Questionnaire

This is one of those surveys that goes around the blogosphere. However, it's quite a bit more profound than most, and it also significantly predates the internet (perhaps not two unrelated statements). No obligation, of course, but it'd be fun to hear others' answers, too. Snagged it from Confessing Evangelical.

1. Are you really interested in the preservation of the human race once you and all the people you know are no longer alive?
   Yes.
2. State briefly why.
   I'm interested in my future children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. being preserved, too.
3. How many of your children do not owe their existence to deliberate intention?
   One.
4. Whom would you rather never have met?
   If I have met anyone like that, I've apparently blocked the memory of meeting them out of my mind.
5. Are you conscious of being in the wrong in relation to some other person (who need not necessarily be aware of it)? If so, does this make you hate yourself - or the other person?
   Thanks to my bad memory, no. When I am aware of it, I'm more upset about myself.
6. Would you like to have perfect memory?
   Not if it means remembering everything (see 4 and 5). If it meant I could forget what I wanted to forget and remember what I wanted to remember--like paying the bills on time--it could be quite handy.
7. Give the name of a politician whose death through illness, accident, etc. would fill you with hope. Or do you consider none of them indispensible?
   This question doesn't quite make sense. Anyway, I don't wish anyone dead, even accidentally. I might wish some of them to suddenly take up a life as a hermit in Nepal, but that's as far as I'll go.
8. Which person or persons, now dead, would you like to see again?
   My mother and grandmother.
9. Which not?
   Well, I wouldn't really like to see anyone who was still dead here on earth. That'd be freaky.
10. Would you rather have belonged to a different nation (or civilization)? If so, which?
    No. I'm too attached to indoor plumbing and regular bathing.
11. To what age do you wish to live?
    Probably 97. I don't know why. Older than my grandmother, but 100 just seems too trite.
12. If you had the power to put into effect things you consider right, would you do so against the wishes of the majority? (Yes or no)
    Yes. But not everything I considered right. Just respect for the rights of others. Everything else I wouldn't put into effect, even if the majority was on my side.
13. Why not, if you think they are right?
    Why not everything else? Because I think that's beyond the proper power of the state.
14. Which do you find it easier to hate, a group or an individual? And do you prefer to hate individually or as part of a group?
    I don't generally find it easy to hate, probably from a lack of spare emotional energy for it. But if I have to, I think person-to-person hatred would fit me best. Groups are too vague to genuinely hate and I don't like going along with a group to do things.
15. When did you stop believing you could become wiser - or do you still believe it? Give your age.
    I certainly hope I can still become wiser than I am at the age of twenty-six.
16. Are you convinced by your own self-criticism?
    Depends on what it is. But I think I am for the most part.
17. What in your opinion do others dislike about you, and what do you dislike about yourself?
    Others dislike my capacity for self-absorption (not as in talking about myself all the time, just getting totally lost in whatever I'm doing and not noticing the needs of others) and my carelessness. I agree with them in theory, but not always enough to change.
18. If not the same thing, which do you find it easier to excuse?
    See above.
19. Do you find the thought that you might never have been born (if it ever occurs to you) disturbing?
    It does occur to me, but it doesn't really disturb me. I wouldn't exist to miss it. It's just everyone else who would have missed out. ;-)
20. When you think of someone dead, would you like him to speak to you, or would you rather say something more to him?
    I would think someone already dead would have the more useful knowledge to impart. Like what it's like to die.
21. Do you love anybody?
    Yes.
22. How do you know?
    I get more upset by the harm suffered by them than by the related inconvenience to me.
23. Let us assume that you have never killed another human being. How do you account for it?
    I've been told a battalion of angels rides around my car. That's probably the only thing that's done it.
24. What do you need in order to be happy?
    A good night's sleep, a good meal, and DOB and D1.
25. What are you grateful for?
    Let's not get too sappy here. Far more things than you all would want to read through.
26. Which would you rather do: die or live on as a healthy animal? Which animal?
    Die, of course. Ugh.