X-Message-Number: 810
Date: 06 May 92 08:29:42 EDT
From: Steve Bridge <>
Subject: Michael Paulle rantings

TO: Kevin

Response to #802, Alcor Board Games

     Okay, Michael, we'll make this one public.

     Three  times  now  you have done something  that  deeply  offends  my 
sensibilities  as  a  writer,  as  a former  English  teacher,  and  as  a 
cryonicist on this net.  You have editorialized on events which no one has 
actually  reported and you fail to clearly report them yourself.   In  all 
three  cases, you have acted as if everyone on the net has already  --  by 
some  supernatural  means,  I suppose -- heard  the  same  information  or 
attended  the same events as you.  This is not only insulting in  implying 
that  if  we don't already know, we must be completely out of it;  but  is 
also  deeply  confusing to most of the readers on this network  who  don't 
personally  know  the  participants and can't read  between  your  tangled 
lines.

     #1.   Message  #699 - The Bold Beat The Cold.   Your  initial  letter 
about  the possible move to Phoenix/Scottsdale.  You failed to  note  that 
this  was  at the regularly scheduled monthly open meeting  of  the  Alcor 
Board  of  Directors in Riverside, and not at some local  meeting  in  New 
York.  Many of the people on this network are not Alcor members or are not 
on "the inside" and do not automatically know what your travel plans are.

     Shortly into your editorial you state

>The board listened for several hours to repeated expressed concerns about 
>a quick decision to offer on the new building.

     Since  this was the first mention on the network that Alcor was  even 
LOOKING at a new building, I'm sure that many people were confused.  Sure, 
current  Alcor  members had just received a mailing about  the  Scottsdale 
building  a few days before, but this net is not just for  Alcor  members.  
Many people are just becoming interested in cryonics and trying to  figure 
out what is going on.

     #2.  Message #759.   You begin with:

>Now that the building in Scottsdale is gone, it's obvious how right Keith 
>Henson was.

     I guess you assumed that Dave Pizer simultaneously called everyone on 
the  net to explain that "the building was gone" and how it happened.  YOU 
certainly  did not explain it and most people were left  wondering,  "What 
the hell is he talking about?"  I was a bit stunned myself.

     When you are the FIRST to report on something, you owe it to the rest 
of us to actually do some reportage.  What, when, where, who, how.   Basic 
journalism,  basic  high  school paper writing.  It is very  bad  form  to 
editorialize  on  an event which has not yet been reported, and  it  blurs 
whatever  message you have.  Your messages are already blurred  enough  by 
your purple prose and meandering introductions.

     #3.   Your  most  recent  gem, #802.  You start  out  by  calling  it 
"Another View" when we haven't had a first view yet.  At least you mention 
(half  way through the message) that this was the monthly  Alcor  meeting.  
That is minor progress.  But the reportage still fails in the face of your 
onslaught of insults and stereotypes.

     I  often  have disagreements with Alcor's Board as a whole  and  with 
individual Board members, including Carlos.  But your apparent division of 
Alcor  into  sneaks, wimps, and the occasional champion  of  justice  (Don 
Quixote de la Paulle) misses any understanding of not just cryonicists but 
of human beings in general.  It IS possible for people to disagree without 
being  either  sneaks  or champions.  It is possible for  people  to  lose 
political fights without being wimps.  Michael, you who constantly  berate 
cryonicists  for  not  being  cooperative, do you  not  witness  your  own 
divisiveness, your own unwillingness to compromise or be cooperative?  

     Cryonicists,  even  more  than most humans,  tend  to  be  political, 
egotistical  (at least to the point of always assuming their own  position 
is  correct), and outspoken.  You fit right in.  However, the  cryonicists 
on  the Board of Directors and many others in leadership roles  have  also 
learned  to consider the needs of the membership as a whole and the  needs 
of  the patients in their custody.  This does not prevent  some  political 
maneuvering  or  even  power  plays any more than it  does  in  any  other 
organization  dedicated to change.  But it does allow us to keep going  in 
the  face  of  disagreement and to maintain some  semblance  of  civilized 
discussion in public.

     Your  disagreements with Board decisions or with  Carlos's  decisions 
deserve to be discussed.  But the STYLE of your writing does disservice to 
the  cause of truth, to the individuals involved, to the readers  of  this 
network, and to your own ideas.

     Steve Bridge
     Alcor Indiana

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=810