Chuck,
I've written a few post about my firsthand knowledge of the SO #1 Line, how it functioned and what purpose it served. I'm not gonna repeat all that here and I've never been able to get the search function to work for me since the Board software was changed so I'm not providing any links.
Overall, your summation is accurate and you bring to the fore an insightful "angle" on the Debbie Cook "Story". However the "LRH Compassion" that you refer to was a ruse. As far as the "pouncing" goes...no probably not overtly. But, their name, position and nature of complaint, etc. would have been noted, added to the cross-indexing and, depending on the circumstances and El Ron's mood du jour, "quiet" investigations done, reports written, etc.
The SO #1 Line was an effective tool to keep the natives calm and detect stuff in the bud, but it and El Ron was neither benign nor as proactive or responsive in actions as your post appears to me to be saying. The Cadet Orgs are one example...it was well established from SO #1 letters that the Cadet Orgs were in deplorable condition...those conditions remained unchanged overall throughout the years the SO #1 Line existed.
Face
Noted. But I offer you waste about 1 hour and thumb through the LRH ED packs.
There you see the 1 year expiration "orders" and a whole more "pilot" like time frame attitude of LRH. He could be playful, at times.
I'd agree, the whole net effect of his whole output, even after extensive book length dissections of everything he wrote, is that it's much easier to scapegoat, and essentially the biggest single complaint I have, is he's a chronic scapegoating leader. (Proof: He'd not have thrown every exec in the history of the movement under the bus, including his wife, and he'd NOT have left Miscavige/Yager/et al with the big pat on the head that they were "steel" tough leaders, and all the chrome hard BS adjectives he used for RTC.)
Naw he was evil a big part of his heart, but he's more benevolent, I notice, as OEC super, we did a "quickie" Briefing Course once, compiled by Greg Wilhere, in a minute segment of time when Greg was busted to every lower post, ended up as a Deputy Tech Aide in the Flag Bu, just before the Int Training Org formed. Linda Martiniano will remember this. And Greg put together a non-stat pushing quickie course called the "Special Flag Executive Briefing Course" (SFEBC, was it's nickname, and we only did it on less than 12 execs from outer orgs).
BUT, I noticed that the SFEBC (you can imagine it's demise, it's title is a "Tech Degrade", sheesh, some people winced when Greg got in trouble eventually for this one), but the SFEBC course cherry picked the more benevolent early 1960s exec PLs, before the harsher 1965 KSW and heavy ethics exec policies.
And Greg focused the drills on a couple of benevolent exec actions. Personally, even though it was a quickie FEBC, it produced more benevolent execs.
I saw it, and never forgot this.
When I went to go do the compilations project to rewrite the OEC (green volumes course) checksheet, in 1988, I had that in mind.
I realized the power that the person writing the checksheets has, for culling WHICH LRH data to focus on and make drills for the trainees.
The shit Hubbard BS policy just needs to NOT be focused on, is my "reasonable" hindsight views, and be sure to grade ALL of his earlier orders/policy against sanity, and just do the more benevolent, even though I agree with you, the man himself was only capable of benevolence in tiny spurts, but at least it was there those moments.
I'm forever in the picking the raisins out of the Hubbard turds category, since my most productive years I spent inside the cult, was doing just that. And that's the "case" I still have to lose.
This Debbie email, it's just brought to mind that whole inclination for the raisin picking out of the Hubbard shitola.
There's enough that he wrote, that people who didn't get his ugly behavior directly in their lives, and who just read his works, they'll likely be raisin pickers also. Especially if they're hopeful it will all comeout right in the end, like a good movie.
Hubbard wrote his Scientology movement sort of in his writer style, and when Hubbard said, which he said over and over, "Keep the show on the road", that was really a deep Freudian slip on his part, I feel today as my final grade for him.