The Downside of Eternal Life and Other Commentaries

By John Veteran

This book is a reprinting of a previous book by John Veteran, Beheadings Over the Years and Other Commentaries, with five new commentaries added. The commentaries cover a variety of philosophical, political and social subjects. John Veteran is the pen name of an author who wishes to remain anonymous. Now 78 years old, the author recently retired from a 49-year career as reporter/photographer/editor for small weekly newspapers in the Southern USA. Prior to that, at the age of 24, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during LBJ's "Vietnam buildup" in September 1966. He served for two years, including the second year in Vietnam. After being discharged he worked on a novel for a year. Unable to find an agent or publisher, he began his newspaper career. His previous books (all self-published) include three fact-based, non-fiction novels, The Friendly Stranger + Lead Me, My Shepherd; A Would-Be Adventurist's Quest for Combat; and Three Novels by Dalton Henson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664122390

John Veteran

Author Bio: Coming Soon

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Copyright © 2020 by John Veteran.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/10/2020

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CONTENTS

Who Wants To Live To Be 200?

The Downside Of Eternal Life

There Is No ‘It Gets Better’ Project For Adolescents Afflicted With Pedophilia

The Sad Fate Of The Kham Duc Airstrip

A Scenic But Bumpy Ride To Kontum

Beheadings Over The Years

Taxation Without Representation, American Style

Why The Income Gap Between The Top And The Bottom Keeps Increasing At An Ever-Increasing Rate

Some Would Seem To Favor Legalized Murder

The Hazard Of Reaching The Age Of Accountability

The Leaders And The Followers

Rich Moms, Poor Moms

Some Thoughts About Medals

The Source Of America’s Cultural War

A Way To End The Cultural War And Bring Peace And Harmony

Hip, Hip, Hoo-Ray For Dr. K!

A Compromise On Legalized Euthanasia Proposed

Strange Bedfellows Indeed

Dogmatism—A Major Cause Of Conflict

Conflicting Views Of The Jews Can Confuse

Confusing Cause And Effect

Justice, American Style

Politically Correct Strays From Literal Meaning

Mallard Attacks The He/ She/They Glitch

A Randomly Selected Supreme Court

Resentment: A Root Cause Of Crime And Other Anti-Social Behavior

Ebonics Makes More Sense

Bee-Gees On My Mind

A Moral Dilemma For Mallard

A Connoisseur Of Mustard Sandwiches

Why We All Want To Win So Badly

A Mechanical Moron’s Quest For Understanding

Some Thoughts Upon Six Decades Of Roaming The Earth

Spirituality As Portrayed In The Media

Walking In A Summer Wonder Land?

Memories Of A Loyal Senators Fan

An Idle Pondering

Where Is Nat Albright?

He’s, She’s, And It’s

A Day That Shocked The World, 25 Years Ago

A New Plea Is Needed

The Need For Conservation: Two Vastly Different Perspectives

Going Overboard For The Common Good

Two Different Approaches To Poverty

Good Old Spelling Check Comes To The Rescue Again

Two Different Ways To Interpret Always

The Day I Experienced A Level Of Thirst That I Didn’t Know Existed

A Way To Make Unions More Appealing In Dixie?

Si Was Wrong About The Beatles

The War Cycle – The Dark Side Of Human Nature

A Midnight Encounter At The Tallahassee Bus Station

Doing A Good Deed Was Within Reach

Memories Of The Summer Of Love And Lsd

Tempus Fugit

Just What Is A Cult?

No! Nothing At All!

Memories Of A Shell-Shocked WWII Veteran

A Question About The Morbid Count

Some Thoughts Upon Watching The ABC-TV Documentary On Potential Disastrous Consequences Of The Combined Effect Of Global Warming, Overpopulation, And Depletion Of Natural Resources On The World By The Year 2100

Feeling The Pain Inside

111 Consecutive 9’s and 0’s

Say It Ain’t So, Proctor And Gamble!

A Half-Century Has Really Changed Attitudes

Why Do Dog Catchers Get A Bum Rap?

Kemosabe Back On The Trail!

Will The Rain Ever Break Its Losing Streak?

When It Comes To A Healthy Greeting, The Japanese Got It Right

Different Minds Comprehend Different Things

Are We A Horse?

The Night The Tet Offensive Began

Short-Timers

WHO WANTS TO LIVE TO BE 200?

A few month ago (as I write this in July 2020) I read that a respected scientist had said, The first person who will live to be 200 years old is already alive.

