Posted on 03/03/2020 5:33:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
Nobody knew who the “plague doctor” was until he put on the mask.
The message of the student who hands out fliers in a mask reminiscent of the kind doctors wore to treat victims of the bubonic plague? Death shouldn’t be inevitable.
“The one core thing that I take as the basis of everything else is that death is wrong, categorically and fundamentally,” said Jairus Chittenden, a junior in the College of Science.
Chittenden is a transhumanist, and though he is almost sure his generation was born too early to see a radical extension of life, he is focused on changing science to support large populations in the future.
Through his outreach as the “plague doctor,” he hopes to increase the number of people considering the thought of human immortality, so that people think about careers that will help support future civilizations. He said one could do so by developing sustainable energy technologies or compact food production, which will aid in what he called “the war against death.”
“In the end, the most value you can get out of the limited time that you have is to hasten, even just by one hour, by one minute, the day that the first child is born, who never has to die,” he said. “Because after that, everything changes.”
Despite his strong beliefs, Chittenden’s decision to don the plague doctor mask was at first rather aimless, he said.
Chittenden saw an ad for the mask and said, “The whole thing just kind of clicked together.”
He began giving out “spooky facts” on Halloween, and said the process was rather spur of the moment. In two days he had his list made up, which included morbid facts like the fact that 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
“To me, it encapsulates the fact that death is arbitrary and indiscriminate and pointless. What could be more pointless than to have your life end from choking on a pen,” he said. “Where’s the grand meaning in that? What does that contribute to the world?”
While he has handed out morbid facts, vague New Year’s resolutions and references to influential works, such as one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, his message hasn’t been thoroughly thought out as of yet.
“Up until now, I haven’t really tried to put too much critical thought into exactly how I am getting that message out,” he said. “I’m more concerned with establishing a meme, which sounds silly but it’s a strategy.”
Going out with the mask is what he does when he wants to “release,” Chittenden said.
“In the same slot of your time and the same mood that someone might think, ‘I’m going to go watch Netflix,’ or — I don’t know, whatever it is people do — is the same kind of mood that makes me think, ‘You know what, I’m gonna go outside and be a total weirdo,’” he said.
Since he first started handing out “spooky facts” on Halloween, two others responded to his Reddit post inquiring if anyone would be interested in a transhumanism club. The group, currently called “Solemnity,” is not an official club but rather an “experiment,” according to Chittenden.
The other two students in the group, Ali and Nate, who are both freshmen in the College of Science and preferred to go by their first name only, both encountered the “plague doctor” on campus before joining him.
Nate first saw Chittenden standing on the Lions Fountain, and Ali had taken some of the papers he hands out before seeing his Reddit post.
“Some might see it as like a crazy person, but you know I thought that it was good to spread those facts, raise awareness and stuff,” Ali said.
Both Nate and Ali said Chittenden’s beliefs aligned similarly with their own.
“I’ve always found issue with the whole traditionalist aspect of what it means to be human,” Ali said.
Ali and Nate wear Alien and Guy Fawkes masks, respectively, when they’re out advocating for the group.
Ali chose his because he said his friends have joked about his name being similar to the word Alien — and the mask was cheap. Nate said he’s had his for a while, which he’s used for practical jokes and protests.
Nate found that people are more hesitant to come near when he’s wearing the mask, though the group gets very different reactions depending on where they are.
“The bar crowd especially, they’re more prone to eating the paper,” Ali said, adding that it happened at least six times one night.
The mask, Chittenden said, allows his message to cut through the noise, and the impersonal aspect makes it easier to talk to people about the ideas the group is trying to spread.
“What they say to your mask, what they think about your mask shouldn’t really have any impact on how you think about yourself and you know yourself,” he said, “because you’re really the only person who can see yourself without a mask.”
“God is dead.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
“Friedrich Nietzsche is dead.” —God
This sounds like a control freak with a Hero-Complex who has needed intensive analysis since he was 13 y/o.
This is someone who could inspire a cult living somewhere off the grid.
Why is this worth the bandwidth it took to post it?
It doesn’t even make any sense.
Who wants eternity on EARTH in these bodies?
Life can be painful.
Quite a few painful experiences in almost 52 years now.
I recall NO suffering in the 13 billion years before I was born :)
The problem with eternity is that the
years get shorter the more there are of them
as we all learn.
“For we are born owing death a life,
and he who dies today is quit for the next.”
Henry V.
What useless nonsense. I’m sorry I wasted the time reading that.
I’m dumber for reading this and I can’t afford to further degrade.
As C.S. Lewis brilliantly stated, death is an escape mechanism because once man has fallen, eternal life without dying is utter damnation.
His friend Tolkien had much to comment on the same matter. How the Numenoreans weren't satisfied with their lengthened days. They wanted eternal life within the mortal world. That didn't end well...
I’m so depressed now :(
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