Although
the life expectancy in most countries today
is now longer than it ever was before, there
is no place on Earth where people do not die.
In the
U.S.A., some wealthy people try to beat death
by having themselves deep-frozen immediately
they die, in the hope that, sometime in the
future, when/if a cure for the disease that
killed them is found, they might be revived
and live again.
Attachment
to life is so strong that it brings people to
such measures. But it is nothing new; in fact,
it has gone on throughout recorded history,
and the best example of it is in the pyramids
of Egypt, built as tombs by Pharoahs in the
hope of immortality. Although we are still unsure
of the methods of their construction, it is
generally supposed they were built using slave-labor,
involving tremendous suffering and loss of life.
The suffering has gone now, while the pyramids
remain. We can see the desiccated mummies of
the Pharoahs; is that their immortality?
To them,
the end—even if was a dubious end, lacking
substantiation, as with most systems of belief—was
all-important; they disregarded the means. What
did it matter if thousands suffered and died
in the construction, as long as the end was
achieved? From this, it is clear that, though
they have left us wonderful monuments, the ancient
Egyptians did not have much of a system of ethics,
and no concept at all of human rights. Yet life
to a slave was as dear as it was to a Pharoah. |
