X-Message-Number: 24689
From: 
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:18:41 EDT
Subject: Ben's comments etc

Concerning CI president Ben Best's comments today (Wednesday Sep.  22):
 
In principle, everybody piously says he favors peace, good will, and  

cooperation, harmony and love. The practice is a different story, because in  
many 
cases the unspoken qualifier is "on my terms."
 
Many years ago Mike Darwin accused CI of fraud--in the full moral and  legal 
sense--because our prices were too low. At that time, we had one  patient--my 
mother--and Mike predicted with great confidence and scornful  language that 
CI would go broke if we ever got more than a few patients and  didn't raise 
prices. Well, we now have 66 patients, and our price is unchanged  in dollars, 
and much lower in inflation-adjusted terms, while Alcor's prices  have risen 
even further.
 
Not everybody at Alcor, by any means, concurred with Mike's view, or with  

his intemperate language--but no one at Alcor took issue with him, at least in
public. That situation, in a less extreme version, persists today with Waynick 
 and the more responsible people at Alcor.  
 
I disagree with Ben that my comments have been "incendiary," although some  
systems, such as nitroglycerine, may require only a small shock to cause an  
explosion. I have expressed indignation, but without immoderate language or  

outrageous demands. I am all sweet reason, although my fuse is shortening. The
"bad cop" could get much badder, believe me.
 
I remind Ben that good will is not just a matter of a smile or a handshake,  
but of specific actions over time. If you have to negotiate, it's all bull.  

Negotiation in and of itself is very nearly an admission that both parties will
 be looking for excuses and loopholes. If a simple agreement won't work, then 
 very likely nothing will. At this point, Mr. Waynick has offered nothing 
except  demands that we stop defending ourselves.
 
Ben's time, as he says, is valuable--mine too, believe it or not--and I  

regret "causing" him discomfort. I put "causing" in quotation marks because  if

someone is soaked by a fire hose, you should blame the fire or the  arsonist and
not the fireman. Alcor set the fire long ago, and  has fed the flames ever 
since, in varying degree from time to  time. I believe this has cost lives and 
set back cryonics as a whole. 
 
When I was president of CI, I was sometimes overruled by the Board. Ben has  
no desire to be a dictator either, and I am grateful to him for taking on the  
burden and for the excellent job he has done so far in improving CI. My 

tenure  left most things incomplete, and some wrong. But recognizing your limits

means, among other things, that sometimes you will be wrong, and sometimes you
will be right but nevertheless overruled. That's life.
 
Surely any fool can see that there are good people and good ideas in both  

organizations, and people of good will can disagree on many things. The OBVIOUS
solution, I reiterate, is to make no claims whatsoever about relative merit 
of  organizations, directly or indirectly. Never say you are better, or best. 
Just  say exactly what it is you do, and why, with numbers and specific 

documentation,  and refuse to comment about others. In that way--and in my 
opinion 

ONLY in that  way--can we avoid blame for misunderstandings and for  unnecessary
deaths.
 
Robert Ettinger


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