************************************************************************
The following first appeared in the private email list IVy-subscribers,
which is available to all those who subscribe to the
printed magazine, International Viewpoints.
************************************************************************

The song's the thing
26 Nov 1998
by Phil Spickler

My dear Ant,

As always, the notion of communicating to you causes a warm and friendly
glow to suffuse the miserable thread of existence that I barely cling to.
Please, in advance, forgive the poor quality of the ramble that is about to
follow.  (Having spent quite awhile in Japan not long ago, don't think for
a moment that there's a word of truth in the denigrating quality of some of
my remarks.)

But enough on that.  I can hear the words and music from a popular song,
possibly by Elton John, of some years ago -- the words, at least, are "Take
me to the pilot," and somewhere along the line it's "Take me to the pilot
of my soul," or something like that.  Anyway, it's a good and beautiful
song, and I just wanted to let you know that it is easy for me, and I am
sure others, to understand why you hold the Pilot in high esteem, which is
to say, here's a chap who, out of the goodness of his or her heart, has
taken it upon themselves to put together a great deal of excellent
information on some of the better possibilities of Dianetics and
Scientology, and has made this work freely available on the Internet to
anyone who wishes to download it.  And as you have pointed out, this is
very similar to the early days of Dianetics and Scientology, when the
spirit of real help and good communication and the idealism of a better
world were all present.

So here's hats off to that soul that calls itself Pilot or the Pilot, and
in this case I take the term Pilot not from the OT III implant story but
from the dictionary, paraphrased as "a very fine navigator with top
excellent knowledge of all the intricacies of local tides and geography,
who can reliably and safely help everything from large ocean-going vessels
to small craft find their way in and out of the great ports of the world,
as well as lending invaluable assistance along the coastlines".  A very
famous publication, if my memory serves me correctly, for us boating
enthusiasts, was one or more volumes known as _The Coast Pilot_.  And yes,
a good pilot is worth their weight in gold, and will gain great respect if
the work is true.

It has occurred to me, as a relative newcomer to the Internet and the joys
of the form known as the IVy -list, that naturally and understandably,
there will be a certain percentage of folks that come on the comm line who
have various portions of case actively sticking out at awkward angles and
doing a fair amount of the communicating -- areas of the composite that
range from out-int through any and all of the possibilities to be found on
an Expanded Green Form 40, which is just a fancy way of saying plenty of
by-passed charge in restim.  These folks aren't necessarily seeking relief
on the line as much as simply enjoying the chance to freely dramatize their
condition.  I therefore and humbly propose that you start another list
called the IVy-argument list, and as one of your IVy helpers I shall be
most pleased to handle the traffic on this list and allow anyone who wishes
to come on it to be as argumentative and unpleasant as any of their
valences wish to be.  I was once called "the fastest service-fac in the
West", and have gigantic powers of Q&A, button-pushing, and all that's
necessary, both in the formal as well as the knockdown-drag-out sense of
argument, to give anyone needing this sort of service the best I know of
standard argumentation.

This list, as I perceive it, would not have a great deal of traffic, since
there's only a few such folks with computers and e-mail potentials that now
and again cloud the crystalline purity of the beautiful IVy list.

In closing, and somewhat aside, I should like to acknowledge receipt by
snail mail of the article that the superior Frank Gordon has edited, and
hope that you will publish it as it stands.   With grateful thanks and
highest regards -- Phil