X-Message-Number: 1897
Date: 05 Mar 93 07:01:45 EST
From: "Steven B. Harris" <>
Subject: CRYONICS Here She Comes: Miscellaneous..

1) The Nine Million Names of Clarissa:  I really don't care if
Clarissa Wells appears on the birth certificate of the person who
writes under that name, any more than I care the same about
Voltaire.  Pen-names often have less to do with "cowardice" than
they have to do with good sense in times of persecution, and
astuteness in focusing argument on issues rather than person-
alities.  I have for a while had a sneaking suspicion that the
attempt to find out who Clarissa Wells is has been driven in
large part by the frustration of certain people in not being able
to engage in maximally effective ad hominem attacks on her if
they lack this vital information.  Now I see to my disappointment
that even that hasn't hindered the most persistent here on this
forum:  For Heaven's sake, folks-- must I log on to see one of my
fellow cryonicists implying publicly and with some air or
professional authority that somebody else he's never met may be
incapable of relating to others intimately?  Say what?  Frankly,
I'd put that level of discourse on the level of emotional porno-
graphy.  May we please tone this down, before I'm forced to do
what I ordinarily do when I walk in on a husband and wife fight? 
Which is to say, leave as fast as I can?

2) And Every One Members, One of Another:  Why do we talk of
Alcor "members," asks one recent message?  Answer: for the same
reason that we talk to members of an HMO.  It's a commitment. 
It's trust.  It's money.  It's your health.  Signing up for
cryonics isn't easy: the money aspect is often a snap compared
with the emotional cost of confronting one's own mortality for
long enough to think really, really straight and hard about it,
including confronting the images in your mind of just exactly
what is going to happen to you physically eventually if you do
make these arrangements.  After going through all of this and
winning these psychological battles, you're a helluva lot more
emotionally entangled in this organization than if you'd just
joined the Boy Scouts or the Rotarians. 

3) I Guess Anita Hill Never Signed:  Mike Darwin reminds me that
at least one of the issues of coercion that I brought up in my
last message (sexual harassment in the work-place), can be easily
dealt with by means of prior contractual agreement.  Okay., if
society has come to the point that the unwritten rules (social
contracts, if you will) are in flux, fine.   We don't have those
for cryonics, so it might be a good thing to spell them out
meticulously.   If Alcor's contract says they can terminate your
suspension contract at any time at the Director's pleasure
(should you piss off a majority of Directors), then you might
well want to find another organization of comparable technical
skill which takes a longer, less judgmental, and more medical
view of crime, punishment, and major impoliteness to the wrong
people.  And such an option is coming soon, I suspect-- it's only
in the meantime that we're in the lifeboat situation that I spoke
of.

4) The Cryonics Version of Savonarola On a Rolla:  I fully second
Mike's idea that Alcor should not attempt to be the Holly Office
of the Inquisition, offering eternal life to those who tread the
straight gate and the narrow way of organizational righteousness,
and permanent high temperature attitude correction to those who
deviate.  I know this goes against the grain: gosh, what's the
point of having a club if you can't exclude people, anyway?  Arel
Lucas recently spoke of primate wars, but a closer analogy I
think would really be boys in a treehouse (where's that step-
ladder we can pull up?)  Say, can the reason be that so few
cryonicists have children is that so many cryonicists still ARE
children?  Hmmm.

                                          Steve Harris

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