The Anabaptist Jacques
Crusader
One of the debilitating effects of Study Tech is that it often decreases one’s capacity to use language in a fluid way.
This is because Study Tech puts such emphasis on the dictionary as the authoritarian reference for the use and meaning of words.
Study Tech assigns each word a territory and a boundary. Thus users of Study Tech often miss the purpose of language.
They can’t see the forest (language) because of the trees (words). This happens IN Scientology.
Users of Study Tech develop the tendency to emphasize the fixed meaning of words rather than the understanding of ideas.
In other words, they become literal in their use of words, which limits their capacity to understand.
Study Tech negates the use and existence of such figures of rhetoric as metonymy and synecdoche.
A metonymy is a figure of rhetoric in which the name of one object is put for some other object, the two being so closely related that the mention of one naturally suggests the other.
Examples of this are: “I read Shakespeare”; “Man shall live by the sweat of his brow”; “France would not consent.”; “Bayonets speak“; “This happens in Scientology”; “What does the Freezone believe?”
Scientologists whose fluidity of language is reduced by the use of Study Tech often dismiss a metonymy as “a generality.”
They have lost their taste and imagination in the use of language, relying only on the meaning of words instead.
This happens also with the use a synecdoche.
A synecdoche is a figure of rhetoric in which the name of a part is used to represent the whole, or the name of the whole is used to represent a part, or a definite number used to represent an indefinite.
Examples: “All hands were working”; “Ten thousand exes rejoiced.”; “The world condemns him.” Scientologists and exes often dismiss this expression of an idea too as simply “a generality.”
Both figures of speech are founded on the contiguity of two objects of thought.
This won’t be understood if the person emphasizes words and not language.
Study Tech adherents also have difficulty understanding or comprehending litotes.
Litotes are the reverse of hyperbole.
It consists in giving emphasis to an idea by using terms that convey less than the truth.
For example “Show thyself a man.” This means that the person speaking to is urged to put forth the noblest qualities of manhood.
Also, some litotes are denials of the contrary instead of a direct of a direct statement.
For example: “I do not think him a great man.” By emphasizing words and not language this will get missed in Study Tech.
Scientologists and exes who adhere to Study Tech often do not make these connections, as they emphasize words and not thoughts.
The adherents to study tech miss the ideas because they do not understand the use of language.
Now there are some who say they mixed Study Tech with other common sense tools.
But this is a flaw in their precsion of language.
Because if Study Tech is not applied exactly it is not Study Tech.
Study Tech is not just looking up words; it is a unified association of actions designed to compel a particular interpretation of a written statement.
But by ignoring language it misses its target.
When people say they use common sense this implies they could not have attained understanding through the use of Study Tech, thus Study Tech has failed.
The following is from the standard high school textbook used in high schools in the United States in the 1890s.
I will add comments in brackets to show how this differs from Study Tech.
From: Elements of Composition and Rhetoric by Virginia Waddy
1. Always note a new word, with a view to ascertaining its precise meaning and use. [Note how “precise meaning and use” differs from “full conceptual understanding.” The result is that one is a precise understanding and the Study Tech leaves the student with imprecise word associations.]
2. Make constant use of a dictionary. It is the practice of many great scholars never to allow a word to pass without an examination, if there is the least doubt about its origin, pronunciation, meaning, or spelling. [Some may say that this is the same as L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Tech. But the difference lies in the step one. One seeks out precision and the other seeks out association.]
3. Study Etymology It is useful to trace out the origin, composition, and primary meaning of words…
4. Seek good society. There is a great advantage to be derived from a frequent association with intelligent and cultivated persons. One who has that advantage will acquire a good vocabulary without great effort.
5. Read the best books carefully. Observe the selection and combination of words as illustrated by the best authors, if you would be profited by formal rhetorical rules. You must not, however, imitate your author in a slavish spirit.
6. The words of any composition should be pure, appropriate, precise, and simple.
[End of Waddy's book]
Failure to see the distinction and the result of these distinctions would be one of the consequences of using Study Tech.
When people tell me that Study Tech works if you are not slavish to it means that they themselves do not use Study Tech as a system.
They see flaws and they make adjustments.
But it is those adjustments that give the results, because it is apparent that Study Tech, per Hubbard, reduces the student’s capacity to understand language.
