X-Message-Number: 4038
Date: 18 Mar 95 16:18:55 EST
From: Bob Smart <>
Subject: Facts and Reason: Pro or Con?

> My other grand father (not the one we froze) was a well known psychiatrist
> who in his time was in charge of some of Norway's larger mental
> institutions.
 
So, because your grandfather did something worthy of respect, that means
your shit doesn't stink?  Your grandfather's character and occupation are
irrelevant to your mental health and the worth of your achievements.
 
But while we're on the topic, let's see what else comes along:
 
> I came to the conclusion that protectionism is a threat to life extension
> ...To extend life we have to overcome death...
 
A rambling political manifesto--one which is certainly unlikely to reassure
any government officials who might happen to read it!--and then:
 
> [I have been] proudly and openly...refusing to comply with passport, visa,
> and work permit requirements.
 
If you proudly and openly break the law, then you can proudly and openly
expect to be hunted down and treated like a criminal.  Is it really
necessary for you to drag all of cryonics into your grand and narcissistic
gesture?
 
> I didn't botch it any more than the Jews botched it in WWII.
 
Yes, you most certainly did.  If you don't understand the relationship
between your actions and the situation you're in now, then you're in for a
really rocky life.
 
> Trying to do one's best when one is under a severe and unjust attack is
> better than rolling over and doing nothing.
 
No.  Placing the safety of your patients above your ego is better than
placing them at risk while you spit in the face of the local government.
"Doing one's best" only counts if you're SOLVING problems--not thrashing
around compounding them.
 
> And certainly better than denigrating my attempt as best I can the
> transgressions I have experienced.
 
There it is: transgressions against YOU.  Your stiff-necked refusal to
acknowledge another country's sovereignty is leading toward cremation of
your patients.  That's not principled, romantic, or noble--it's just plain
stupid and outrageously self-absorbed for your patients to be on the line
over your wounded pride and "principles."  You want to make a statement
about visas and immigration control--and by the way, even Norway exercises
control over its borders and keeps track of visiting foreigners, so why
shouldn't the US?--and because of your deliberate ("proud and open," no
less) flouting of the law, now your patients are in this precarious
position.  Now cryonics as a whole may get linked to your adolescent
posturing, and the rest of us are supposed to revere you as some kind of
hero?
 
> I hope that a cryonic group will see the long run value I have to offer...
 
Yeah, the undying enmity of one of the US government's more powerful law
enforcement agencies.  You may have had something of value to contribute,
but by now you've pretty much poisoned the well.  So far, I don't think I
like this "principle" stuff: your implementation of it leaves your patients
at risk and makes you such a pariah that it's even dangerous for other
agencies to become affiliated with you.
 
If you were "improving" and "contributing" to the armaments industry the way
you're "improving" and "contributing" to cryonics, the whole world would be
now and forever at peace.
 
> It was your choice as a nation to select the INS rather than highly
> rational foreignborn innovators like myself.
 
It still isn't clear to me that the choice was incorrect--but in fact, we
have LOADS of innovative foreigners here, all over the place.  If you're
such a hot-shit Ubermensch, how come they can figure out how to stay here
and practice their professions in peace and you got your butt thrown out?
 
As for the "highly rational" part, let's have a look:
 
> My best shot...would be to make a proud and cultivated stand against the
> ...disgraceful concentration camps that now blemish the United States.
 
Oh, yeah, REAL rational.  First of all, if the US is such a terrible
hellhole of oppression, why would any rational person choose to come set up
shop here in the first place, or wish to stay here?  And second, could you
offer the street address or institutional name of one of these
"concentration camps," please?  Do you suppose they're holding Elvis in
there?
 
> I have never heard of Bob Smart or Steven Harris before...
 
And that pretty much sums you up, doesn't it?  You might not have heard of
me, but if you'd done any serious homework about cryonics at all, you'd have
inevitably run across Harris' name somewhere along the way.
 
> I knew what obstacles a local government and a border patrol can cause.
 
So you "proudly and openly" flouted their authority.  This must be more of
that "rationality" stuff?  (Nurse, go very quietly and get the thorazine,
please....)
 
> I also knew that only by standing up...can I in the long run turn the
> population against the government transgressions...
 
That's JUST what governments like to see: foreign nationals with a stated
intent of whipping up the population against the government.  Yeah, THAT
ought to increase the safety of your patients, and the safety of everybody
else's patients as well!

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