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The Bonfire of the Vanities

skydog

Patron Meritorious
One of the keys to understanding how scientology has the ability to defraud people out of hundreds and thousands of dollars and recruit slave labor willing to forgo their civil rights in pursuit of some nebulous goal of “clearing the planet” is the concept of pride. Pride, the original and most dangerous of the seven deadly sins, can be a motivator not only of criminals, but also of victims. Scientology targets a person’s ruin to attract its victims and presses the pride button to keep them happily within the fold. As formidable as their legal machine is, without the use of this pride button, scientology would collapse like a wet taco.

“You are not a victim” is a prime example. Forget the fact that a person has spent his inheritance or borrowed money he has no reasonable prospects of repaying on a bridge to nowhere or that a person is held captive and forced to work long hours for little or no compensation, they are not victims. They do so because they are better than the rest of the people on this planet. They are mighty thetans that need no sleep and have unlimited abilities. The best cons are those where the victim doesn’t know he is being conned and keeps coming back for more. When all other arguments fail, just tell a person how wonderful and special they are and watch them bend over to kiss your ass.

While this is not intended to be a rant against Marty Rathbun, his conflict with the current management brings to mind Tom Wolfe’s novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities”. Rathbun rails against Miscavige’s arrogance while displaying an equally pathological arrogance of his own. It is only on his site that anyone can really find out about the “real” scientology. (http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/lying-in-miscaviges-70-million-bunker/). He justifies his own crimes with the familiar Hubbardian defense of “we were upstat” so we get a pass. (http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/blood-money/) The idea that the “ends justify the means” or that we are better than you so it is alright in the end is thoroughly ingrained in every scientologist in or out of the organized church. This is the message that both Marty Rathbun and David Miscavige are preaching and each will arrogantly dismiss any individual that suggests otherwise.

It is my sincere hope that someone in the Internal Revenue Service is paying attention to the escalating conflagration between Rathbun and Miscavige. In his most recent post (http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/lying-in-miscaviges-70-million-bunker/) Rathbun appears to be lamenting the fact that Miscavie’s actions may result in the removal of the church’s tax-exempt status-an action that appears to be long overdue. In his covert and vainglorious way, he is reminding his flock of his own importance in perpetrating this fraud on the US government and appears to suggest that providing this tax subsidy to a small band of fanatics would, without Miscavige, be perfectly acceptable.
 

me myself & i

Patron Meritorious
One of the keys to understanding how scientology has the ability to defraud people out of hundreds and thousands of dollars and recruit slave labor willing to forgo their civil rights in pursuit of some nebulous goal of “clearing the planet” is the concept of pride.

And another is 'lust' for personal power and it's often misguided counterpart 'control'.

Possesing superman like properties as featured/promised beginning with clear and on through OT is a common denominator of aspiring converts (though often secretly harbored within). The Mother-Of-Em-All being complete and unbridled power and control over Matter Energy Space and Time. Lol!

Like children eagerly awaiting for Santa and following all of the rules (be good).


mm&i
 
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