X-Message-Number: 982
Date: 13 Jul 92 16:40:33 EDT
From: Charles Platt <>
 
To CRYONET:
 
In response to Thomas's question, yes, Michael Paulle *was* a 
suspension member for a while. He also paid dues to the NY 
chapter. (Because Alcor has never established written 
guidelines for chapters, it is theoretically possible for 
someone to be a member of a chapter while not being a member 
of Alcor--which I guess is Michael Paulle's current, odd, 
position. Having mentioned this, I guess we will now see a 
couple of people immediately demanding that the man should be 
thrown out of the New York group. To which I respond: How? Do 
we call the police, or what?) 
 
It has been suggested that rather than throwing people out, 
Alcor could refuse to accept certain people as members in the 
first place. But on what basis? Criminal record? Bad credit 
rating? I think this idea is really foolish. It makes Alcor 
into an authoritarian organization and threatens people, in 
effect, with denial of life. Whatever happened to those great 
libertarian ideals of openness and freedom? 
 
I am very, very depressed by the tendency that I see here to 
clamp down, deny, restrict, and control. It is so incredibly 
easy to lose sight of an ideal. It is very hard ever to get 
it back. The US Constitution is a fine document whose 
provisions have been eroded to the point where some of them 
now seem irretrievable. Surely everyone understands this? In 
which case, can't we learn from it?
 
For a couple of weeks, Michael Paulle was going around 
saying, "This is the organization that once said they would 
have frozen Adolf Hitler. But some of them want to throw me 
out. I guess that makes me worse than Hitler." 
 
Doesn't anyone see that merely by *talking* in authoritarian 
terms, you run the risk of triggering a response in people 
and damaging the image of the organization? I am not excusing 
Michael Paulle for acting impulsively and foolishly, maybe 
even dangerously. But I believe that some of his actions 
could certainly have been avoided if he had been dealt with 
in a more thoughtful way. 
 
Let us please calm down. Let us please *not* print notices in 
*Cryonics* magazine advising people, "Don't talk to Michael 
Paulle!" Let us simply use a little more general discretion 
and caution in discussing details of upcoming suspensions. 
That is really all we need to do. 
 
Incidentally, this prudence applies at all levels. Recently, 
one of the people who works full-time at Riverside casually 
mentioned to me the name of the member from Southern 
California who was frozen a few weeks ago. This was 
confidential information and should never have been given 
out. The fact that it happened so easily and casually 
suggests to me that it may happen at other times, too. 
 
--Charles Platt 

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