X-Message-Number: 1358 Date: 25 Nov 92 23:04:38 EST From: Charles Platt <> Subject: CRYONICS To: Kevin Brown Every time I see that the Cryonet mailblast is in two sections, rather than one, I begin to dread the inevitable: another massive, indigestible lump of Hensonage. Keith is a dedicated man, and I hope I live long enough to give as much to cryonics as he has. At the same time, as yet another helping of Hensonage scrolls up my screen, I confess I feel a certain degree of impatience, because I can be virtually certain that at no point will the Hensonage ever concede one grain of truth or validity in the material to which it is responding. It is, in fact, a formidable exercise in denial. As a bravura performance repeated on a regular basis, this rouses my admiration. But does it actually do anything? By the look of it, the Hensonage is intended to reassure people that Everything Is Absolutely Okay. Is this effect actually achieved? I mean, does anyone sit back and say: "Wow, Keith, these nutty trouble-makers had me worried, but you've really set my mind at rest! Thanks, pal, for helping me to sleep soundly at night!" Incidentally, Hensonage makes use of an email technique which (so far) has no name. It can be defined as, "To quote the text which one is refuting at excessive length, so as to make one's own message seem more rigorous, even-handed, and weighty than it really is." I think we need a word to describe this. Does anyone have any suggestions? One last point ... the most recent Hensonage claims 60 percent average annual growth in the Patient Care "Trust" Fund, while coyly avoiding any explanation of how this remarkable rate was achieved. The credulous reader is left to conclude that shrewd money management must have been involved. Is anyont in Cryonet really foolish enough to fall for this? I would be interested to know. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1358