It depends -- when and where.
At the lower levels (both in terms of tech and the administration), it once was a community of people who shared a lot of opinions... not the least of which was that it was possible to make this a better world. I certainly found that to be the case when I was taking courses and getting services in the 70s.
Once I got on staff and later decided to join the Sea Org, I saw something different. But absolutely: The people with whom I interacted on a daily basis were good and kind to one another. And we felt we were making a difference... both in our own lives and for those around us.
You might think ill of LRH or the tech. That's your call; I don't feel that you must see things as I do. (Which is rather a difference from the CofS right there....) But please do recognize that most people get involved because they do see something valuable in it... and that many of us got benefits from it.
And yes: Most of the people I knew were good and kind. They also could be misinformed, frightened, selfish, and the normal range of human things... some of which put them at an opposition to me at the end. But I understood that even when I knew them to be operating on wrong information and thus making lousy decisions, the "ordinary" scientologist had good goals.
There were lots of good people in Scientology. Good people were (and are) an essential component of Scientology. They're the lubricant that keeps the gears of the machine moving. At the time I didn't realize that the founder of Scientology regarded them as "dupes." And if someone had told me, I wouldn't have believed it.
I don't know "when and where" you were in the 1970s, when you were at "lower levels," but I was at the New York Org which, in 1970, was full of people and busy and expanding. There was much excitement. There were 8 OT levels, with the 8th level being "Total Freedom" and "Total Power." OT 7 (old OT 7) was soon to be released. The "Ls," the "fabulous OT boosters," were soon to appear.
In the Academy, which was packed with students, including myself, people trained on the Student Hat, the Hubbard Standard Dianetics Course, and the Lower Levels, 0-IV.
As did many, I focused on what I was there to do. I kept "my TRs in," as around me there were odd things and occurrences. Most noticeable was the approximately five foot by four foot gold framed photo of Hubbard hanging on the Academy wall. This photo was applauded daily. Then there were the supervisors. The ones who had returned from the mysterious "Flagship" seemed to have an attitude. They were "unreasonable," and "ruthless," which were regarded as dual virtues. They were "closer to Source" than the rest of us, and had a tendency to fly into purple-faced rages. Neither I, nor most of the others, thought much about it. We just kept our TRs in. We wanted to do our training, and then we wanted to audit. Everything else was just noise to be ignored.
I did the training and did the auditing and, years later, after leaving the CofS, did more auditing, and even then, after leaving the CofS, I was still discovering the gory details of that "noise" that I, and others, ignored, so as to be able to make it through the courses we did, and do the auditing we wanted to do.
That "noise" included people who had been strangely transformed after having visited the "Flagship," but also "registrars" who practiced "tone 40 intention" Scientology "Hard Sell." It included the Sea Org, who could be seen here and there at times, and were, supposedly, the "elite of Scientology," and also the "Guardian's Office," who were mysterious but very important, since they dealt mainly with outside anti-Scientology "SPs."
Below is a simple outline of Scientology during the 1970s (with the exception of a line or two which concern things after the 1970s), which I'm borrowing, as it illustrates a point: Most of us had no idea of what we were a part. We were naive. I've colorized in
turquoise those things of which we well-intentioned good people focused our attention, as we "moved up the Bridge."
'Brainwashing Manual Parallels in Scientology', a.k.a. 'Revisiting the Textbook on Psycho-politics' http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/ambry1.html
Contents
Examining the 'Brainwashing Manual' http://warrior.xenu.ca/Brainwashing-front.jpg with the purpose of better understanding Scientology 4
Introduction: A Brief Outline of Scientology Doctrine, Public and Confidential 6
"White Scientology" - The Battle Tactics Doctrine - Brainwashing Manual Tech - Scientology is Multi-layered - Exploiting the Positives: the Cheese in the Trap -
Background 9
Origin of the word "brainwashing." and of the "Russian Brainwashing Manual"
L. Ron Hubbard writing to Scientologists on the subject of the Brainwashing Manual
Departing briefly from the Manual: A look at private tactics later shared with insiders
A publicized statement
A private explanation
Hubbard vs. the "Asiatic Hordes"
Back to the Brainwashing Manual: Excerpts from Hubbard's third public statement on it
Kenneth Goff's 1956 version of the Manual
Scientology's "No-answer answers."
