KH To live longer is an even stronger instinct than keeping up with the Joneses.
AC Maybe living longer than the Jones is the new status good.
But of course! Arthur has put his finger on it precisely. However, I must claim joint-ownership of this insight . . .
. . . because, just before I woke up this morning, I had been dreaming of the Egyptian Pharoahs and their pyramids -- of the vast treasures, food, household goods, relatives, servants and others who were buried with them inside -- supposedly to serve them in the afterlife. As I dressed I thought also of the incredible tombs of the Chinese Emperors of similar periods in their civilisation when they were buried alongside the loveliest concubines and indescribable wealth, of the English Bronze Age king buried at Sutton Hoo in his ship with his richest goods and ornaments, of the princes and princesses of Mongolia buried with their best horses and beautiful accoutrements. There must have been thousands of such instances when big kings and little kings were buried in splendour throughout Eurasia in respective civilisations and smaller-scale principalities.
Of course, these ancient chieftains didn't really think that they were physically going to live forever! They were as intelligent as we are. They knew of the finality of the bodily lifespan, despite mummification in many instances. (The fact that someone would extract their internal organs and stuffed their insides with packing material gave the game away!) But this was the ultimate projection of status. Also, knowing that a subsequent Pharoah or Emperor wouldn't give tuppence for their own reign and reputation, they started building their pyramids and tombs for years beforehand to public acclaim and wonder -- long before they had any expectation of dying. The construction of such edifices and the cost of construction, collected from their common subjects, must have been of the greatest status satisfaction. (Of course, they might also have thought that they were going to survive in a spiritual way -- as most people do today, so the polls tell us -- but that's a separate manifestation of our imaginative frontal cortex.)
Thousands of individuals have had replacement organs today in the developed countries. Hundreds -- if not thousands --- of poor Indians have actually sold one of their kidneys to those who can afford them via the offices of surgeons of dubious moral and scientific credentials. A replacment heart or lung or liver is not yet a status good today for the rich because perfect tissue match is never achieved and there are always rejection complications. But it certainly will be when these problems are overcome -- or, rather, evaded -- by using one's own stem cells to grow a new organ.
But, once again, those who will receive perfect replacement organs will know -- just as the Pharoahs did -- that they are still not going to live forever. They'll just be buying a few more years before some other, and inevitably untreatable, disease sets in. But, meanwhile, they will be able to consolidate their status in their community and continue to enjoy the power and fruits thereof.
KH
Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England
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