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Crusader
I like both your comments.
THE ZERO POINT OF THE TONE SCALE COMMENT
Since Hubbard's number assignments seem to be arbitrarily assigned, assigning the point of polarity reversal zero seems to be a worthwhile minor improvement. Hubbard chose body death as zero instead. Many people have trouble using negative numbers out in society, they have trouble adding and subtracting negative numbers. As just a guess, I would venture that since Dianetics dealt only with living people and there was no scale below 0.0, body death, Hubbard was led to choose death as 0.0, so as to avoid the use of negative numbers.
When Scientology was brought out, negative tone levels were introduced, Hubbard could have made the change you are recommending and may have toyed with the idea and then decided it would be easier to keep the existing numbers the way they were. It is just an arbitrary decision, it could be done either way.
For comparison's sake, we have the Fahrenheit and Centigrade temperature scales. Centigrade makes so much more sense, using the freezing point of water as zero and the boiling point as 100 degrees. By comparison, the Fahrenheit system looks totally arbitrary. Of course there is a third scale, the Kelvin Scale where absolute zero is represented as zero. This scale is not readily suitable for practical use because day to day temperatures would be expressed in much higher numbers, more difficult for calculations.
THE NO GAME COMMENT
On the no game issue, I have an opinion just based on common sense. To me a no game situation is where one being controls both sides of a game. For instance if you play chess with yourself, there is no game because you always know what the other side is going to do next. Such a chess game should always end in a draw. A game could be devised where the one who goes first will win if no mistakes are made; though harder to do, a game could also be devised where the one who plays second would always win if no mistakes were made.
The proponents of the viewpoint that knowing all leads to a no game condition could certainly state that if one did not know what the other side was planing then he does not "know all" and that would be a strong argument on his behalf. Maybe the opposing side, in a situation of that kind could claim that the game, in a situation such as that, is to devise a way to know what the other side is thinking. I will just drop it right there.
CONFLICT FOR THE SAKE OF CONFLICT
Again, just an opinion, but I would agree with Mark that Hubbard enjoyed conflict for the sake of conflict. There was/still is a department on the Org Board called the Department of Personnel Enhancement headed by the Director of Personnel Enhancement. I believe it is in HCO Division I.
THE MAYTAG REPAIR MAN
The old TV commencials used to show this guy, Jesse White, I believe (am I correct, Carmelo?) dressed in an appliance repair mans' clothing and he had nothing to do because Maytag appliances never broke. It was a real cute and effective ad campaign.
In the Orgs when LRH was runing things, the Director of Personnel Enhancement was very similar to the Maytag repair man, he/she never had anything to do. In the DM run church, it seems to me as if the post must not be manned or staffed in any way except as being held from above by the Division Head. There is no emphasis at all in enhancing their staff in the Sea Org. The Department and its Departmental Head would be total anachronisms in the thinking of today's Orgs. I would be curious if anyone knew if there was still such a Department and if so, what the activities of the Departmental head would be. Though Hubbard put such a post onto the Org Board, it is now an anachronistic oxymoron. The words Personnel and Enhancement are totally mutually exclusive.
My point in this cute anecdote is that there is much more interest in promoting conflict just for the sake of it, than in enhancing the personnel. I believe that this Fundamental error in the Sea Org philosphy of management will contribute strongly in bringing down the current Organization.
Lakey
One minor point. Since your lecture Roger I've taken to viewing "2.0" as the new zero. Since the numbers Hubbard originally assigned appear to be something of an arbitrary and since with the number system the point of polarity reversal is zero, I just consider that it makes more sense to map the point of actual reversal to zero rather than simply rely on Hubbard's numbering convention.
I also liked your point on "knowing everthing being a 'no-game' condition is twaddle". Hubbard had some strong, personal, not necessarily 'healthy' considerations on the subject and nature of games. It seems clear to me he enjoyed conflict for the sake of conflict.
Mark A. Baker
THE ZERO POINT OF THE TONE SCALE COMMENT
Since Hubbard's number assignments seem to be arbitrarily assigned, assigning the point of polarity reversal zero seems to be a worthwhile minor improvement. Hubbard chose body death as zero instead. Many people have trouble using negative numbers out in society, they have trouble adding and subtracting negative numbers. As just a guess, I would venture that since Dianetics dealt only with living people and there was no scale below 0.0, body death, Hubbard was led to choose death as 0.0, so as to avoid the use of negative numbers.
When Scientology was brought out, negative tone levels were introduced, Hubbard could have made the change you are recommending and may have toyed with the idea and then decided it would be easier to keep the existing numbers the way they were. It is just an arbitrary decision, it could be done either way.
For comparison's sake, we have the Fahrenheit and Centigrade temperature scales. Centigrade makes so much more sense, using the freezing point of water as zero and the boiling point as 100 degrees. By comparison, the Fahrenheit system looks totally arbitrary. Of course there is a third scale, the Kelvin Scale where absolute zero is represented as zero. This scale is not readily suitable for practical use because day to day temperatures would be expressed in much higher numbers, more difficult for calculations.
THE NO GAME COMMENT
On the no game issue, I have an opinion just based on common sense. To me a no game situation is where one being controls both sides of a game. For instance if you play chess with yourself, there is no game because you always know what the other side is going to do next. Such a chess game should always end in a draw. A game could be devised where the one who goes first will win if no mistakes are made; though harder to do, a game could also be devised where the one who plays second would always win if no mistakes were made.
The proponents of the viewpoint that knowing all leads to a no game condition could certainly state that if one did not know what the other side was planing then he does not "know all" and that would be a strong argument on his behalf. Maybe the opposing side, in a situation of that kind could claim that the game, in a situation such as that, is to devise a way to know what the other side is thinking. I will just drop it right there.
CONFLICT FOR THE SAKE OF CONFLICT
Again, just an opinion, but I would agree with Mark that Hubbard enjoyed conflict for the sake of conflict. There was/still is a department on the Org Board called the Department of Personnel Enhancement headed by the Director of Personnel Enhancement. I believe it is in HCO Division I.
THE MAYTAG REPAIR MAN
The old TV commencials used to show this guy, Jesse White, I believe (am I correct, Carmelo?) dressed in an appliance repair mans' clothing and he had nothing to do because Maytag appliances never broke. It was a real cute and effective ad campaign.
In the Orgs when LRH was runing things, the Director of Personnel Enhancement was very similar to the Maytag repair man, he/she never had anything to do. In the DM run church, it seems to me as if the post must not be manned or staffed in any way except as being held from above by the Division Head. There is no emphasis at all in enhancing their staff in the Sea Org. The Department and its Departmental Head would be total anachronisms in the thinking of today's Orgs. I would be curious if anyone knew if there was still such a Department and if so, what the activities of the Departmental head would be. Though Hubbard put such a post onto the Org Board, it is now an anachronistic oxymoron. The words Personnel and Enhancement are totally mutually exclusive.
My point in this cute anecdote is that there is much more interest in promoting conflict just for the sake of it, than in enhancing the personnel. I believe that this Fundamental error in the Sea Org philosphy of management will contribute strongly in bringing down the current Organization.
Lakey
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