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Chain mail to make you sick.

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I recieved a chain letter today which threatened me with death if I didn't send it on to ten people. It was like this: They presented three "cases" one was about a person who deleted the email. Her fiancee died. The next was about a person who only sent it to seven people. She was killed in a car crash. The last was about a person who sent it to the required number of people and lived happily ever after. There followed a sappy poem about seizing the day.

How common are these sorts of e-mails? I have gotten some before, but none quite this disgusting. From an Objectivist view, I couldn't believe how disgusting it was. It preys on people's fear of death to get them to pass on the fear to their friends. I deleted it at once, of course. Has anyone ahd any experience with these kinds of letters? Do people usually send them? :D

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I recieved a chain letter today which threatened me with death if I didn't send it on to ten people. It was like this: They presented three "cases" one was about a person who deleted the email. Her fiancee died. The next was about a person who only sent it to seven people. She was killed in a car crash. The last was about a person who sent it to the required number of people and lived happily ever after. There followed a sappy poem about seizing the day.
Maybe this is just me, but wouldn't it be rational for those who did least to get punished most?
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Maybe this is just me, but wouldn't it be rational for those who did least to get punished most?

Yes, but that only distracts from the fact that it is somehow immoral to not send a chain letter. It would be rational to punish people if it were in fact immoral but it isn't. Unless you are referring to the one who deleted it and the one who only sent it to seven? In that case, maybe the writer considered losing a loved one worse than losing one's own life. But I think that is giving this email more thought than it deserves.

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Yes, but that only distracts from the fact that it is somehow immoral to not send a chain letter. It would be rational to punish people if it were in fact immoral but it isn't. Unless you are referring to the one who deleted it and the one who only sent it to seven? In that case, maybe the writer considered losing a loved one worse than losing one's own life. But I think that is giving this email more thought than it deserves.

Perhaps you could actually take it as a threat, but since it is only informing you of some sort of case specific illusory correlation, perhaps you should ask the originator for some more statistically significant data on people who do and do not send on the letter. It is important to be rigorous when attending to probabilities. You could also simply thank the originator for giving you some free scrap paper as well as proving that the postal service is up to snuff.

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Was this in the postal mail or e-mail?  Either way I can't imagine it being a serious threat.  Throw it out, delete it, and move on.  Frankly, I think this topic itself is making a big deal out of nothing :)

I'm sorry, I must not have made myself clear. I do not consider it a serious threat, just a rather disgusting bit of spam. I am not concerned with the actual story of the message, but rather the sort of philosophy one would have to have in order to write it. There's all sorts of more disgusting things out there yes, but this one happened upon me and I wanted to hear some thoughts.

As for moving on, this thread is a lot less interesting than I thought it might be. Admins, feel free to remove it. :D

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I don't understand chain letters at all. I mean, the letter had to start at some point — how could its author be talking about what happened to those who didn't forward it?

You will never understand chain letters as long as you assume their authors are telling the truth.

"Don't bother to examine a folly; ask only what it accomplishes."

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I'm sorry, I must not have made myself clear. I do not consider it a serious threat, just a rather disgusting bit of spam. I am not concerned with the actual story of the message, but rather the sort of philosophy one would have to have in order to write it. There's all sorts of more disgusting things out there yes, but this one happened upon me and I wanted to hear some thoughts.

As for moving on, this thread is a lot less interesting than I thought it might be. Admins, feel free to remove it.  :)

Well, if you want to delve deeper into the issue, it could be done. I do not know what kind of person would start a chain letter....they're probably curious as to how far it will get. And everyone that receieves it is mainly driven by *fear* of the content of the post (meaning, they seriously think they will die if they don't send it), or they are sending it just to find some sense of humour, however disgusting.

When I was little, 10 or so, I sent a couple online because it guaranteed happiness with a loved one. If I didn't send it, it said I would be unhappy in relationships for 15 years! very intriguinng for a youngster! At current time, I find them rather annoying.

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