The Anabaptist Jacques
This is because Study Tech puts such emphasis on the dictionary as the authoritarian reference for the use and meaning of words.
Study Tech assigns each word a territory and a boundary. Thus users of Study Tech often miss the purpose of language.
They can’t see the forest (language) because of the trees (words). This happens IN Scientology.
Users of Study Tech develop the tendency to emphasize the fixed meaning of words rather than the understanding of ideas.
In other words, they become literal in their use of words, which limits their capacity to understand.
Study Tech negates the use and existence of such figures of rhetoric as metonymy and synecdoche.
A metonymy is a figure of rhetoric in which the name of one object is put for some other object, the two being so closely related that the mention of one naturally suggests the other.
Examples of this are: “I read Shakespeare”; “Man shall live by the sweat of his brow”; “France would not consent.”; “Bayonets speak“; “This happens in Scientology”; “What does the Freezone believe?”
Scientologists whose fluidity of language is reduced by the use of Study Tech often dismiss a metonymy as “a generality.”
They have lost their taste and imagination in the use of language, relying only on the meaning of words instead.
This happens also with the use a synecdoche.
A synecdoche is a figure of rhetoric in which the name of a part is used to represent the whole, or the name of the whole is used to represent a part, or a definite number used to represent an indefinite.
Examples: “All hands were working”; “Ten thousand exes rejoiced.”; “The world condemns him.” Scientologists and exes often dismiss this expression of an idea too as simply “a generality.”
Both figures of speech are founded on the contiguity of two objects of thought.
This won’t be understood if the person emphasizes words and not language.
Study Tech adherents also have difficulty understanding or comprehending litotes.
Litotes are the reverse of hyperbole.
It consists in giving emphasis to an idea by using terms that convey less than the truth.
For example “Show thyself a man.” This means that the person speaking to is urged to put forth the noblest qualities of manhood.
Also, some litotes are denials of the contrary instead of a direct of a direct statement.
For example: “I do not think him a great man.” By emphasizing words and not language this will get missed in Study Tech.
Scientologists and exes who adhere to Study Tech often do not make these connections, as they emphasize words and not thoughts.
The adherents to study tech miss the ideas because they do not understand the use of language.
Now there are some who say they mixed Study Tech with other common sense tools.
But this is a flaw in their precsion of language.
Because if Study Tech is not applied exactly it is not Study Tech.
Study Tech is not just looking up words; it is a unified association of actions designed to compel a particular interpretation of a written statement.
But by ignoring language it misses its target.
When people say they use common sense this implies they could not have attained understanding through the use of Study Tech, thus Study Tech has failed.
The following is from the standard high school textbook used in high schools in the United States in the 1890s.
I will add comments in brackets to show how this differs from Study Tech.
From: Elements of Composition and Rhetoric by Virginia Waddy
1. Always note a new word, with a view to ascertaining its precise meaning and use. [Note how “precise meaning and use” differs from “full conceptual understanding.” The result is that one is a precise understanding and the Study Tech leaves the student with imprecise word associations.]
2. Make constant use of a dictionary. It is the practice of many great scholars never to allow a word to pass without an examination, if there is the least doubt about its origin, pronunciation, meaning, or spelling. [Some may say that this is the same as L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Tech. But the difference lies in the step one. One seeks out precision and the other seeks out association.]
3. Study Etymology It is useful to trace out the origin, composition, and primary meaning of words…
4. Seek good society. There is a great advantage to be derived from a frequent association with intelligent and cultivated persons. One who has that advantage will acquire a good vocabulary without great effort.
5. Read the best books carefully. Observe the selection and combination of words as illustrated by the best authors, if you would be profited by formal rhetorical rules. You must not, however, imitate your author in a slavish spirit.
6. The words of any composition should be pure, appropriate, precise, and simple.
[End of Waddy's book]
Failure to see the distinction and the result of these distinctions would be one of the consequences of using Study Tech.
When people tell me that Study Tech works if you are not slavish to it means that they themselves do not use Study Tech as a system.
They see flaws and they make adjustments.
But it is those adjustments that give the results, because it is apparent that Study Tech, per Hubbard, reduces the student’s capacity to understand language.
The Anabaptist Jacques