Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site lems.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!wjh12!foxvax1!brunix!lems!dcab From: dcab@lems.UUCP (Dick Bulterman) Newsgroups: net.college,net.misc Subject: Re: Suicide Pills at Brown Univ. Message-ID: <137@lems.UUCP> Date: Mon, 22-Oct-84 14:19:34 EST Article-I.D.: lems.137 Posted: Mon Oct 22 14:19:34 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 28-Oct-84 06:38:23 EST References: <677@pucc-i> Reply-To: dcab@lems.UUCP (Dick Bulterman) Organization: lems Lines: 29 Summary: Being a faculty member at Brown (and having been a graduate student here, too) allow me to give a local opinion of 'the Pill' issue. First, I'll aviod a remark concerning the Austin-Providence comparison (it is enough to note that when you LEAVE Providence, you are within striking distance of Newport, Boston, New York -- even Central Falls! -- but when you leave Austin, you are still in Texas). As for stocking suicide pills, the issue is really one of comparative lunacy. Readers seem to get quite upset about a group of students opting for obvious death (via the pills) on an individual level, but are very casual about debating the relative merrits of group suicide (one need only read the discourse on the effectiveness of the B-52 vs. the B-1 bombers in net.avaition). While avoiding the topic of 'how much weaponry is enough for REAL defense versus HYPED defense -- or offense,' one should come to terms with the reality that the weapons we build, stockpile, and export (as well as the weapons the Russians build, stockpile, and export) are themselves suicide pills of a more frightening dimension, since they remove the subject's freedom of choice on whether she/he chooses to participate in their use. The issue is not the pills themselves -- Brown is a small school, but even here a queue of 5K undergraduates waiting for pills could take longer then 18 minutes to service. (graduate students may demand their own supply, but one might suspect that medical students already HAVE their pills stockpiled, just in case!) The issue is one of bring the obvious home to a level where it can be understood in real, personal terms, rather than in a count of today's total of war-heads. (no personal responses, s.v.p. -- especially from Texans, all of whom are probably bigger than I am!)