Twilight Zone, youth and beauty

The famous Twilight Zone show had many different episodes on youth and beauty, but the three which are are of great importance to me are 'Number 12 Looks Just Like You', 'Long Live Walter Jameson' and 'Kick the Can'

Number 12 Looks Just Like You tells the story of a homely girl who doesn't want to conform and become one of a number of similar looking models. The transformation is one where your body is changed into an attractive body, and the message is that conformity is intrinsically bad. This is a carrot and stick lesson; here is beauty and you only have to sacrifice your individuality.

I think this is a false dichotomy. There are limitless forms of beauty and physical expression. If you were able to choose your ideal body, people would choose all sorts of bodies. People right now are choosing to transform themselves into facsimiles of cats and lizards, and in an unlimited number of ways with a hundred different modification techniques.

I do not agree with the idea in the episode that a person should be forced to choose a predetermined body, as people unhappy with their body have one that was predetermined for them by genetics, parental behaviors, fate or bad luck.

It should be noted that after her transformation, the main character is happier and more at peace. Being less than ideal and watching beautiful people, I can tell you that beautiful people have it pretty damn good. They are given better jobs/opportunities, are more easily loved*, are more easily forgiven when they mess up, are treated less harshly by the law, leave better first impressions, have a larger array of romantic partners to choose from, and are happier with themselves overall. The myth of beautiful people are in reality very unhappy, is in fact, a myth.

*A lot of 'love' is actually based on physicality, chemistry and superior genetics.

Long Live Walter Jameson tells the tale of an immortal man who wishes to marry a mortal woman. Her father finds out about Walter Jameson's supposed real age, which is over 100, but it is later explained that he is over 2000 years old. The father is none too happy about the arrangement, but there is nothing much he can do. Later after Jameson considers suicide, he is confronted by one of his former wives who has grown old, and she shoots him, which causes him to age rapidly and die. The moral of the story is that immortality ruins other people's lives. In this story, Jameson is immortal physiologically, but not physically.

This story like most on Twilight Zone deals with achieving your dreams then having them smashed to bits right before your eyes. Nice.

My whole belief is that longevity without youthfulness is hell. Better a short (but preferably a long one) and wonderful life in control of all your facilities, instead of a slow painful descent into decrepitude. It is the horror of aging that by the time you become a whole person psychologically, your body begins to give out. That is murhphy's law, and makes you think that if a higher power exists, it is an big jerk.

I believe we will see the reversal of the aging process during the lifespan of genereation X. Personally I am not looking for immortality, merely a new life in a new youthful body which will allow me to experience situations and events I could only dream of in my current form, a life worth dying from.

Surely if this longevity along with youthfulness was achieved there would be birthing pangs; who is allowed to have this knowledge? Who is denied? How much will it cost? What will it do to relationships and the concentration of wealth? These like all questions will be answered when they are answered.

In Kick the Can, a group of old people get the chance to be young again, to live life again. This of all the episodes is closest to my desire; to live life over in an attractive body with the knowledge I have gained throughout my life. This episode is strangely pleasant and supportive of this idea, and mocks an old man for his stubbornness, lack of action and pride in his curmudgeonly lack of faith.

If the world is to do anything, we need some faith that it is possible, and every week we hear of a new technology or method which will allow us to live better, longer, stronger and more healthy lives. That is the prize which Ponce DeLeon Sought so heartily, as do I.