[extropy-chat] THE WTA IS ROTTEN FROM THE TOP

[Jose Cordeiro]

    Dear friends,
   
       I am writing to let you know that I am withdrawing my candidacy for the WTA Board. Regardless all my time and dedication, I have seen things in the WTA getting worse instead of getting better. The double standards, unethical practices, financial mismanagement, political recrimination, lack of transparency, immoral behavior and blatantly open lies of some of its leaders have been enough for me. Please, I urge to go over the WTA Board files that are open to paying members, and see for yourself.
       The drop that finally tilted the glass is the double morality exposed by some directors in order not to expulse Mr. D
 Medvedev, who has defended Stalin because of “his overall contribution is overwhelmingly positive” regardless of “a significant number of people were executed and a large number starved in a drought”. Some WTA Board members want to keep him because “he is The webmaster of the Russian Transhumanist Movement” and “he is an excellent translator of technical, transhumanist ideas between his Native language and English”. This shows a total lack of respect for human lives, freedom and human values, not only from Mr. D
 Medvedev but from some of the current WTA Board members, whose view is simply not compatible with humanism, and even les with the transhumanist ideas that I believe we have to strive for.
       I wish that was all. However, after telling many consecutive lies, James Hughes has been deleting my messages to the lists, and not just my messages, without giving any notice. In his typical Stalinist fashion, James Hughes has lied about how and why he censored the messages, but that is nothing new about his behavior of the people he dislikes. Nonetheless, Mr. D
 Medvedev and his support of Stalin is just moderated and not expelled, unlike other people before who supported the Nazis, for example. Well, the news is that Mr. D
 Medvedev now also told us about a strategy for the Nazis and how the WTA should create "a vision of racially pure superhumans” to attact them as well.
       James Hughes has been abusing his power constantly, including when he self nominated and appointed himself Executive Director in the WTA Board meeting in Oxford in 2004. He cleverly wrote to sets of minutes after the meeting, the original where he was not elected Executive Director, and a later one where he was supposedly appointed unanimously. However, there was never such an election, and even less an unanimous decision, since I certainly did not vote, and even less for him. Nonetheless, James Hughes is a clever writer of minutes, and so he wrote later what he wanted, even against reality and other people’s objections.
       Financially, James Hughes oversaw losing $ 7,000 in the Canada meeting, even though he always said it was a small quantity, but even now the figure is not really known. First he said, it was “only” $ 3,000, then it grew to $ 5,000 and later he said it should be around $ 7,000. From 2004 to today, however, we don’t even have the final number. Harvey Newstrom, then a WTA Director, said that the financial management of the WTA was basically so sloppy that it might not pass any auditing process. That is why James Hughes has been constantly refusing the audit that I have proposed, even a free audit with no cost to the WTA. That sounds unbelievable, but true. And in 2005, James Hughes transferred close to $ 5,000 sponsor money to Africa instead of buying tickets for the supposedly African participants to TV05. Yes, James Hughes is responsible for losing at least $ 12,000 from its members and sponsors. Maybe that is why he has been constantly delaying the audit, but members should
 ask why to give money to the WTA to end like this.
       James Hughes also adores to love his enemies, and he has many. He never published any of my extensive writings in the IEET webpage when I was a fellow, and then he threw me out because I am an “underdeveloped right-winger”, as he told me in Madrid last year. He has called Joseph Bloch a “recalcitrant neocon”, he does “hate that bitch” of Natasha Vita-More and many other comments about people who do not agree with him. Apparently he sees the world in black and white, either you are with him or against him. That is curious for a socialist who also hates Bush very deeply. One interesting description of James Hughes wrong ideas, without considering all his personal hatred, was clearly pointed out by Ronald Baily in Reason, so please take another look: www.reason.com/rb/rb051105.shtml. But you should really read the book to get the flavor of how much he hates the Extropy Institute, Max More and so many other transhumanists who don’t agree with him.
      Because of all the problems that James Hughes has had with so many people, we in the WTA Board gave him a one year trial period to see how he behaved. If you see the results, it has been a real disaster: more hatred, more problems, more bad talk. James Hughes has brought divisions to our little community instead of union and harmony. Maybe that is why he unilaterally declared last year that the WTA was not an umbrella organization of the transhumanist movement. Not only it is not an umbrella now, but it is driven by socialist ideas in a Stalinist manner. Anyone who disagrees with him will suffer hell, or just ask Harvey Newstrom, Eliezer Yudkowsky or Bruce Klein, or so many others before them. And so many others after me, because James Hughes will continue, it is in his nature: like the scorpion who will hurt anyone including himself. These problems did not start with me, and they will certainly continue as long as the unethical self-appointed and un-ratified Executive Director
 stays there. The reality is that James Hughes is becoming more of a liability than an asset to the WTA.
       I hope that you do not simply take my words for any of this, please, verify directly the WTA Board files, or contact me directly. It is very sad, but true. Nonetheless, I can gladly say that I will keep working on transhumanist ideas, because I believe in them, regardless of some rotten apples in the WTA Board. We transhumanists are so few, and we have to work together as opposed to be driven by totalitarian individuals, with political agendas, unethical behavior and double standards.
       Transhumanistically yours,
   
       La vie est belle!
       Jose
  
Joseph Bloch <transhumanist at goldenfuture.net> wrote:
    mike99 wrote:

>Joseph,
>You missed the point of my message.
> 
>

Not at all. I grasped the point of your message perfectly. I simply 
disagreed with it.


