Scientology faces more criticism in mainstream media thanks to Anonymous
Newsweek has published a story titled The Passion of Anonymous about the ongoing feud between Scientology and Anonymous. It’s also linked from the front page of Msnbc.com, which gives it excellent visibility. I have to give Anonymous lots of credit for successfully taking the war against Scientology this far (though I wish some of Anonymous’s members didn’t strive to appear nearly as evil as Scientology itself is). And I appreciate the merits of their lack of an organizational structure, which brings to mind a Stand Alone Complex. Scientology has shut down dissent by threat of lawsuit for far too long, but now that an anonymous organization has risen up to oppose them, they have no idea who to sue. And this conflict, in turn, gives the mainstream media something to factually report on without risking being sued, thus increasing exposure to the cause.
The Newsweek article really pulls no punches. I especially like their summary of the Scientology creation myth:
Scientology was founded in the mid-1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, the pulp and science-fiction writer and author of “Dianetics.” His new creed promised to improve the condition of the impure immortal spirit, or “thetan,” through “auditing”–an ongoing process for which Scientologists must pay a fee to the church. Thetans were supposedly released into the atmosphere nearly 100 million years ago, when a galactic tyrant named Xenu exiled billions of beings to Earth’s volcanoes and had them vaporized by bombs. All of this is according to Scientology’s origin myth, which church officials have previously struggled to keep private and now no longer claim to espouse.
This mythos was mostly kept secret for the longest time, but now it’s finally becoming well known enough to be reported as fact within major news outlet reports. I even saw it in a children’s pageant. Now the Scientologists have no recourse but to disavow that it was ever true! But if the story of Xenu isn’t true, then where do all of those body thetans that auditing removes come from? If only they had another L. Ron Hubbard to write more pulp scifi crap. But alas he is dead, and hopefully the cult of Scientology will follow in his footsteps soon enough.
Also, don’t forget that Sunday, February 10 is a big anti-Scientology day. The obvious thing would be to go to your local Scientology center on that day and protest. If you aren’t near one, at least take the time to write about Scientology online. The more voices out there, the more likely some poor sap just getting sucked into the cult will discover the truth before it is too late. And the more attention we bring to this issue, the more people will become inoculated to Scientology. The people that get roped into it are generally ignorant; if we raise awareness amongst the entire population, Scientology will starve within a generation after it can no longer continue recruiting.
Update 2008-02-10: It’s February 10, what are you doing to fight Scientology today?
February 9th, 2008 at 11:12
WIN. thank you
February 23rd, 2008 at 01:56
“Anonymous” represents “group think” and group think is always doomed to failure.
Don’t believe me ? I bet the Romans wouldn’t either.
Besides “Karma” will kill “Anonymous” long before Scientology will.
Don’t believe me ? I bet the Romans wouldn’t either.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:21
I think your historical allusions are a bit thin. The Roman empire was the longest surviving single civilization in the history of the world. And they were eventually brought down due to a multitude of causes (Visigoths, widespread lead poisoning amongst the elites, etc.), but “group think” wasn’t really one of them.
As for karma, well, karma isn’t actually a real thing. Though I do agree with you that some of the people in Anonymous either need to get their act together or leave. Some of the recent comments on this blog by people claiming to be “Anonymous” have been really stupid and pointlessly offensive (I’ve deleted the worst of them).
April 23rd, 2008 at 02:52
Old comment is old. But I’m bored and your prompt response to my previous reply has intrigued me. So I’ll weigh in.
“Anonymous” from 2/23, 1:56 doesn’t know what groupthink is.
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon endemic to the small group dynamic. It can most easily be described as the process by which a group blindly follows a bad idea, because no one speaks up to point out how bad it is. They trust someone else to point out that it’s a bad idea, and since no one says anything, they assume that their concerns are unfounded. Then the obviously bad idea fails.
Anyone who has watched Anonymous knows that its modus operandi is the opposite of groupthink. It’s a huge, multinational movement, chock full of people just dying to take the piss out of each other. If an idea is stupid, Anons will be all over it, because we like nothing more than to mock the stupid.
Contrary to the creed, Anonymous has many flaws, but groupthink is not among them. Anonymous is not a really a group. Anonymous is a massive collective of individuals who do whatever they want, and can (occasionally) agree to work together to get what they want.
As for the MSNBC article, it was a blow to scientology, for the few seconds that it was relevant. It said more about the state of the popular internet consciousness that such an article was written in the first place, and that, I think, is the salient bit of news in this post. Unless I have misunderstood your point.
The funny bit being that the cult has completely missed the point. Comments on the MSNBC article reek of Co$ trolling. They don’t get how futile it is to do so. The only point of trolling a comment section is lulz, and the Co$ has a poor sense of humor.
But then, the Co$ actually thinks people will believe that the Xenu story isn’t a part of their dogma. They don’t have a good understanding of the rational mind. I guess it’s because they hate psychology so much.
October 15th, 2010 at 06:30
There has been a dire lack of truth and understanding that has been bred into the younger generations. The youth of today take things for granted and accept any statement as fact and fail to question the origins and truth of the subject matter. End the cycle of stupidity, we must create change or die in a stagnant pool of information tampering and filth. RISE UP! Either as an individual or as a group.