Bryant La Tourette
Chenango County, New York Businessman and Landowner

The efforts of anti-gas activists to impose their special interest agendas on others and thwart natural gas development in upstate New York are pathetic replays of the e-mail scams we all receive from time to time.

Most of us have received one of those e-mails trying to lure us with the promise of wealth left by an unknown relative who has passed away in some third world country. The letter tells of a great fortune awaiting us, if we’ll only help. The scam depends on us believing in easy money and easy solutions.

This same method has now been employed by professional trained activists to fight natural gas development.

The natural gas opposition toolbox has long included public meeting disruption and intimidation such as this ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stop action by the Susqehanna River Basin Commission but now they’re into propaganda of a different sort – the scam letter act.

Before getting into the details let me say something about the nature of people who write manipulative letters and employ deception by use of half truths and emotionally compulsive mistruths.

Psychologist say most people lie at least twice a day. But, what is it called when someone lives a lie and uses it as a tool to influence others? Pseudologia fantastica, mythomania, compulsive lying, or pathological lying are four of several terms applied by psychiatrists to the behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.  Here’s what Bella DePaulo, Ph.D., a psychologist at the University of Virginia says in an article in Psychology Today:

Both men and women lie in approximately a fifth of their social exchanges lasting 10 or more minutes; over the course of a week they deceive about 30% of those with whom they interact one-on-one. Furthermore, some types of relationships, such as those between parents and teens, are virtual magnets for deception: “College students lie to their mothers in one out of two conversations,” reports DePaulo. (Incidentally, when researchers refer to lying, they don’t include the mindless pleasantries or polite equivocations we offer each other in passing, such as “I’m fine, thanks” or “No trouble at all.” An “official” lie actually misleads, deliberately conveying a false impression. So complimenting a friend’s awful haircut or telling a creditor that the check is in the mail both qualify.

But, what happens when a person steps outside the average deception and uses it as a tool to intentionally mislead; acting out their Pseudologia fantstica world?

What happens when an individual or group of individuals thinks they are of higher intelligence than their new neighbors and what they see as pure logic doesn’t work for them to get their points across? Well, they resort to propaganda not unlike those scam letters.  Offered below is just such a piece of propaganda. Could this be a case of a professional pathological mythomania syndrome or is just compulsive lying?

Let’s examine this letter, supposedly sent out by a group not so humbly calling itself the Oxford Visionaries (original in bold and my analysis in italics):

August 8, 2013

Dear Neighbor,

Thank you!

First win their trust by calling them neighbor even though you only have contempt for them and their views.

Hundreds of local residents worked tirelessly last year to keep gas drilling out of Oxford. Thanks to our efforts an enlightened Village Board prohibited fracking in the village last February–the first ban in Chenango County.

“Hundreds do not make a majority in community of 4,000 people. Likewise, their notion of ”keeping gas drilling out of Oxford” is pretty expansive. There is both a Town and a Village of Oxford, New York. The Town has no ban or moratorium. The Village of Oxford has tried but been unsuccessful in its efforts to put in a formal moratorium authored by the Park Foundation’s special pet – David Slottje. Landowners and citizens rose up against it and stopped it. Moreover, the local law that was put in place in Oxford excluded only surface disruption due to drilling but affected nothing with respect to subsurface activity. Given that the Village has few, if any, sites for wellpads, the net practical effect was nil.

Mayor Terry Stark brought the entire community into the decision-making. Both sides had their say and the majority prevailed.

Again the writer exaggerates. Meetings on the subject were attended, at most, by 40 out of 4,000 persons. This was hardly the “entire community.”

We had hoped the Oxford Town Board would follow the Village’s example. However, Supervisor Lawrence Wilcox and two members of the board hold gas leases. They put their own economic interests ahead of our community’s welfare.

This attempt to attach evil to the holding of economic interests that are common to the area is shameless and compulsive; a knee-jerk reaction to ayone holding a different opinion.  The author(s) clearly think their economic interests will be damaged by gas drilling but fail to apply the same standard to themselves.

They have stonewalled all citizen efforts to open a dialog. They refused to answer more than 100 questions and concerns about gas drilling submitted in writing by dozens of voters over many months.

