X-Message-Number: 2857 From: (Thomas Donaldson) Subject: CRYONICS:re: cryonics: #2851-#2855 Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 01:03:40 -0700 (PDT) To Mike: There does seem to be a problem in Australia. Several people, all cryonicists, who are there have found Robert very hard to deal with. I do not make this statement with the aim of leaving any implications about WHY this happens, but just to state a fact. Personally I hope very much that this problem can somehow be settled. Since the number of cryonicists in Australia is so small, it's even more damaging for them to have a falling out. Second: so far as I understand what Cosenza is saying, he's not against hiring noncryonicists. He's against putting them in controlling positions in the cryonics organizations. That's very different from relying on them for their expertise and desire to practice that expertise. But maybe I haven't followed this controversy closely enough, I admit. To the issue of State's Rights: All of American history since was affected by this Civil War. When I was in Australia, I learned of an incident in Australian history that casts a quite different slant on it. It seems that at one time Western Australia wanted to secede. To which, the response of the rest of Australia was: fine, goodby and good luck. The point I'm making is that even the phrase "State's Rights" has taken on connotations in the US which don't belong to it if you parse the words as a foreigner unaware (because uncaring) of all the history behind it. Why SHOULDN'T states be allowed to secede? If I understand the state of the US Constitution at the time, it was NOT clear at all that states had no such right. And right now we live in a time in which the Federal US government has taken over more and more of the decisions for all lesser forms of government ie states, counties, cities, etc. Do we really want this? Is this even what Lincoln himself worked for? I will also say that many of these "political principles" in EVERY country I've ever been somehow manage to be cited when expedient, and forgotten when inexpedient. I can see studying politics to understand how people REALLY act, but as a source of any kind of valid philosophy it is and has been quite absurd. Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson () Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2857