If only everyone were as noble and humourless as this

Sevenplusfive
14 Dec 08, 1:37am (about 20 hours ago)

Its ugly and it needs to be kicked. Sure, I understand that the serious discussion of this topic was in Toynbee's article yesterday, and that your article, Mitchell, is meant to be just for fun. And sure, death is indeed a joking matter.

But your attempts at humour are worse than failures. I find them nauseating and offensive. One should not make jokes when one is arguing in favour of the continued torture of those who live in pain and hopeless misery . Consider a person lying in bed, in pain, unable to concentrate clearly, her limbs paralyzed, her bowels beyond her control. She may very much wish to stay. But, then again, she may very much wish to leave; she may wish to have been what she used to be, not what she is now. And there you are, discussing her fate, giggling and making irrelevant jokes about latinate words and creases in your trousers.

Your arguments seem to be designed for wisecracks and totally devoid of compassion.

"Surely we haven't cheated evolution so much that we're even losing our survival instinct? That would be tampering with nature in a way that makes embryo research and GM crops look like the rhythm method."

Not funny, just silly. There is the ancient notion of a coup de grace or mercy killing. It is not "tampering with nature".

"You may feel tired, most of the people you know may have left and those who remain may seem young and rude, but someone will do an offy run in a minute and you'd be sorry if you missed that."

Like you, as it happens, I do my packing at the last moment. But do you understand that not everyone is just like you in every respect? Unlike you, if I find myself at a party that vexes me, then I usually choose to leave early. No, I would not be sorry about missing an "offy run" because, unlike you, I would not enjoy sniggering about it afterwards. In particular, I dislike parties that are full of people who snort with mirth over the misfortunes of others.