>Now Joseph, do you know of anyone from, let's say, the far-right who offers
>the same combination of useful skills as Danila?
> 
>

You yourself said that DNAGod2000 (much as I might loathe and despise 
him and his message), aka Marcus Eugenicus, aka Marc Harris leads a 
"quasi-transhumanist cult". That strikes me as an effort that requires a 
certain combination of useful skills. He has a very well-developed 
website, and I daresay his organizational skills are exceptional. (I 
would say the same about den Otter, although he is somewhat less 
offensive and cultivates an air of respectability, inasmuch as he 
doesn't seem to promote the anti-Semetic rhetoric that Marc Harris 
does.) If he can found an organization, attract people to him, and get 
stuff done, all the while droning on about how Hitler was right, I fail 
to see how he is any worse than Danila, who drones on about how Stalin 
was a good man, and whose skill set is somewhat less.

Are you saying we should attempt to cultivate Marc Harris as a member, 
hoping he grows out of his virulent neo-Nazism, because he has evinced 
some success in his endeavors?

Of course not. He and his message are just as offensive as Danila and 
his message, and the fact that both of them could be seen as being 
marginally useful in no way makes up for the taint that an association 
with them would bring to the WTA as an organization.

Joseph
   
          Date:  Tue, 10 Jan 2006 22:36:34 -0500    From:  "Joseph Bloch" <transhumanist at goldenfuture.net>  View Contact Details   Add Mobile Alert     To:  "World Transhumanist Association Discussion List" <wta-talk at transhumanism.org>, "WTA Board of Directors List" <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>    Subject:  [wtaboard] Re: [wta-talk] IMMEDIATE EXPULSION OF DANILA   [input]   [input]   [input]   [input]  
  
Hughes, James J. wrote:    >>Unfortunately, because the leftist political leanings of   >>James Hughes and Nick Bostrom, it just took longer to condemn   >>the communist and socialist murderers.   >>      >>  >  >I understand that the Bolivarian Revolution has placed you under a   great  >deal of stress, but I really must take exception to this absurd  >accusation. Nick can speak for myself, but your repeated suggestion   that  >I have not moved to expel Danila because I am a "leftist" or a  >"Communist sympathizer" is baseless and quite ludicrous.   >    I do not presume to speak for Jose, but I will point out that the fact   that a double standard exists within the WTA is neither baseless nor   ludicous. It is also self-evident that you (as a result of your   self-admitted political leanings) are largely responsible for that   double standard.    You are, by your own admission, a Socialist (of the "Democratic"   stripe,   but a Socialist nonetheless; I confess I find the notion
 that the   proletariat has voted to redistribute my property not so much worse   than   the oligarchs have decided to do so, but I digress).    You have, to date, dealt harshly and with dispatch when racist or   racialist elements have attempted to insinuate themselves within the   WTA   (and rightly so). And yet, you have dealt relatively lightly with our   resident USSR apologist. You claim that it is not because you are a   leftist or a Communist sympathizer, but you have yet to provide an   alternative explanation for your foot-dragging. Can you honestly claim   that Marc Harris (aka DNAGod2000) or Dalibor van den Otter would have   gotten so many chances? Of course not, yet our resident USSR apologist   has been spewing his bile for months and months, picking up exactly   where he left off once his moderation was lifted (and the explanation   for why that was done, when there was a motion before the Board to   terminate his rights to post at all, is still awaited).    The
 simple fact is you don't seem to see Communism (because it is so   closely associated with the Socialism you profess) as offensive as   racism, and thus you don't treat it as harshly. It is precisely that   double-standard, wherein the excesses of the Left get a pass while the   excesses of the Right are excoriated, which has no place in a   supposedly   "apolitical" organization. You do the WTA a disservice by indulging   your   personal political preferences.    One has to look no farther than the recent vote amongst the WTA board   to   condemn totalitarianism. When I suggested that we should pass a   statement that would "formulate a broad, yet effective, policy against   totalitarianism and authoritarianism, regardless if it comes from Left   or Right", your response was to formulate a statement that endorsed   State control of the economy. And then to proceed to compare me to   Joseph McCarthy for daring to point that out. Eventually the version   offered by Dr. Bostrom made
 no mention of left or right was adopted,   but   the fact remains that we have explicitly condemned right-wing extremism   (twice!) but never left-wing extremism.    Other examples are rife.    You claim you are not biased in favor of the Left. I say the evidence   says otherwise. You harbor an immense double-standard, which is   reflected in every aspect of your oversight of the WTA, and which makes   a mockery of its claim to be an organization without a political   agenda.   You once said to me that the WTA should be whatever you say it should   be   because you do all the work. If that's really your view (though I have   every confidence you'll promptly deny ever having said it), then I   would   urge you to come out and do it. I, despite what you might think, won't   stop you. I'll leave quietly. But what I will not abide quietly is this   farce that the WTA is somehow apolitical, and balanced, when it is in   fact ultra-left and pursuing the personal political agenda of its  
 Executive Director.    Please, either go all the way or stop imposing the double-standard on   the WTA.    Joseph Bloch,  Director



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