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Oh my god.
This issue is fascinating.
I've never read it before.
When I first read it, I thought most of the way through it was a spoof by a critic.
Oh my god.
This issue is fascinating.
I've never read it before.
When I first read it, I thought most of the way through it was a spoof by a critic.
57. My abilities make me dangerous
Mrs T has a feeling that DM is trying to reposition Scn with far less influence on LRH. All I can say is that the new basic books feature his name very prominently on their covers.
L Ron Hubbard was never our leader.
Misacavige has always been our leader.
He accepted everything. The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
- George Orwell, 1984
Mrs T has a feeling that DM is trying to reposition Scn with far less influence on LRH. All I can say is that the new basic books feature his name very prominently on their covers.
You know, I was thinking about this whole "sanitized" LRH book thing when I was driving to work this morning.
I remembered something that happened about 20 years ago. Those that were in the SO, especially at Int or on Dissem lines, probably remember some of this. (Actually, some of you probably know a whole lot more than I do, so feel free to add what you know.)
There is a famous advertising guy named Jack Trout who wrote some texts on the subject of "positioning". LRH thought so highly of this information that his texts became part of LRH marketing policy.
In the 80s, Int Management decided to hire Trout's agency to do a positioning for Scientology, as part of its never-ending-though-futile attempt to change the public's perception of it to being a mainstream religion rather than a nutso cult.
One of the initial things that Trout's company wanted to do was to tour the orgs.
(I remember the staff being kept up all night to clean the orgs before these guys came through. The staff were not told who they were; only that some "important people" were coming.)
From what I know, they looked at all the major SO service orgs (at least in the US) and probably some Class V orgs.
I don't know everything that was said to DM and company after they came through. Two of the things I know for sure that were said were:
1) Your buildings look like shit. We can help you get people in the door, but as soon as they see what the place looks like, they'll walk out again. You need to renovate them.
2) Get rid of the name "Scientology".
As you know, Trout's agency was not kept on. (There's a little bit about this in the Time Magazine article about Scientology. You can look it up here if you want. http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/dancult.htm)
But sounds like DM took piece of advice number 1. Not long after this, the whole "renovations movement" in Scientology started big time.
In the spirit of what is happening now: How long do you think it will be before he implements piece of advice number 2?
I believe that may have started with various LRH telexes that I recall offered very scathing criticisms of PAC or it at least gave some INT people justification for such a viewpoint. LuLu you may recall some of the LA D advices that were critical of PAC and LA in general.
Ah yes, the CofS "caste system". That term fits it well.
I was very surprised when I first ran into it. As a Class V staff member, I figured that those of us who were busting our guts out and sacrificing great chunks of our lives to help people reach "total freedom" for little or no material reward would be held in high honor by those at the top who depended on us for their power.
Alas, I found otherwise. It appears the caste system goes something like this:
Non-Scnist "wogs" are not even worth mentioning.
Public are sheep to be herded and shorn.
Class V and Mission staff are out-ethics druggie scumbags -- otherwise they'd be in the SO, right?
SO service org staff are still scumbags, but some may someday be something.
Middle management orgs, well at least they're trying.
But you're not a real being until you're CMO or RTC.
Leastwise, that's how it looked from the viewpoint of Class V staffer.
I haven't read every page (the first 2 pages and page 22) but what I thought when I read this thread was simply a great way to get everyone to re-purchase books and so on.
"We're re-writing everything, and it's on sale!"
I can't help but think it's financially motivated..
Fat chance. What possible reason would the LDS church have to ally themselves with scientology? I know it's popular in some circles to equate the two, but that's really a stretch. Please ponder for a second why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints would want to have anything to do with the spawn of L Ron "Jesus was a lover of young boys" Hubbard? What is your motivation for making this statement? What are your cri***... excuse me.I had a stray thought that scientology might ally itself with the mormon (or LDS?) church somehow.
1) Your buildings look like shit. We can help you get people in the door, but as soon as they see what the place looks like, they'll walk out again. You need to renovate them.
2) Get rid of the name "Scientology".
Fat chance. What possible reason would the LDS church have to ally themselves with scientology? I know it's popular in some circles to equate the two, but that's really a stretch. Please ponder for a second why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints would want to have anything to do with the spawn of L Ron "Jesus was a lover of young boys" Hubbard? What is your motivation for making this statement? What are your cri***... excuse me.
Seriously though, while plenty of people (particularly outside the USA) think the Mormons are batshit insane, they are doing just fine. One of them recently vied for the presidency. Another currently is the house majority leader. They just dealt with the death of their longtime leader and selection of his successor without arcane voting procedures and white smoke or power struggles of any kind. Suggesting they would need or want or even entertain an alliance with the CoS is ludicrous. The only similarity I see is that they are also an American based religion that people love to hate, though for reasons I find far less compelling.