As scientists have uncovered about every other secret of the human body, they have yet to discover how to prevent—or vastly slow down—the aging process. The above-quoted scientist was saying that this discovery is right on the verge of being made.

I suppose (and this is only my own supposition) that the way it would work would be that, a person would be allowed to age naturally into early adulthood. (I doubt if anyone, other than perhaps Peter Pan, would want to stop their aging during childhood or adolescence.) Then, when the person reached their preferred age—in my case it would probably be 25—they would begin taking injections, or pills, or whatever, to slow down or stop the aging process. So they could remain young adults for decades, maybe even, eventually, centuries.

At first thought, that sounds very appealing to me, even though, at age 78, I would have to wait until they came up with a way to reverse a person’s age, so that I could revert back to 25. Even so, as nice as it would seemingly be to remain 25 years old for 200 years, some problems occurred to me.

With natural aging and death, the average life expectancy today in the United States is somewhere in the late 70s. So, a person attends school and perhaps college until the age of 18 or 22, then gets a job, works 40 or 50 years, retires, and spends their final 10 or 15 years in retirement.

And that was the life that was!

But suppose someone opted to extend their life to 200 years. They would attend school and perhaps college until the age of 18 or 22, then get a job, work for 40 or 50 years, and retire at the age of, say 65. They would then be faced with a 135-year retirement! That’s a long time to spend playing golf, fishing, volunteering at the local food bank, mowing the lawn, going on cruises, traveling around Europe, etc. Besides, Social Security would soon go bankrupt having to send money for 135 years to retirees who had worked only 40 or 50 years.

The other option would be that, instead of retiring at age 65, the person could continue working until they were perhaps 175 years old. Then they would only have a 25-year retirement, after having worked for 155 years. But who would want to work for 155 years? I suppose you could change jobs several times to alleviate the boredom.

The sports world would be especially impacted by people living to be 200 years old, including perhaps 140 years in the body of a young adult.

Whereas today, even the longest-lasting major league baseball players, for instance, might have a career spanning 20 years—from age 22 to age 42 perhaps—under the new way, a player might have a 140-year career. All existing records would be clobbered. A slugger in his 140-year career might hit 5,600 home runs. A great pitcher might win 2,800 games.

Things would get even more complicated if the aging-prevention technology became more advanced, and people could live indefinitely, with 1,000-year-old people walking around in 25-year-old bodies. What would you do for 1,000 years?

Maybe a traditional 70 or 80-year lifespan is not so bad after all.

THE DOWNSIDE OF ETERNAL LIFE

Since the time that humans developed the ability to contemplate, the most profound question facing humanity has been: Do humans have eternal life, or is this life all there is?

Some of the Romans used to say, Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will die. Today’s atheists say basically the same thing: Enjoy your life on this wonderful Earth. When you die you will cease to exist. I heard a prominent atheist on a YouTube video say that dying will be like entering a deep, dreamless sleep that will last forever.

On the other hand, of course, many religions, most notably Christianity in the United States, teach that humans possess souls that will live forever. Some Christians believe that a person’s soul will either go to Heaven, to live in eternal paradise, or Hell, to live in eternal torment.

It occurred to me some years ago that this world—this human existence—is a mixture of the most wonderful things that could possibly exist, and the most horrible things that could possibly exist. If the Christian concept of Heaven is correct, it has all of the wonderful things without any of the horrible things. If Hell exists, it has all of the horrible things without any of the wonderful things.

At first thought, living for all eternity in paradise without any suffering (sickness, pain or emotional distress) seems wonderful. But just think: in eternity, a trillion years is just a tiny blip—a grain of sand on the beach.

The Norse warriors of ancient times believed that if they died on the battlefield, they would be carried away to a paradise called Valhalla, where they would spend eternity with delicious food, fine wine, and their every need being catered to by a bevy of beautiful young women. No problems; no cares.

As for the Christian concept of Heaven, there seems to be universal agreement that in Heaven they will be reunited with their deceased loved ones and they will all continue living together in paradise for all eternity. But I have heard various speculations about how they will spend their time all those trillions and trillions (raised to the trillionth power) of years.

Of course there is Jesus’ promise that in Heaven there are mansions and streets paved with gold. The old hymn, Dwelling in Beulah Land, speculates that residents of Heaven will be living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky; drinking at the fountain, that never shall run dry; and feasting on the mana from a bountiful supply. I suppose there will be endless picnics (without any ants), barbecues, etc. An old stereotype is angels with wings flying around above clouds and playing harps. A child asks if his dog