Vampires & Zombies | Suicide & Blood

In honor of Halloween I am going to be writing a bit about zombies and vampires. Now, I traditionally despise Halloween with a passion. I didn't want to have anything to do with it whatsoever: No Trick-or-Treating, no handing out candy, no decorations, no dressing up, I didn't even like church "Fall Festivals." My opinion has changed a little bit, which is a topic for another blog, but for today I am going to fall into the theme of the day embrace zombies and vampires, but not in the traditional way.

A couple years ago I wrote a couple Buzz posts (Do you remember Google Buzz?). Here's what they said.

What if I said you were a vampire, evil & dead to the core & your 1 hope for life, the thing you crave most, blood that's innocent and pure?

 

Would you call me crazy if I said that, in order to live, you must drown, you're a zombie, walking dead, & your 1 hope for life is suicide?

Frankenstorm & Christ, the Storm Whisperer

The East Coast today is facing a major threat from Hurricane Sandy, or Frankenstorm, as it has been nicknamed. It is a major storm, several major storms actually, that are all colliding to result in the potential for serious destruction. There will likely be 11ft storm surges, rain/flooding, high winds, snow, power outages, etc... It is going to very likely be catastrophic.

A few of the quotes from individuals involved highlight the seriousness of this storm:

"This is the most catastrophic event that we have faced and been able to plan for in any of our lifetimes," Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy warned.

"It could be bad," said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Rattior, "or it could be devastation."

When it Rains it Pours

"When it rains it pours."

Everyone knows this phrase, has heard it, and probably used it. Basically, it means that nothing ever comes in small doses. If one thing is gonna go wrong, 10 things are going to go wrong. It's just the way it is, and recently this has proven to be incredibly true in my life. However, it is not necessarily proving true in the traditional meaning of the phrase.

Rain can be both negative and positive. Rain is life giving, refreshing, cooling. It is necessary for life. It is beautiful. It results in splashing in puddles, kissing/dancing in the rain, it adds life and color to plants and flowers. There are so many amazing, fun, beautiful aspects of rain, and I personally love a good rain storm!

Rain can be damaging as well. Too much rain can cause flooding, death, destruction of homes and landscapes. There are also many other dangerous thing that are associated with heavy rain, lightning, tornadoes, high winds, are all usually accompanied by rain. There are a lot of people who don't like the rain, especially lots of it. It makes everything damp and dark.

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Value in Human Life? Part II

Ok, so a couple days ago I posed the question: Does human life have intrinsic value? I talked a lot about the entertainment that humanity has received from human injury/death throughout history, and how that seems to indicate that human life does not intrinsically have any value, but I also said that I disagreed, that I believe human life does have intrinsic value. So today, I'm gonna talk about why I believe this.

To begin, if human life, truly has no intrinsic value, than life is valued on its accomplishments/failures, contributions to/detractions from society/the world, what it does, or possible even what it has the potential to do, but that last one's moving more into granting intrinsic value. So naturally, we would determine a value of a life by examining it, and that value could change. Most likely, value would be highest during the peak of ones life, and life would be considered less valuable in the beginning, when it is unproven and unsure, and at the end, when the usefulness is winding down. Based on these assumptions, there could be a case made that the value of life is dependent on what it does. We see things like abortion and geronticide in the world, and strong arguments are made for all sorts of mass killings of "useless" drains on society. Whether, this is dependent on age, societal status, race, intelligence, health, etc... there have been plenty of proponents of this way of thinking throughout society, and while they may have logical arguments, they are viewed by most as deranged or evil or something like that. That seems to indicate to me that human life must have some sort of intrinsic value, because if not, why does the loss of life in those "drains" on society upset the general populace so much?