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
 


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