Excerpts from the Brainwashing Manual/Textbook on Psycho-politics 14
"Editorial Note": Hubbard. assuming the guise of the phantasmal "Charles Stickley"
"An Address by Beria": Hubbard, pretending to be Lavrenti Beria, chief of the Russian Secret Police
The Main Text of the Manual: Hubbard, masquerading as an arrogant Russain Brainwashing expert
"Pain-Drug-Hypnosis"
The Layers of The "Scientological Onion" http://exscn.net/content/view/178/105 17
Brainwashing Manual Parallels in Modern Scientology 19
Correspondences between the Brainwashing Manual and the Battle Tactics policy
On “Survival”
On Surviving the Atomic Bomb
On an individual Scientologist influencing leaders
Scientology is devious by design
Front Groups - Layer Zero of the “Scientological Onion” 20
“It is not necessary that the term ‘Communism’ [Scientology] be applied at first…”
Layer One - The publicized portion of Scientology 23
“
White Scientology”
Scenario: (An application of “White Scientology”)
“
By reason alone”
Auditing
Descending into Layer Two of the “Onion”: The “In-Organization” Strata 27
“…[Scientology] under the guise of [‘White Scientology’]…”
Exploitation of the process of abreaction
Playing one thing off another or “counter-playing”
“Loaded language”: the seemingly enlightened “counter-played” with the manipulative
Tone 4, “entheta,” “theta,” Suppressive Person
The Thought Limiting clichés of Scientology
Publicized, “In-organization” and Confidential Scientology “Ethics”
“…aligning the individual against the desire not to conform…”
Side effects of “critical thoughts”
Dominion over the loyalties of individuals
Layer Three of the “Onion”: The Confidential “Upper Levels” of the “Bridge to Total Freedom” 33
“…avoid the understanding of the layman…”
Highest of the “upper levels” must remain a mystery to the membership
Operating Thetan or O.T.
Aleister Crowley, Head of the O.T.O.
O.T. III, The “Wall of Fire” into which Hubbard “took the plunge” to save Mankind
Exploitation of the paranormal
Layer Four: “…a well trained individual who serves in complete obedience…”
The Sea Organization, the Rehabilitation Project Force, and the Five Card System 36
The Sea Organization: “Custodians of the O.T. Levels”
“…the only loyalty which should exist… is to the State [Scientology].”
Sea Org Ethics under Commodore Hubbard on the Flagship
“Refusal to let them sleep over many days…”
The Rehabilitation Project Force
“Filthy food, little sleep, nearly untenable quarters…”
“…the first loyalty [to himself]… is destroyed…”
“Degradation and conquest…”
The children’s and teenagers’ RPF
“A certain amount of fear…”
The RPF’s RPF
The Five Card “Team Share” System
“The technologies of psycho-politics…”
Layer Five: Confidential Scientology Policy and Tech for “handling” uncooperative outsiders 46
The Fair Game policy and “philosophy”
“…find or manufacture enough threat…”
“Direct the attention of the authorities…”
Scientology’s unscrupulous use of the legal system
“We will no longer put up with our religion being criticized…”
Discourage inquiry
Defamatory data on file; “Culling”: Searching “religious confessional” (auditing) files for embarrassing or intimidating items
Background: The Commodore’s Intelligence Network
The policy of covert attack and publicized PR “defense lines”
Scientology’s Multi-layered Public Relations tech
Scientology Intelligence tech
Data collecting, and Attack or “support” Intelligence
Creating incidents that reflect badly on others
“Data needed by Ops on each located who”
Attack or “support” Intelligence - The Covert Ops study course and checklist
“Persons in his vicinity to whom he is emotionally involved…”
Coerce them into signing prepared “retractions” or “confessions”
Plenty of bogus “documentation”
One justification for unscrupulous covert methods
Treatment of VIPs and celebrities
Goal of talking over “mental health” and “political guidance”
Full knowledge of Intelligence tech must be denied to the general membership
“Deception, chicanery, lying, manipulation and outright criminality”
“She over there, those pink legs sticking out, didn’t like me”
Scientologists believe in a planet-wide conspiracy against L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology
The Scientology Hierarchy
Layer Six: The Core of the “Scientological Onion” 69
“…virtually a pathological liar…egotism… lust for power, and vindictiveness…”
“We must be like the vine upon the tree…”
The elusive “1000 page” official L. Ron Hubbard biography
“It’s a trap not being able to prevaricate”
Conscience as an “impediment”
The L. Ron Hubbard Fan(atic) club
Epilogue 74
Freeing
the Positives
Addendum 76
"Dr. Hubbard's" FBI letters written concurrent with the appearance of the Brainwashing Manual 77
L. Ron Hubbard assumes the identity of Dr. Hubbard Ph.D DD - Patriotic Concerned Citizen
Letter of 29 July 1955
From a letter dated 7 September
A further look at Scientology's Covert Intelligence Tech 79
"Categories of Data Needing Coding"
A glimpse at a covert operation, and of public strata "policy" used as a cover for applied covert policy
An example of public strata "policy" used as "cover" - this time used on Scientologists by Scientology
"Ops Planning"
What to "Vet" or delete from sensitive internal messages that may be scrutinized by outsiders
Bibliography 82
Notes 87
L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman?, 2nd edition:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0942637577/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-0654802-4263319
This is what Hubbard created, maintained, lured people into with deception, and enforced. This is why some "might think ill of LRH," etc.