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View Full Version : Scientology to get a Ruthless blow


betovernetcapper
03-17-2016, 02:35 AM
Ron Miscavige, the father of Scientology leader David Miscavige, has written a memoir about his controversial son. David is the head of Scientology. While loved in the church, he's been written about unfavorably in the past. My impression is that is not a very nice guy and somewhat disingenuous and probably a little paranoid. This book came about because he had his own father tailed for two years and his father's assignation may have been on the table.

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-scientology-leader-s-father-to-publish-memoir-ruthless-20160316-story.html

My guess is this going to hurt the church and maybe it's time for it to fall by the wayside.

Some background on the church. LR Hubbard was the founder and started with a self help book called Dianetics. Prior to that he was a science fiction writer and a pretty good one. His problem was that he was writing pretty good work at a time when SCI-FI writers were paid by the word. He was making a living, but not on a path to wealth. Allegedly in a conversation with Robert Heinland, Heinland mentioned that a way to become rich was to form a religion or philosophy Hubbard took that idea and ran with it. His early work was at least if not superior to psychiatric theory's at the time. His ideas and techniques worked & could be used to quit smoking-lose weight whatever. His notions how how the world worked were as viable as most others.
How could a sci-fi writer come up with a working philosophy? In his book, The Fundamentals of Thought, there was a chapter called Be-Do-Have that was brilliant. Only problem was that a guy named Jean Paul Sarte wrote it 20 years previously. Jean Paul wrote it in a way that only academics could understand it. L Ron rewrote in a way that was understandable to the average person. The only thing I've read by Sarte that I found impact full was his introduction to a bad play called The Maids.
Aside IMO Philosophers that write brilliant work in a fashion that only other philosophers can understand aren't really doing their job. Today Andrew Wiles won an award & $700,000 for discovering a solution to Fermat's Last Theorem which is "There are no whole number solutions to the equation xn + yn = zn when n is greater than 2." People have been working on this for 300 years. Wiles seems like a nice guy, but who cares?
Back on topic, L Ron wrote some original work but lifted ideas as it suited him. He stole but from usually the best. When it became a church, he began to lose contact with all but yes men & true believers. The structure of the organization demanded a new program/book every six months or so. As L Ron became more isolated, he began to write some weird stuff. The nature of the organization was such that questioning any of his work, was unthinkable. At some point L Ron became sort of bat shit crazy and finished his days living alone nude in a barn with long finger nails.
At some point David Miscavige took control of the organization and made it more financially profitable & completed making it a cult operating somewhat like the KGB. This book is going to wound the organization, but it will continue, however I doubt there will many new members.
Curious because if they'd have stayed with their original notions, they might have done some good.