don't have the time right the now to flesh it out, so I'm just leaving it as is.]
I just noticed that there is no facebook group with this aim. I would like to create one. I feel that it *might* be a way to finally get enough 'special interest/human rights' force concentrated on the problem to fix it, if the presentation is done well.
Would anyone like to help me write the group description and accompanying information, optimizing for effectiveness?
Such a group would have two main audiences, and two main purposes:
1 - For those who already understand and support cryonics, it would be a means to coordinate action and share information.
2 - For those who have never really thought about cryonics before, but may well be open to the idea, it would serve as an introduction and hopefully cause them to join the first group.
As regards the first group, the only major point to stress that springs to my mind is the importance of keeping their *effectiveness* foremost in mind when taking their actions, which mostly just means reminding them to be very friendly, polite, and pleasant while pestering and trying to educate the bureaucrats and politicians.
But for the second group, well, I don't need to describe the difficulty in leading people to understanding across this particular inferential distance. How to do it in a snappy, engaging way?
- The essential human issues at the root here: Hope and love, and freedom.
- That the group is intended for people in BC and people with friends and family here put in danger by the law.
- technical skepticism
- moral confusion
- image. Narrative, short story
Resources I am thinking of drawing on are:
Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics
Ben Best's FAQs
This page on BC's anti-cryonics law at the Canadian Cryonics Society
This article in the Tyee
letter to mom after Sandy's death