Rancho Absurdo

[JULIUS RAPER]

Paul's question about where one learns about the dangers of shedding one's
mortal container is a good one. Certainly it would not be in computer,
mathematical, or music classes, if the bios coming out about the suicides
are accurate.  Nor in the classes that provide the footnotes to Plato that
make up the mainstream of philosophy courses.  After 2400+ years of
"contempt for the corporeal," to quote from an earlier message, can we
expect our culture to resist the temptations of the bodiless state?  And
now that the double-millennial madness has struck, things will start
popping. If
we are lucky, this Rancho debacle could be the innoculation against the
disease.  If not, perhaps
the temptations to soul-transvestism in V. and the fates of Herbert,
Benny, and the confused chick whose name starts with a vector pointed 
down could provide excellent cautions against contempt for one's
own fleshy envelope. Where is the necessary respect for the somewhat Lower
Sources?       JRR