Gadfly
Crusader
I know that this has been mentioned before, but it again struck me today how KEY and IMPORTANT the existence of the Internet is to exposing the many various flaws and faults of Hubbard and Scientology.
When I was heavily involved, mainly in the 80s and 90s, there was no such thing as the Internet. There was no place one could easily go to and run a "search" on "L. Ron Hubbard", "Scientology", "Paulette Cooper", "fair game", "the policy on initiating lawsuits", "harassing critics" of any of MANY ideas and practices of Scientology. Part of the effectiveness of the control of people involved with Scientology in earlier days was the fact that Scientology members had no easy way to obtain information on the subject of Scientology. The ONLY information they were given was Hubbard's many assertions and often fictional claims about himself and the Church of Scientology. Back then, the main source of information about Hubbard and Scientology was the Church's own PR machinery. That has all changed drastically.
It was much easier then to control the Church member's diet of data about Scientology, first because little in the way of readily available critical information existed, and second, because the Church pretty much existed in a vacuum where only its PR was heard and accepted by the Scientology believer.
As I see it Scientology could only continue to do well in a very highly controlled environment. The Sea Org still continues along in that manner, because most SO members have no access to the Internet, don't read magazines, are forbidden from watching TV, and rarely are confronted with ANY negative information. In a very real way many SO members live in a dream world based almost entirely on the fabrications of Hubbard and current Church management. They never graduated into the Internet Age and still display the arrogant idiocy of ANY group of people who are shut off from many avenues of outside information, AND who are indoctrinated to believe that 1) only we have the correct answers, and 2) the world out there is largely nasty and degraded.
As time moves along I suspect that Scientology will have a more and more difficult time of things, largely because of the Internet.
I enjoy the Internet as a source of fast needed information, such as locating schematics on guitar pickup wiring, but it is this way that Scientology cannot keep its members and the world surrounded in a veil of deceit and lies that I get the most enjoyment from.
And, yes, there IS a great deal of "false information" on the Internet too. But I would prefer to have to sift through the good data and the crappy data, rather than to have no data at all.
I LOVE THE INTERNET!
I am sure DM and other INT bozos wish it would vanish tomorrow - but it can't and won't, and everyday brings with it some NEW article or analysis about the intricate mindfuck known as Scientology and about the manipulative machinations of DM, OSA and INT management.
I think we are well past the point where Scientology PR can ever hope to overbalance the abundance of NEGATIVE FACTS about Hubbard and Scientology. An the SP declares keep on growing.
Without the Internet there is no doubt that Scientology would have had a much larger hold on many of its members - something it keeps losing. And, it would have been MUCH more difficult to expose the cult.
The Internet is the "Achilles Heel" that Hubbard never anticipated. So much for "whole track recall".
Tick-tock Tick-tock
When I was heavily involved, mainly in the 80s and 90s, there was no such thing as the Internet. There was no place one could easily go to and run a "search" on "L. Ron Hubbard", "Scientology", "Paulette Cooper", "fair game", "the policy on initiating lawsuits", "harassing critics" of any of MANY ideas and practices of Scientology. Part of the effectiveness of the control of people involved with Scientology in earlier days was the fact that Scientology members had no easy way to obtain information on the subject of Scientology. The ONLY information they were given was Hubbard's many assertions and often fictional claims about himself and the Church of Scientology. Back then, the main source of information about Hubbard and Scientology was the Church's own PR machinery. That has all changed drastically.
It was much easier then to control the Church member's diet of data about Scientology, first because little in the way of readily available critical information existed, and second, because the Church pretty much existed in a vacuum where only its PR was heard and accepted by the Scientology believer.
As I see it Scientology could only continue to do well in a very highly controlled environment. The Sea Org still continues along in that manner, because most SO members have no access to the Internet, don't read magazines, are forbidden from watching TV, and rarely are confronted with ANY negative information. In a very real way many SO members live in a dream world based almost entirely on the fabrications of Hubbard and current Church management. They never graduated into the Internet Age and still display the arrogant idiocy of ANY group of people who are shut off from many avenues of outside information, AND who are indoctrinated to believe that 1) only we have the correct answers, and 2) the world out there is largely nasty and degraded.
As time moves along I suspect that Scientology will have a more and more difficult time of things, largely because of the Internet.
I enjoy the Internet as a source of fast needed information, such as locating schematics on guitar pickup wiring, but it is this way that Scientology cannot keep its members and the world surrounded in a veil of deceit and lies that I get the most enjoyment from.
And, yes, there IS a great deal of "false information" on the Internet too. But I would prefer to have to sift through the good data and the crappy data, rather than to have no data at all.
I LOVE THE INTERNET!
I am sure DM and other INT bozos wish it would vanish tomorrow - but it can't and won't, and everyday brings with it some NEW article or analysis about the intricate mindfuck known as Scientology and about the manipulative machinations of DM, OSA and INT management.
I think we are well past the point where Scientology PR can ever hope to overbalance the abundance of NEGATIVE FACTS about Hubbard and Scientology. An the SP declares keep on growing.
Without the Internet there is no doubt that Scientology would have had a much larger hold on many of its members - something it keeps losing. And, it would have been MUCH more difficult to expose the cult.
The Internet is the "Achilles Heel" that Hubbard never anticipated. So much for "whole track recall".
Tick-tock Tick-tock
) to reduce the intellectual abilities of Americans. Here are a few:
