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LRH ED 63 WW 6 US, 12 Dec. 1968

rhill

Patron with Honors
On Dec. 12, in LRH ED 63 WW (intended for staff only), Hubbard wrote:

It is interesting that 'Life' Magazine in the US has been a violent foe of Dianetics and Scn for 18 years. ... In their letters to the editor in their issue of 6 Dec 68 they made a very fatal error. They published and signed my name to a letter I never wrote them, which makes them guilty of forgery, doesn't it.

Here is what appeared in the Letters to the Editor of Life magazine on Dec. 6, 1968:

Sirs:

Those attacking Scientology run mental institutions. They make millions out of it. They advocate brutal, murderous actions against the insane. They are terrified of losing the avalanches of money gouged out of governments. They see Scientology taking it all away with kind, effective measures. There is no question in their minds but that Scientology works. That's why they are attacking it.

A thousand other philosophies and religions arise every year with no outcry from the madmen in charge. The hundreds of thousands of victims of the enemy, as in all fascist actions, cannot complain. They cannot even talk. They're dead.

L. Ron Hubbard
New York, N.Y.

I don't know, it sounds just like him to me. Farther in the Executive Directive, in the middle of a stream of paranioac ramblings, Hubbard writes:

Every major assassin has (1) seen a member of WFMH before the assassination and (2) been defended by a member of WFMH after the act if still alive.

Right, staff members were supposed to believe that he didn't write a letter to the editor of Life magazine, a letter which tone fits perfectly... the paranoiac ramblings in the Executive Directive written to distance himself from the paranoiac ramblings of the letter in Life magazine.

What a joke.
 

Veda

Sponsor
Yes, it does, doesn't it?

Do you have any idea why he backpedalled so soon, within a week of publication? Maybe Veda can make a good guess.

Paul

Perhaps Hubbard decided that it was best if others say it and not himself. Perhaps he saw what a little letter it was on the big pages of 'Life' magazine, amongst so many other - bigger - letters, and he didn't feel good about being placed amongst the common folk and SPs, and his paranoia got the better of him? Perhaps Hubbard had one of his assistants write the letter and then only signed it so that, technically, he didn't write the letter, and he thought by denying having written it, he was being fabulously clever. Who knows?, but it does sound like him.

"Each time Scientology is attacked we will build into society an actual stimulus response mechanism [that] a person making an attack is in favor of psychiatric death camps."

From 'Ron's Journal 1968'.

Hubbard mentions psychiatric death camps, etc, several times, but there's more...

"...And the general attack line is along the line of human rights; yes human rights...

"Now I'll give you a clue on how this is handled, somebody comes up to you he's hostile - he's hostile to Scientology and he says to you and he says <inaudible> and you say why are you against human rights and uh and if you know anything about human rights like the universal declaration of human rights, United Nations - that sort of thing - you know if you know something about this subject you just follow it right straight up. In other words, you don't defend Scientology, you just attack along this line of human rights, you see...

"Tell him or her ...uh ...the hostile person the hostile press line uh...for instance a newspaper writes an article on how bad Scientology is - any Scientologist reading this should run right to that newspaper and demand: Why are you against human rights? Why are you in favor of Psychiatric death camps?

"Whereas an attack on Scientology is actually an attack on human rights - anyone making an attack on Scientology is an attack on human rights..."
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Ah. I've just clicked on the link to the Letters Page provided in the OP. Hubbard's letter (in red below), appearing where it does — doubtless not an editorial accident :) — makes him look like an idiot. Specifically:
Sirs;
There must be some law that can stop this cult. We have a son who has completely alienated himself from us because we won't concur with their ideas.
[Signature]​
Sirs;
Those attacking Scientology run mental institutions. . . .
[Hubbard]
Clearly, the couple writing the letter above are ordinary people, and don't run a mental institution.

Paul
 

rhill

Patron with Honors
"Tell him or her ...uh ...the hostile person the hostile press line uh...for instance a newspaper writes an article on how bad Scientology is - any Scientologist reading this should run right to that newspaper and demand: Why are you against human rights? Why are you in favor of Psychiatric death camps?

This so reminds me of Heber Jentzsch when he was interviewed by Bryant Gumbel re. Lisa McPherson's death. Or Jan Eastgate on CBS' 48 Hours "A Question of Faith". They both attempted to veered the topic on psychiatry when questions became inconvenient.

If it means anything, between the Nov. 15 main Life' article, and Hubbard's Dec. 6 response to the article, there was Today's Health's Dec. 1, 1968 "SCIENTOLOGY — Menace to Mental health", which in my opinion was even more hard hitting than the Life article. Written by Ralph Lee Smith (whom the Church sued in 1975 re. this article), the article went on to be republished and cited around a lot.

In the above LRH ED, Hubbard also refers to an earlier article in the Evening Post. The only article I could find was March 1964's "Have You Ever Been a Boo-Hoo?", one of the very early article exposing Hubbard's lies and quackiness.

In short, by end of 1968, Hubbard was clearly losing control of his image in the broad press (I like to refer to the peak in the second-half of 1968 when mentioning this). Snow White was supposed to address that.
 

rhill

Patron with Honors
Sirs;
There must be some law that can stop this cult. We have a son who has completely alienated himself from us because we won't concur with their ideas.
[Signature]​
Sirs;
Those attacking Scientology run mental institutions. . . .
[Hubbard]
Clearly, the couple writing the letter above are ordinary people, and don't run a mental institution.

Actually, Hubbard mentions the letter's couple in his directive:

... A conspiracy formed at the WFMH Congress in London in August 1968 resulted in simultaneous identical political channel attacks on Scn in several countries.

The "Life" Article was crudely timed to be part of this.

The "letters to the Editor" also contain a typically enemy colour and campaign note such as a disconnected family named "Fridkin". ...​
 
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