I would also like to thank all those Scientologists who have argued with me. I do learn a lot from the arguments. As my understanding has been changed over the years by some of those who have argued with me, so I hope I have been able to change some of your understanding as well.
As it is traditional at New Years to look back and look forward, I have been thinking about all that has happened in the few years this blog has been in existence.
First, a look back.
Shortly after I started Ask the Scientologist, the infamous Tom Cruise video was leaked in January of 2008. At that time, no one knew how that would affect Scientology. It changed everything.
I don't need to rehash that in any detail, but from the efforts of the Church of Scientology to suppress the video came Anonymous' Project Chanology and from that came the collapse of the Church of Scientology.
In light of David Miscavige's recent announcement of his "victory over Anonymous", I want to point out exactly what Anonymous and the Internet did.
Before Anonymous, the Church of Scientology was, essentially, untouchable. Major media had learned its lesson from Time Magazine -- if you said anything negative about the Church of Scientology, even when completely true and proven in court, it would cost you millions and millions. No major media would risk that, so the church's crimes, lies, fraud and abuse were universally ignored.
Before Anonymous, critics and whistle-blowers were viciously fair-gamed, attacked, slandered and libelled. Once again, the Church of Scientology's million-dollar lawyers made it virtually impossible for the whistle-blowers to defend themselves.
Now it is true that the Church of Scientology was shrinking and had been for three decades, but this was primarily because of Miscavige's incompetence, poor leadership and stupidity, not because of any external force. It was a train wreck in slow motion.
Then came Anonymous.
Turns out it was the perfect way to attack and expose the Church of Scientology's crimes, lies, abuse and fraud. Every single weapon the church possessed was completely nullified. The attack had no leaders, no organization, no faces, no names, just information -- pure, verifiable information.
Almost immediately, many more people became involved in this fight. Suddenly the treasure trove of information collected by critics and whistle-blowers over fifty years, plus tons of new leaks, documents, affidavits, court records, confidential church issues and so much more, exploded over the Internet. The church's crimes, lies, abuse and fraud were exposed for all to see. And the Church of Scientology could do nothing to stop it.
The truth has always been Scientology's Achilles heel, and they could do nothing about these leaks and their ineffective attempts to do so just fuelled the flames.
Today, the environment is completely different for the church. Major media can and does report regularly on the church's crimes, lies, fraud and abuse. Virtually no one outside of the Church of Scientology has a good opinion of the church. The information about Scientology that was once so carefully hidden is now available for all to see -- and millions have seen it.
Very notably, in all this media coverage was the incredible exposés of the St. Petersburg Times by Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin. Their series, The Truth Rundown, was incredible -- and they aren't stopping.
And let us not forget Anderson Cooper's series, Scientology: A History of Violence. David Miscavige's incredibly stupid and incompetent rebuttals were more damaging than anything Anderson revealed.
And there were a lot more major media reports and exposés, all over the world. No one is afraid of the Church of Scientology any more.
Far from there being any "victory" here for Miscavige, the Internet has defeated the Church of Scientology at every turn. As the saying goes, the Church of Scientology can't afford any more "victories" like that.
As we come up on the third year anniversary of the protests, we see that, while the protests are often smaller and are no longer appearing at all the smaller orgs, they are still continuing. This is both impressive and important. The crimes, lies, abuses and fraud of the Church of Scientology continue to this day. That must not be forgotten.
This year we also saw the Headley case dismissed. That was disappointing, but not unexpected. However, the great part was, after evidence was presented in court, the Church of Scientology had to admit it was all true. Yes, they do abuse their staff. Yes, they don't give them any time off. Yes, they pay them next to nothing. Yes, they feed staff table-scraps and force them to sleep under their desks. Yes, yes, yes. But, they said, we're allowed to do that, we're a cult!
And the court agreed. Didn't like it but had to agree. Yes, they can abuse their staff. This is now public record. This was not the "victory" that the church claimed, was it?
