Gadfly
Crusader
I was looking through my list of favorite quotes yesterday and I came across these:
"There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self." - Aldous Huxley
"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi
Reading these got me thinking about a MAJOR flaw with Scientology.
It concentrates on HUGE GOALS, while often failing to be able to realize much smaller goals.
Hubbard talks on and on about HUGE over-generalized and vague goals such as:
Clearing the planet.
First, what does it even actually MEAN to "clear a planet". Ask 10 different Scientologists to HONESTLY describe what this means, and they will give different answers. It doesn't really MEAN anything outside of their heads. But also, it is a SLOGAN that elicits an emotional response. THAT is the true value in a mind control cult for these HUGE GOALS (which function as slogans). One needs to study the use of slogans in PR and in controlling masses of people - much has been written on the subject.
Second, the methods ("tech") of Scientology are unable to produce one "clear" person that agrees with Hubbard's various statements on what a "clear" is. So, on the smallest scale, on the individual scale, Scientology cannot even "clear" one person. So, how in the hell is it going to "clear an entire planet"? Well, it is not. Yet various people think and talk about such nonsense.
The Church of Scientology PR machinery pushes this button constantly - CLEAR THE PLANET. Regges pound on that button when they work to extract money from the Scientology members. The repetitious slogan is tossed around at Scientology events.
The TRUTH is that the ONLY thing you REALLY can change anywhere in this whole universe is yourself. Trying to change OTHERS and "make a better world", while you yourself remain an imbecile is absurd. THAT is the nature of Scientology.
These people are off chasing some vague abstract dream, trying to bring the world into alignment with some hazy crazy vision that resonates with Hubbard's over-generalized statements. And, they cannot even realize the much SMALLER aspects of the ideal on a personal or local level.
There are other similar HUGE goals that involve IDEAS that have little to do with reality:
Scientology is creating a new civilization.
Scientology is making a sane world.
Scientology is solving the planet's failure at education.
Hubbard gets his followers to respond to the HUGE GOALS. These goals are so vague as to connect to almost nothing related to REAL life.
Also, and this is key, until one can actually become better and decent on his or her own smaller level, I see it as useless to go out and try to get others to do the same in some emotional war cry of FREEDOM.
Hubbard knew what he was doing when he delineated such VAGUE and GENERAL goals, because they can mean anything to anybody. The individual fills in the details to Hubbard's general statements by DUBBING IN. Hubbard explained the nature of DUB-IN well, and also, as with so many other aspects of Scientology, he used it AGAINST his followers, getting them to dub-in tremendous amounts of detail to his very vague ideas.
The Church of Scientology gets its members chanting in unison about "making it to OT". This is another vague IDEA, that has no actual existence. Each member attaches his or her own personal ideas about what it MEANS to "be an OT", based on Hubbard's often vague statements about such things. Hubbard managed to get all of these people trying to make an "OT World", yet they cannot even make one actual REAL OT on the smaller personal level.
This involves tricking a person into being concerned with the 4th dynamic (abstract IDEA) while ignoring the 1st dynamic (details and specifics). All concern and attention floats up to the clouds of vague abstractions (concepts, ideas, ideals). And largely ignores the details and specifics of ACTUAL REALITY linked to honest observations.
Hubbard studied his General Semantics well, and he also used THAT against his followers. Korzybski encourages people to obsreve and link ideas to specifics and the observable details of reality. But Hubbard used it in the opposite direction. He tricked people into latching onto VAGUE GENERAL IDEAS while abandoning and ignoring honest observations of specifics and details.
This is not unique to Scientology, and it is common for ideologically-driven groups to push the "big abstract goals". This is effective because it allows the individual to relate by dubbing in ones own personal ideas about such things, and also enables a personal EMOTIONAL reaction. The emotional response is KEY to any system of control and entrapment. The phony hyped contrived "enthusiasm" so often visible in the dedicated Scientologist is a manifestation of this "emotional response".
Getting lost in HUGE GOALS causes one to get lost in his or her MIND. It causes one to wallow in the realm THOUGHT (significance).
