By "ewsnead" more
17 June 2005
Source:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/msg/f7d0c6b4e927cefc
The Scientology cult has been gradually painting itself into a corner since
the billowing of Hubbard's paranoia and advent of heavy ethics during the
1960's. Since then, it's never been a contestable issue whether the cult's
growth rate would initially stall and soon thereafter contract. Scientology is a
contradiction. By disavowing the past, relegating it to a scrapheap, it manages
no learning curve and cannot forge a coherent future. This could not be any
plainer; anyone following the cult's activities recognizes that management
policies are not founded upon the sort of considerations that would allow it any
future. It exists strictly in the now. And it magically believes that
this now can continue indefinitely. The only reason it has managed to stretch this
illusion so far is through bullying, intimidation and the fear capital generated
through a well-earned reputation for ruthlessness.
A discernible pattern has gradually emerged since the San Francisco
Mission holders Conference and subsequent near schism of '82, which initiated the
startling contraction of membership. With the exception of a couple of decent
years in terms of reclaiming some public, this loss of membership continues
unabated and may soon swell into a final crescendo. The pattern assumes this
form: with the remarkable exception of the IRS agreement, COS has lost
practically every legal battle waged through the court system, and all its
misconceived attempts at PR restoration through the media manipulation have been
an utter waste of time. The few victories to which it may reasonably lay claim
(I'm thinking of such rarities as getting Minton out of the cult bashing
business.) have been pyrrhic. Of late, the trajectory of failure has become so
conspicuous as to leave the indelible impression that no matter what the cult
does, it will continue to haemorrhage whatever minute amount of public favor it
once upon a time managed to curry through lies, payoffs to politicians,
misleading front groups, Hollywood shills, etcetera.
What we may be currently witnessing is the coming to fruition of the cult's
contradictions, to have a future without acknowledging a past and of its
perennial determination to always have it both ways, to be a religion and yet be
scientific (a ludicrous oxymoron), to be regarded favorably in the public eye
while taking criminal advantage of whatever social milieu with which it manages
to briefly insinuate itself, to announce to the world that it has exclusive
access to the deepest and most coveted secrets of humankind and the universe
while pandering shamelessly to the basest of motivations by erecting a tasteless
facade adorned with gloss, gold and glitter.
The cult cannot go back. It cannot go forward. It can only stay where it is
in the same place and in the same fashion as it has always been. Stuck in the
frozen *now*. It is as good as dead. The best part is the spectacle of its
destruction, and the hard working critics at ars are among the lucky few who
have box seats to this gala event.
ewsnead
|