Several new books have come out this year exposing Scientology's evils. No longer does the church have any power to stop them. This year we've seen:
- Counterfeit Dreams by Jefferson Hawkins
- Scientology: Abuse at the Top by Amy Scobee
- My Billion Year Contract by Nancy Many
- The Road to Xenu:Life Inside Scientology by Margery Wakefield
- Understanding Scientology: The Demon Cult by Margery Wakefield
- Blown for Good by Marc Headley
- The Miscavige Legal Statements: A Study in Perjury, Lies and Misdirection by Larry Brennan
- Deceived (One Woman's stand against the Church of Scientology) by Bonnie Woods
- Hollywood, Satanism, Scientology, And Suicide by Jerry Staton
- The Complex - An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology by John Duignan and Nicola Tallent
In 2010, Scientologists continued to leave the church, Miscavige continued to make huge mistakes and fail miserably, and the Church of Scientology continued to collapse. Overall, it was a good year.
Please let me know if I've forgotten any significant events of 2010.
Next: What about the future?
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Thanks,Bill. This is a perfect summary of what has happened over the last three years. I am glad to see you write about the role Anonymous has played. Anons are loathe to seek recognition for themselves since we are allergic to Unwarranted Self-Importance.
ReplyDeleteOur principle is "We do what we can because we must" as the Portal Song has it.
I would only add that Anonymous is the achievement of the Millennial Generation born after 1980. 80% of Anonymous is under the age of 35, and it has produced a hero of age 15, Epic Nose Guy, who was charged in London in 2008 for a sign reading, "Scientology is a dangerous cult."
You also deserve credit. Your insightful posts and amazing willingness to answer each and every question has been extremely helpful to us in exposing the cult.
March 13, 2011, will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of that odious charlatan, L. Ron Hubbard. It will be an occasion to celebrate the demise of the abusive cult he created and which the sociopathic dictator David Miscavige is desperately and failingly attempting to hold together.
Wytherin here again. Steadily working through all your posts. I have gone back to the beginning and I noticed that in earlier days, you got a lot of Scientologist trolls. The latest posts don't seem to be getting that much. Are you still getting trolling that your not letting through, or has the Anon stuff made the trolls go away? If so, what do you attribute that to?
ReplyDeleteI swear, you should go back and read your posts and comments sections from the beginning. You need to sell popcorn with this thing!
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words.
No one should forget what Anonymous did regarding Scientology. It was unique, amazing and very significant -- people who had absolutely no personal reason for fighting Scientology's evil took up the cause just because it was right. My admiration is boundless.
@wytherin
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your comments and appreciation of what I've tried to do here.
I think the lack of Scientology trolls is due to several factors. But I think the main reason is that I love trolls. I learned (the hard way) how the Scientology trolls operate -- all their tricks.
So I don't get upset and I don't let them sidetrack me. And I always hold them up as examples of what Scientology is all about. I really do love them, they always make my points for me. Sometimes I leave the best parts out of my articles, just so I can use them when the troll shows up. It's just fun for me -- and they hate that.
I occasionally do go back and look at old stuff just to keep from repeating myself. I especially like the conversations in the three Ask a Question threads. I hope one day to make them more readable -- if I have time.
One thing you missed IMO is the wonderful Senate Inquiry here in Oz that the cult got to appear at and completely show the world how stupidly inept they are at fighting the truth.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who was there and had appeared before the Committee just hours before, to watch the cult blatantly lie to Oz Senators who then proceeded to demolish those lies was a thing of joy. And the media were all over it as it was on public record. It was a major blow for the cult here and everywhere else. Even tho' they shipped some 30 "OTs" down for the day, it still went horribly wrong for them.
Recommendations from that included an anti-cult taskforce to be set up to monitor cults, Co$ to have to prove charitable status via good works TO THE COMMUNITY to qualify for tax exemption, etc etc. And the best part was the admission to the Committee by the cult's PR person that the cult, if it were in fact everything it claimed to be, would have no problems with any of these findings.