This is the insecure wannabe controller complaining about others who just will not listen and obey on command, like a spoiled two-year old demanding his parents honor his wishes.  There are only about 10 people who regularly attend town meetings but he thinks the board is obligated to listen and obey him and to pay no attention to all the others who are pleased with the direction of local government and have no desire to attend and complain (or control).

They have ignored Freedom of Information Law requests for documents to shed light on the illegal passage of their 2007 pro-gas zoning laws.

Says who?  If it is illegal why are the Oxford Visionaries not backing it with a legal challenge, just like Village residents did?  This “trust me” assertion is backed up by nothing and is yet another example of the fantasy world of the “visionaries.”

Fortunately there is good news!

All the above was bad news based on one persons view without giving any solid information other than his “trust me” view.

Next November we can vote three pro-fracking members the Oxford Town Board out of office.

The statement “three pro-fracking members” is another assertion ment to convince voters their board members and town supervisor are pro-fracking when no such stance has been taken.  Rather, the board has simply not taken the position the Oxford Visionaries demand.  This twisting of the facts is another compulsive lie. 

We can elect three highly qualified candidates to create a new majority. Democrat Fred Lanfear, retired Oxford Academy teacher and president of the Oxford Historical Society, is running against Lawrence Wilcox for Supervisor. Long-time Oxford residents Ron Charles and Paul Brennan are running in the Republican Primary against John Hofmann for the seats presently held by Hofmann and Larry Beckwith.

After defaming existing officials with false suggestions of scandal, the “visionaries” introduce their white nights.

Lanfear, Brennan and Charles pledge to pass a moratorium so the entire community can decide Oxford’s future, just like the village did.

A single-purpose agenda make these men more credible? This is where the mythologist consults his inner Pseudologia fantastica and out comes the elitist who thinks his special-interest agenda and bias is superior to anyone else’s opinion or perspective, regardless of what the citizenry itself might think.

All Oxfordians vote in town elections, including village residents.

Right now we need your help. We have until the end of next week to collect signatures for the three challengers running on an independent slate. All Democrats, independents and most Republicans can sign these petitions. It is a bipartisan effort. Several hundred signatures will not only give each candidate a second spot on the ballot but will show the breadth of support for fresh leadership dedicated to overcome dysfunctional government and heal the divisions in our community created by outside gas corporations and the present self-serving, unresponsive Town.

This is an appeal to village voters to rise up and take over their town (villages are part of towns in New York State and village voters get to vote for officials of both) – a not so subtle request for “city” residents to protect the “farmers” too dumb to look out for themselves.  That arrogance among the “visionaries” is really at the root of things, another reflection of Pseudologia fantastica.  What dysfunction? What division? The board and the town community have been working in harmony. There has been no tax increase, there is a reserve and the town equipment has well maintained from this town board made up of mostly farmers and local businessmen.  That’s not “self serving” – no, it’s real public service on behalf of a satisfied majority.  Trying to brand disagreement with one’s own agenda as “self-serving” is not only a psychological malady but also despicable.

If you have not already signed a Republican Primary petition for Brennan, Charles or Hofmann you can sign the independent “Oxford Community” petition. If you would like to sign or gather signatures from your family, friends and neighbors, please call Ellen Anderson (843-7373) or Marjorie Rogers (843-5151). They will come to your house.

Or meet us Thursday at 7:00pm at the Ice Cream Social and Concert at the Oxford Historical Society Museum-Depot.

Finally. . .we have choice. Please help us restore representative government to Oxford.

Suggesting the town has no representative government because it disagrees with the vision of the “visionaries” sounds just like statements that have always come from those would be representatives of the “proletariat” who are really nothing more than tin-pot dictators at heart.

Ellen and Marjorie for the Oxford Community slate.

In the end the author does not reveal himself or the fact he is a natural gas user – a tremendous hypocrite. He knows that we know and he also knows he has lost his base and credibility so he must hide behind others. But, every writer has a style and even the best crafter of deception cannot cover those tracks.

So, there you have it – a local version of the e-mail scam, a pathetic attempt of an unnamed individual or two to obfuscate, distort, twist and deceive in a pathetic attempt to dominate a community which he only recently joined in vain hopes of achieving his fantasy of a utopian world where he’s in charge.  Is this the hidden face of the anti-gas movement?  I’m afraid it is.