Life must have adversity. If nothing else, we can use it to tell when life is good as a contrast. But adversity is a stimulus in our society; it makes use strive to fix things and make things better. The more adversity, the more we strive. Some people can't handle it, but that's just one end of the spectrum.

Death doesn't bother me. Let me rephrase that: the thought of my dying doesn't bother me. Part of it is that I won't care about anything after I'm dead. No concept of an afterlife, so for me death is the final rest. No cares, no worries, nothing. Now, a slow and painful death is not the way I'd like to go. But even then, once you're dead it doesn't matter how you died.

This doesn't mean that I'm suicidal or reckless. I have a well developed sense of self preservation and I depend on it to keep me out of doing really stupid and dangerous things. This also doesn't mean that I won't mourn other people dying. That's part of human nature -- it's hard not to be affected when someone close to you dies.

Anyway, death promotes change. The old guard dies, the next generation takes the forefront. Change occurs. New people bring new perspectives, new ideas and new conceptions. Doesn't mean that old people, with their experience and wisdom, are a bad thing. But immortality would be a bad thing. Very high life expectancy would be a bad thing, although the definition of "very high" will vary.

Our society is built on competition. We try to structure our laws and morality to favor the hardworking, the successful, the aggressive people. Those are the people that advance society and improve the world. There will always be poor people, that's just the nature of things. You have winners and you have losers, but that's a definitional thing. I don't think I need to be rich and/or famous to be a winner. I just want to be happy, and I am. Most of the time.

There is some evil in the world. Some bad people. People who would intentionally hurt other people to get what they want. There are a great many criminals, but few evil people. And although those evil people strengthen us by being an adversity, we still must strive to wipe out that element of humanity.

I think that if it came down to it, I'd sacrifice three good people to get one bad person. It is my belief that there are many good people, few bad, so if getting the few bad means that some of the good must suffer, so be it.

I should be prepared to be sacrificed for the greater good, although frankly I'm not. Don't have a will or contingency plans in case of my death. But if I was taken hostage, say, I'd want the police to make sure the bad guy doesn't get away, even if I'm killed in the process. As I said, once I'm dead, I won't care how I got there.

We live in a society that places too high a value on life. But that's an opinion I have the luxury of having, since I don't have the power to do anything about it. If I were the President, I'd have a different philosophy. The more people you are responsible for, the more conservative you need to be. The weird philosophies that I have are great as long as it stays personal.