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Why I Hope to Die at 75
The Atlantic ^ | 17 Sep 2014 | Ezekiel Emmanuel

Posted on 09/20/2014 6:39:25 AM PDT by Rummyfan

An argument that society and families—and you—will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly

That’s how long I want to live: 75 years.

This preference drives my daughters crazy. It drives my brothers crazy. My loving friends think I am crazy. They think that I can’t mean what I say; that I haven’t thought clearly about this, because there is so much in the world to see and do. To convince me of my errors, they enumerate the myriad people I know who are over 75 and doing quite well. They are certain that as I get closer to 75, I will push the desired age back to 80, then 85, maybe even 90.

I am sure of my position. Doubtless, death is a loss. It deprives us of experiences and milestones, of time spent with our spouse and children. In short, it deprives us of all the things we value.

But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deathcare; deathpanels; evil; palinwasright
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To: Rummyfan

Just visit any nursing home. Seventy five is a good time to die.


21 posted on 09/20/2014 6:56:59 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: Rummyfan

Death panels.


22 posted on 09/20/2014 7:01:24 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (You have entered an invalid birthday)
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To: Rummyfan
Of course, it doesn't matter at what age you die, but how you've lived and what you and people surrounding you has got out of it.

I'm 45 years old and already when I was 28 I told myself “If I would die now I would die as a happy man”.

This is not because I didn't have work left to do, but because at that age I had an OK car, a wonderful woman by my side, a decent income, a university degree, had reflected a great deal on life and the world in which I live and had traveled abroad to many fascinating countries.

Most other persons who've managed to reach this perspective on their own existence are way older than 28 (and even 45), but the problem is not that they don't experience a wonderful life until getting old, the problem is that they fail to realize how beautiful life actually is while actually alive.

“They are like him who, in the midst of water, Cries in thirst so imploringly” (I'm not a Zen Buddhist, but this is a pretty good Zen Buddhist saying.)

23 posted on 09/20/2014 7:01:31 AM PDT by WesternCulture
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To: ZULU

Yeah. No time like the present.


24 posted on 09/20/2014 7:03:20 AM PDT by sport
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To: Rummyfan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_Emanuel

Looks like a young guy right now. (Born in 1957) Says he is a bio-ethicist.


25 posted on 09/20/2014 7:03:51 AM PDT by Slyfox (Satan's goal is to rub out the image of God he sees in the face of every human.)
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To: Rummyfan

I don’t get how “Hope” enters into it.

If the guy wants to die at 75, he can die at 75. He’s from Chicago, right? All he has to do is wander into the right neighborhood at about 2am and things will take care of themselves.


26 posted on 09/20/2014 7:05:31 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: Sherman Logan
The author specifically says he is not proposing policy changes to incentivize or impose this idea.

Well, and there you have it. Of course he wouldn't be telling a tall tale, would he?

27 posted on 09/20/2014 7:05:34 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Sherman Logan; Lurker; cripplecreek; GraceG
BTW, I found nothing in the article that could be used to figure out whether the gentleman is liberal or conservative.

By Ezekiel Emmanuel

AKA The Brother of Rahm Emmanuel, AKA Ubama's Tojo.

Ezekiel is on behind the "Complete Lives" System, when the state has determined you are no longer a provide member of society, than you are to be gently dealt with.

Once you are obsolete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Obsolete_Man

28 posted on 09/20/2014 7:08:17 AM PDT by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.- Sarah Palin)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

If you say someone “wants to do something,” you really should provide something vaguely resembling evidence that your statement is true.

A flat statement by him that he doesn’t want to do it is pretty strong evidence to the contrary.

Look, I don’t know this guy, but it makes conservatives look stupid to claim, without evidence, that people “want to do” something they specifically say they don’t want to do.


29 posted on 09/20/2014 7:08:50 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins most of the battles. Reality wins ALL the wars.)
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To: Rummyfan

75 is too young. Shoot for 83


30 posted on 09/20/2014 7:09:47 AM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: KC_Lion

I said, “in this article.”

