One's impact on the group

I heard a radio interview with a lady who was specifying her do not resuscitate conditions. Her reasoning for being accepting of death was that she did not want to be a burden and she already had children and grandchildren. It felt peculiar to hear her as it reminded me of attitudes within the Third Reich: women should have plenty of strong children and the chronically infirm should consider euthanasia. I suppose that the difference might be one of how strong the pressure is to conform to the ideology but I did find it curious to notice how the lady's more selfless thinking was twisted by the Nazis into something sinister.

I found the lady's thinking interesting also from the point of view of what it implied about what is worthwhile. After all, I think of my many healthy years of working and paying my taxes as earning myself some geriatric burdensomeness. I love and think well of my children but I do not have any strong sense of their being a principal means by which I bequeath to society a positive legacy: indeed, wanton procreation may draw the attention of Malthus' specter.

Scottish politics

It seems that we may have another Scottish independence referendum in the offing. I do not look forward to a resumption of the many months of divisive argument that accompanies the campaigns; it certainly limits my tolerance for BBC Radio Scotland. However, in listening to that station I recently witnessed a rare event: an interview with a Scottish National Party politician where they seemed to be usefully engaging with the questions and it was instead the BBC interviewer who annoyed me by seeking to return to the simplistic soundbites that impoverish journalism.