X-Message-Number: 2292
From:	Ben Best <>
Date:	Wed, 2 Jun 1993 20:00:00 -0400
Subject: CRYONICS:honesty/openness


                CRYONICS: HONESTY AND OPENNESS

    Since the Memorial Weekend Cryonics Conference I have been stewing
over a lot of "should-have-saids". The only one I want to address on
CryoNet relates to the question Charles Platt raised about "how much
honesty" should be used in writing about cryonics.

    I reacted to his question by expressing concern about the lack of
openness I am seeing in CRYONICS magazine. Ironically, the first example
that pops to mind is the "Up Front" statement (page 2 of the May
CRYONICS) that Charles Platt is no longer excerpting and compiling
CryoNet because of his new job as Alcor Public Relations Representative.
(Didn't he tell us on CryoNet that he was quitting compilation because
of his frustration with complaints about his editing?) Worse, we spent
time at the Conference openly discussing a difficult case involving an
Alcor member -- and Alcor people have decided that nothing of this case
will appear in CRYONICS.

     There are many "secrets" in the cryonics community, and it takes a
while to learn as many as I have learned. In my early days of writing in
CANADIAN CRYONICS NEWS, I incurred much hostility for writing of such
"secrets" -- despite the fact that no one had ever informed me that they
were "secrets". (For example, I was expected to know that a "noted
cryobiologist" -- who frequented cryonics activities -- did not want his
name mentioned in association with cryonics.) I have become more
"discreet" and now have a policy of never writing about anything I am
explicitly asked not to write about. Also, I often try to guess what
people don't want written.

     Despite the fact that Mike Darwin has almost personified honesty
and openness in cryonics (earning great respect from me and others), I
have no trouble seeing his limits. He often melodramatizes, and once
deleted an "offensive" sentence while "quoting" me in CRYONICS magazine
(no ellipsis indicated). Curtis Henderson claims that a former activist
in Alcor New York -- who went so far as to get an EMT -- is no longer an
activist, simply because Mike Darwin tore a strip out of him for not
shaving during the Boston suspension.

    Justifications for not being fully open go beyond not offending
people by disclosing their "secrets" or by personal attack. In an
earlier CryoNet message I criticized Allen Lopp for giving information
about the BC anti-cryonics bureaucrats to California legislators. To the
extent that cryonics is at war with governments, it is dangerous to give
"military intelligence" to our enemies.

    But Charles Platt was asking for guidelines from the cryonics
community -- guidelines he would use in writing his book about cryonics.
I am still concerned that cryonicists not become used car salespeople in
promoting our product. The problems with the workability of cryonics can
be very great, and to ignore them will not escape unnoticed by
intelligent readers. Problems for which we have found clever solutions
will excite interest. Problems for which we have not found solutions may
be intriguing if they seem puzzling, but solvable. Problems that are
not essential to the workability of cryonics for most people could
probably be ignored. Problems associated with historical mistakes
(like Chatsworth) should be discussed in the context of steps that are
being taken to prevent recurrence. (Chatsworth should NOT be ignored,
in my opinion -- to do so risks the appearance of cover-up).

      I wish I could say more by way of advice to Charles, because I
feel badly that during the Conference I channeled the discussion away
from answering his question in the context of the book he is writing.
Perhaps others can say more.

      I have other thoughts about the Memorial Weekend Cryonics
Conference that will appear in CANADIAN CRYONICS NEWS.

              -- Ben Best (ben.best%)
--



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