Love ya, and although I like a lot of your analysis, I disagree with this statement.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and to disagree with me Mockingbird6. Doesn’t stop you from being wrong though.
True Scios see the results of their actions very well when those results would be bad PR for the church. Their lives are ruled by "what would the church think of me, what would people think of the church, if I did X?" (Everyone raise your hand if you were "in" and never had this thought!)
That is why I think Rex Fowler had reached the breaking point and was deliberately trying to bring bad repute on the church by his actions--see my earlier post elaborating on this.
I agree that further insanities existed, but I still think his basic statement, by what he did, exposes the church in ways they cannot cover up, and that was his intention.
I see what you are saying and you certainly raise an interesting point with regard to Fowler. Was this a ‘cry for help’ taken to its most extreme and shocking?
Could be, but I think the simplest explanation is that Fowler, under the colossal pressures placed upon him and his business by the cult of Scientology, suffered a psychotic break and attacked the nearest target that looked like an enemy. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he or perhaps one of the Ethics Officers at his org had identified Ciancio as an SP. This would have enabled him justify murder in his own mind and he was really doing the ‘greatest god etc’.
Obviously looking at this whole situation from an exterior and rational viewpoint, Fowler’s actions are going to be very damaging to the CoS, perhaps not so much with the general public, but to the Scientology public and staff. I know that if I was still ‘in’ and read of this, I would have been severely shaken by it. An OTVII committing murder and then trying to suicide? Unthinkable!
I agree that Scientologists are often made to worry about how their actions may adversely affect the ‘church’, but the problem is, that their cognitive thinking has been so warped by their experiences, especially if they have been ‘in’ for a long time, that they are unable to fully appreciate what their actions cause.
Take for example, Tommy Davis. He has made goof after goof on TV and in the press. These make him and the CoS look like crazy cultists. Yet, he thinks he is doing the right thing by attacking critics. The BBC Panorama team made a TV program, which wasn’t very interesting. It mainly centred around allegations that the CoS were a weird and sinister cult that harasses it’s critics. So how does the CoS respond? By sending PIs and cameramen to follow and harass the TV crew and reporter! Then, Davis uses ‘Black Dianetics’ to provoke John Sweeny into losing his temper. So, Davis thinks he has won a victory with that. But, it simply turns a non-descript programme into compulsive viewing and gains massive publicity in the media.
Tom Cruise spouts a load of rubbish and even verbally lays into a talk show host (Matt Lauer) calling him ‘glib’ when discussing psychiatric medication. When I was ‘in’, I thought that this was the right thing to do and so did Cruise. Now, most people think that Cruise is a nutjob.
I’ve seen Scientologists protest outside a couple’s home and we’ve seen (on YouTube) other protestors mount counter-demonstrations against people like Mark Bunker and Tory Christman using all sorts of derogatory and insulting and even threatening language. George Baillie thought that he could cave me in my calling me “Crazy, nuts, insane!” and telling me that I would “Die alone and in pain and in the dark”. They all thought that this was the right thing to do, but in fact resulted in very damaging negative publicity and even in a law suit.
The list of own goals or footbullets by Scientologists is endless. If any of them had really thought through their actions and considered the consequences, they would have seen that it might not have been such a good idea. But, they were so intent of ‘defending their church’ or ‘attacking the attackers’ because they’ve been told to, that they are unable to look far enough ahead to see what the results might be.
Scientologists are constrained by their ‘rules’ which were written by Hubbard and now also by Miscavige. This will be their undoing because they have no flexibility to change and adapt.
Axiom142
