The likely reason Scientology survived Hubbard's death is that DM took over Scientology prior to Hubbard's death. As many on this board suspect, the rather timely death of Hubbard may also have been planned.
That Scientology has survived so long does not require a miracle. Neither does he require intelligence. DM is a sociopath with a large treasure chest in a country far too tolerant of cults.
He made one important realization (about the value of the LRH comm lines) and then executed a cunning plan which led to a clean transition. You could say that makes him intelligent, but I wouldn't. Here's why:
He made a rather brilliant coup in which he quickly took over the leadership of COS. This required cunning and "balls". He did things outside the box which no one else had the cunning or "balls" to do. He quickly got the result he was looking for, complete control of COS. The bottom line is that he cleanly and quickly took over COS and literally got rid of all the competition such as MSH, Jane Kember, David Mayo, Bill Franks, Vicki Asnaran, the Broekers, etc., etc. To do this requires some form of inteliigence. A stupid person could not have pulled this off.
Sociopaths thrive when they control the flow of information. Before the internet, DM was able to do this because he was brutal and had money. Scientology is in decline because the internet makes the sociopathic behaviour transparent.
Nobody said that he was not a sociopath and I agree fully that the internet aids in making sociopathic behaviour transparent.
Intelligence is about adaptation.
If he was intelligent, he would realize we live in an internet age and he would change Scientology. He would have some sort of compensation plan worked out (like the Catholic church is doing now), he would lower the prices of services, stop disconnection, stop fair game, move to smaller more humble buildings and sell to a smaller number of people.
If he was smart, he would open charity shops (which actually generate profit). He could run real anti drug programs. Start acting like most religions. Train the VMs in engineering or nursing. It would change people's perception of Scientology.
You are talking about a combination of wisdom, benevolence and intelligence. A person with all three of those traits would adapt and work on doing those things such as you list above. DM possesses intelligence but is lacking in wisdom and totally lacking in benevolence.
That is adapting. That is intelligent. That could save Scientology. How has DM adapted?
He hasn't. Why? He is not intelligent. He is cunning in a very limited way. That's all.
I believe that had Hubbard followed his own policies and done Hat Write Ups for all his posts and applied a Power Change Formula for each of his posts, Scientology would have definitely survived Hubbard's death. At that time, Scn was much larger than it is now, maybe 125,000 to 150,000 active members as opposed to 30,000 to 35,000 today. Had Hubbard made good appointments for his various hats, it would have lived on. Hubbard started to do this in 1982, appointing Mayo to run tech and Bill Franks to run admin. Suddenly he stopped - probably incapacitated by illness and bad health. This left the door open for a street smart cunning person, such as DM to take control.
DM, a man with some intelligence but lacking in wisdom and totally devoid of benevolence
has adapted. Just look at today's COS, compared to the COS run by Hubbard. First of all, DM has created a whole new set of stats, having to do more with material goods under his control, than the 27 Gross Divisional Statistics (GDS's) which were Hubbard's concern.
DM didn't like having to refund money to parishioners so he came up with a whole new system where parishioners make their contributions, not for training and processing, but for all the satellite groups sponsored by Scientology such as the IAS, WISE, ABLE, CCHR etc. When people donate, they simultaneously sign a waiver that they are making a donation which is non refundable. In this manner, DM cut refunds to a tiny fraction of what they once were.
LRH defined Ideal Orgs, in a specific manner, and when talking about Ideal Org buildings all he said was that they had to be centrally located, be clean and well stocked with necessary materials. Nothing at all was said about opulence and ultra luxurious fixtures. DM adapted that into making the buildings super plush and not really being concerned whether anyone comes in to use the buildings or not. The buildings appreciate in value as time passes without the need for management to do anything or spend any money.
THAT IS A MAJOR ADAPTATION!!
DM knows about the internet. Scientologists in good standing are forbidden by DM from going on any anti SCN sites. That is an adaptation. The super glitzy state of the art ads shown on the Super Bowl and being broadcast are an adaptation.
One of his biggest adaptations occurs because of the dwindling number of Scientologists and that is repackaging, reformating and selling the same books, CDs , courses and auditing rundowns over and over, every 5 years or so to the same parishioners. In a similar manner, he forces all those on Solo NOTS, OT 7, to come in twice a year for a costly refresher which involves heavy security checking which the person is forced to purchase from Flag. This procedure which is a violation of a Hubbard HCOB, is a huge adaptation, also cleverly designed to increase income and delivery even though membership is dwindling. Just repackage old services in a new format and order that everyone must pull off of what they are doing and do these newly repackaged service even though they have done them before, usually more than once.
All of these adaptations require intelligence and they produce enormous amounts of money for DM and COS.
In closing, I respectively point out to you that what you are referring to as intelligence only is a combination of several things, including intelligence, benevolence,wisdom, kindness, the desire to help mankind and make this a better world, etc. DM seems to possess intelligence, cunning, resourcefulness, the ability to convincingly mislead people as to his true intentions, etc. Intelligence is a trait which can stand on its own, it doesn't necessarily have to be put to use to serve noble causes, it may also be put to use to mislead people and use and abuse them.
Lakey