The arguments in the article are not shown to be invalid by dragging in something else the author may have written.

I think the author makes good points, and I would enjoy reading others’ arguments showing why they are not good. Instead all the commentary so far has simply been variants of “The author is an asshole.”

While quite possibly true, it is irrelevant to the truth or untruth of his opinions.


31 posted on 09/20/2014 7:12:51 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins most of the battles. Reality wins ALL the wars.)
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To: Rummyfan

I’ll die when the Lord wants me to die. Until then, I’ll have breath in my body and God will have some use for me.


32 posted on 09/20/2014 7:14:35 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (Ob)
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To: Feckless
Why wait, Zeke? Oh, and take your scumbag brother with you.

Don't forget the third Emanuel brother.

Ari on the left is a Hollyweird bigwig...... here on the cover
of their memoirs. I think Mayor Rahm is standing on a box
(to look taller).

33 posted on 09/20/2014 7:15:03 AM PDT by Liz ("Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences." Robert Louis Stevenson)
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To: Cry if I Wanna
My mom is 93 and her wisdom and insights into life are an amazing gift to our extended family.

Half a Life, one of the better Star Trek Next Gen episodes.

Discovering that, approaching the age of 60, Timicin is, upon returning to his planet, to undergo the "Resolution", ritual suicide ...

Timicin attempts to explain that in his culture it is an accepted practice for all to undergo the ritual on their 60th birthday to avoid old age, infirmity, indignity, dependence on others, and the cruel uncertainty about when the end would come ...

Initially, Timicin is reluctant to break with tradition, and intends to return to his planet and go through with his suicide, until realizing that he has some ideas about the failure of his experiment, and if he only had some more time, he could perhaps come up with a functional sun-reviving system. However, because his birthday and ritual is rapidly approaching, he will not have the time to develop the system if he follows tradition.

34 posted on 09/20/2014 7:16:37 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: ZULU

He designed Obamacare. ‘Nuff said.


35 posted on 09/20/2014 7:16:46 AM PDT by Shady (We are at war again......this time for our lives...)
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To: KC_Lion
Ezekiel is on behind the "Complete Lives" System, when the state has determined you are no longer a provide member of society, than you are to be gently dealt with.

The George Bernard Shaw school of Fabian Socialism.

You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you can’t justify your existence, if you’re not pulling your weight in the social boat, if you’re not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we cannot use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.

-Shaw
36 posted on 09/20/2014 7:17:52 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("Moderates" are lying manipulative bottom feeding scum.)
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To: Rummyfan

I hike with guys and gals in their seventies (in a hiking group) - In some cases they out hike me, like they’re a quarter mile down the track and I play catch up. They wait.


37 posted on 09/20/2014 7:20:19 AM PDT by SkyDancer (I Was Told Nobody Is Perfect But Yet, Here I Am)
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To: Sherman Logan
The arguments in the article are not shown to be invalid by dragging in something else the author may have written. What?

What he has written has shown what he thinks!

He is an Asshole because of what he thinks and writes.

he is for Death panels! That Argument was invalided in 1945 >:(

But that hasn't stopped totalitarians since then.

38 posted on 09/20/2014 7:20:33 AM PDT by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.- Sarah Palin)
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To: umgud

“Complete Lives System” authored by Emanuel and is the basis of rationing medical care in Obamacare

Emanuel’s Reaper Curve -

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/04/ezekiel_emmanuels_reaper_curve.html


39 posted on 09/20/2014 7:25:51 AM PDT by Bluebird Singing
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To: Sherman Logan

If you believe Ezekiel Emanuel when he says he does not want to make this policy, you are deluded indeed. This man is one of the architects of ObamaCare. He is publishing this article to mainstream the idea that the government kills you when you reach 75.


40 posted on 09/20/2014 7:26:21 AM PDT by backwoods-engineer (Blog: www.BackwoodsEngineer.com)
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