Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA04116 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 18 Jan 2002 20:08:44 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020118150511.02c448f0@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 15:06:05 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: Re: Scientology 3/4 In-Reply-To: <4e.511c572.2978c6be@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> >You don't
> >need to wield power over people's thoughts when your memes are colonizing
> >their minds. You don't have to be consciously trying to enslave them.
>
> L. Ron Hubbard was really clear about enslaving people *long* before he
> cooked up dianetics and scientology.
L. Ron Hubbard was delusional. He never enslaved anyone but himself. And
those who followed him took up his example.
"Material things are yours for the asking. Men are your slaves. Elemental
spirits are your slaves. You are power among powers, light in the darkness,
beauty in all." LRH well before he started scientology. (I agree about
delusional on other grounds though.)
http://www.b-org.demon.nl/scn/roots/admissions-hubbard.html
> The business of responsibility for
> what you do is a tricky one. Some people, such as the John Walker in the
> news, are less responsible than people like bin Laden.
>
> Keith Henson
"Mind control" can't explain anything that isn't already accounted for by
memetic colonization. The concept seems to serve no function except to
demonize the individuals who initiate and perpetuate the cult while
infantilizing their recruits. Because they are inhuman, you are justified
in opposing them by any means necessary. The slaves to the cult have no
rights. They are thus subject to kidnapping and forced "deprogramming." If
a misguided judiciary rules this illegal, then they are subject to prolonged
harassment, such as following them to their homes and workplaces, writing
down the license plate numbers on their cars, sending them offensive notes
in the mail, and even picketing their children at school. And when the law
goes on to rule that this behavior is also criminal, you are perfectly in
your right to flee to a foreign country and demand refugee status. It's the
same kind of narcissism that exempted Hubbard from the rules everyone else
had to abide by.
I have, on the basis of understanding how cults (cult memes) abuse people,
discussed the possibility of intervention. Perhaps we should not intervene
on the basis of protecting the cult members but on the basis of protecting
the rest of us from cults such as bin Laden's and Aum. I think a lot of
people from New York and Tokyo would agree.
As far as the rest of your accusation against me, I did indeed follow the
buses to the cults dorms where they are housed 8 to 10 of them in a 2
bedroom apartment to collect addresses. No postcards were mailed there
because we found out they were not permitted mail. I did not intentionally
follow them to work except accidentally because I tried to get there ahead
of them. I did not picket the dorms even though at the same time they were
picketing my house. Scientology staffers at gold base have no children, it
is forbidden. On the other hand a bunch of them followed my daughter to
her school. See the attached report of that day.
License plates . . . take a look at my postings from the summer of 2000. I
reported a lot of license places, most of them on the cars of private
investigators who were following *me."
And please take a look at the charges and "evidence" used against me in the
trial. Take a careful look at the motions in limine that eliminated my
witnesses and even the ability to point out perjury by their
witnesses. See if you think it was fair or rigged. Take a look at the
death threat posted on May 17 by Gwen Summerfield. Look into how I was
arrested by the SWAT team in Canada and the outcome of that. A lot of it
can be found at www.operatingthetan.com
But when you consider that cult-members remain human beings who, like so
many others, have fallen under the sway of pathological memes, then you're
not dealing with demons or slaves but people, and there's no justification
whatsoever for harassment or forced "deprogramming."
In my readings over the last few days, I've repeatedly encountered the
sentiment that anti-Scientology groups are even more inflexible and
fanatical than the Scientologists themselves.
There are no anti scientology groups. The last two were CAN, the Cult
Awareness Network. Scientology sued them out of existence several years
ago, and bought the name and phone number from the bankruptcy court. Call
now and you get scientology. The Lisa McPherson Trust used to help
scientologists who were leaving, but hey were sued out of existence too,
though their web site is still up.
It makes me wonder if the
virulent Scientology meme hasn't set off an equally virulent
anti-Scientology meme. One side thinks L. Ron is the savior, while the
other side sees him as the great destroyer. Cult and countercult. The
strange thing is that they seem to reinforce each other. As long as
Scientology persists, anti-Scientology will continue flourishing. As long
as anti-Scientology persecutes Scientologists for their beliefs, then public
sympathy will be generated for Scientology.
This is not the case. The more the public learns about scientology the
harder it is for them to find new members. Scientology is a bait and
switch operation--you are never told what you are getting into when you
join. Few would join if they knew they were signing up to pay hundreds of
thousands of dollars to be brainwashed into believing they are infested
with thousands of spirits of murdered space aliens.
snip
(continued with an example posting in 4/4)
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