The history of cryonics’ PR failure has something to teach here.
Dozens of deeply passionate and brilliant people all trying to make a case for something that in fact makes a lot of sense…
…resulted in it being seen as even more fringe and weird.
Which in turn resulted in those same pro-cryonics folk blaming “deathism” or “stupidity” or whatever.
Which reveals that they (the pro-cryonics folk) had not yet cleaned up their motivations. Being right and having a great but hopeless cause mattered more than achieving their stated goals.
I say this having been on the inside of this one for a while. I grew up in this climate.
I also say this with no sense of blame or condemnation. I’m just pointing out an error mode.
I think you’re gesturing at a related one here.
This is why I put inner work as a co-requisite (and usually a prerequisite) for doing worthwhile activism. Passion is an anti-helpful replacement for inner insight.
The history of cryonics’ PR failure has something to teach here.
Dozens of deeply passionate and brilliant people all trying to make a case for something that in fact makes a lot of sense…
…resulted in it being seen as even more fringe and weird.
Which in turn resulted in those same pro-cryonics folk blaming “deathism” or “stupidity” or whatever.
Which reveals that they (the pro-cryonics folk) had not yet cleaned up their motivations. Being right and having a great but hopeless cause mattered more than achieving their stated goals.
I say this having been on the inside of this one for a while. I grew up in this climate.
I also say this with no sense of blame or condemnation. I’m just pointing out an error mode.
I think you’re gesturing at a related one here.
This is why I put inner work as a co-requisite (and usually a prerequisite) for doing worthwhile activism. Passion is an anti-helpful replacement for inner insight.
I think this is basically correct: if people don’t get right with their own intentions and motivations, it can sabotage their activism work.