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.