Simply:
Thought = significance, meaning, ideas, general, vague, conceptual, abstract
Observation = mass, behavior, action, specifics, detailed, tangible
"There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self." - Aldous Huxley
"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi
Reading these got me thinking about a MAJOR flaw with Scientology.
It concentrates on HUGE GOALS, while often failing to be able to realize much smaller goals.
Hubbard talks on and on about HUGE over-generalized and vague goals such as:
Clearing the planet.
First, what does it even actually MEAN to "clear a planet". Ask 10 different Scientologists to HONESTLY describe what this means, and they will give different answers. It doesn't really MEAN anything outside of their heads. But also, it is a SLOGAN that elicits an emotional response. THAT is the true value in a mind control cult for these HUGE GOALS (which function as slogans). One needs to study the use of slogans in PR and in controlling masses of people - much has been written on the subject.
Second, the methods ("tech") of Scientology are unable to produce one "clear" person that agrees with Hubbard's various statements on what a "clear" is. So, on the smallest scale, on the individual scale, Scientology cannot even "clear" one person. So, how in the hell is it going to "clear an entire planet"? Well, it is not. Yet various people think and talk about such nonsense.
The Church of Scientology PR machinery pushes this button constantly - CLEAR THE PLANET. Regges pound on that button when they work to extract money from the Scientology members. The repetitious slogan is tossed around at Scientology events.
The TRUTH is that the ONLY thing you REALLY can change anywhere in this whole universe is yourself. Trying to change OTHERS and "make a better world", while you yourself remain an imbecile is absurd. THAT is the nature of Scientology.
These people are off chasing some vague abstract dream, trying to bring the world into alignment with some hazy crazy vision that resonates with Hubbard's over-generalized statements. And, they cannot even realize the much SMALLER aspects of the ideal on a personal or local level.
There are other similar HUGE goals that involve IDEAS that have little to do with reality:
Scientology is creating a new civilization.
Scientology is making a sane world.
Scientology is solving the planet's failure at education.
Hubbard gets his followers to respond to the HUGE GOALS. These goals are so vague as to connect to almost nothing related to REAL life.
Also, and this is key, until one can actually become better and decent on his or her own smaller level, I see it as useless to go out and try to get others to do the same in some emotional war cry of FREEDOM.
Hubbard knew what he was doing when he delineated such VAGUE and GENERAL goals, because they can mean anything to anybody. The individual fills in the details to Hubbard's general statements by DUBBING IN. Hubbard explained the nature of DUB-IN well, and also, as with so many other aspects of Scientology, he used it AGAINST his followers, getting them to dub-in tremendous amounts of detail to his very vague ideas.
The Church of Scientology gets its members chanting in unison about "making it to OT". This is another vague IDEA, that has no actual existence. Each member attaches his or her own personal ideas about what it MEANS to "be an OT", based on Hubbard's often vague statements about such things. Hubbard managed to get all of these people trying to make an "OT World", yet they cannot even make one actual REAL OT on the smaller personal level.
This involves tricking a person into being concerned with the 4th dynamic (abstract IDEA) while ignoring the 1st dynamic (details and specifics). All concern and attention floats up to the clouds of vague abstractions (concepts, ideas, ideals). And largely ignores the details and specifics of ACTUAL REALITY linked to honest observations.
Hubbard studied his General Semantics well, and he also used THAT against his followers. Korzybski encourages people to obsreve and link ideas to specifics and the observable details of reality. But Hubbard used it in the opposite direction. He tricked people into latching onto VAGUE GENERAL IDEAS while abandoning and ignoring honest observations of specifics and details.
This is not unique to Scientology, and it is common for ideologically-driven groups to push the "big abstract goals". This is effective because it allows the individual to relate by dubbing in ones own personal ideas about such things, and also enables a personal EMOTIONAL reaction. The emotional response is KEY to any system of control and entrapment. The phony hyped contrived "enthusiasm" so often visible in the dedicated Scientologist is a manifestation of this "emotional response".
Getting lost in HUGE GOALS causes one to get lost in his or her MIND. It causes one to wallow in the realm THOUGHT (significance).
Simply:
Thought = significance, meaning, ideas, general, vague, conceptual, abstract
Observation = mass, behavior, action, specifics, detailed, tangible
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