And Anons definitely were part of the reason that that Inquiry was held in the first place. But so were the many ex-scilons who worked hard to get it all happening. But I think the major player in all this win is DM. Without his manic micro-managing the Senate Inquiry here, it wouldn't have been the epic fail for the cult that it turned out to be.
Stupid cult is stupid, and moron leader is a moron.
And Anons have been the shining light of truth into the blackness of this toxic cult.
@Scooter
ReplyDeleteThank you! An excellent addition to the list of wonderful things that happened in 2010.
Congratulations and well done to all in Oz that made this possible.
Thanks for this, Bill. As we look back, we'd like to thank you for also being a light of truth.
ReplyDeleteSo many have contributed to where we are now. And it seems that we have done what we set out to do. We all think winning should look like a big fanfare with bells and whistles. Rather, winning is the almost silent whimper of their fading into the sunset. Might they always exist in some form? Yes. But we have taken them apart in the form they were. And we will continue to do so. Continue the Fight!
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I have been able to contribute to the effort.
I know what you mean about winning. We all were looking forward to seeing David Miscavige dragged off in chains, pictures of "Ideal Orgs" all boarded up and the "Super Power" building under the wrecking ball.
So far, it hasn't been that spectacular.
It still might happen...
My "resolution" is to somehow effect the public's understanding of what the Scientology practice IS at it's core.
ReplyDeleteI think it will take about 5 - 10 years until the public in general understands the following.
Scientology is MOSTLY talk therapy at the "lower levels" , and it's mostly exorcism at the "upper levels". In terms of the members' time spent doing the spiritual improvement steps of the "Bridge to Total Freedom" chart that lays out Hubbard's serious spiritual improvement practices, Scientology's lower levels are talk therapy, and the upper levels are mainly exorcism.
Talk therapy and exorcism.
Scientology is a talk therapy, and it is exorcism.
And the public needs to absorb what Scientology is, as far as the practice of it concerns.
Getting the exorcism into the public's mind, so that people KNOW in advance, that Scientology will lead them to exorcising dead space aliens, and paying (making fixed donations) to learn how to exorcise their dead space alien souls that infest them, the public SHOULD learn that THAT is what the vaunted "upper levels" of Scientology (the "OT" levels 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) consist of various efforts to exorcise dead space alien souls ("body thetans") from themselves.
This has to somehow make it into the public's mind, in its simplicity.
Getting this into the definitions of Scientology in the various academic books, etc, is what I see MOST missing that would quench the public's curiosity about WHAT Scientology really is!
The abuses of the members of themselves, will ebb and flow, and someday when the abuses lessen, I think STILL what I as a public person would have LIKED to have had someone tell me simply in defining Scientology, is what I've said above.
And those around LRH when he died, who know what LRH was complaining about in his own case, the fact that LRH was STILL auditing himself on Solo NOTs (OT 7), when he passed, THAT is important.
LRH said that there were a LOT more "body thetans" influencing us all, compared to what we previously thought.
And LRH's exorcism practices, the "upper levels" 3, 4 5, 6 and 7, there is a huge amount of time being spent today by the members to deal with (exorcise) their share of these "body thetans" (the dead alien souls that infest us all, and those souls who have their mental implants from the OT 3 Wall of Fire - Fourth Dynamic Engram and the 36 and 1/2 days of implanting that Xenu put ALL of the souls in this part of the galaxy through, supposedly, 75 million years ago, etc, etc.)
My long term resolution is repeating this information until it actually seeps into the world's understanding of WHAT Scientology practice actually is.
I think that the St. Petersburg Times deserves extra praise, because it always refused to be shuddered into silence. Otherwise I agree with everything you mentioned. I heve never been involved, so I owe you many thanks for answering all the questions I have asked over the last two years. It's great that you share your knowledge and experience, and if I had a friend or family member with doubts about their involvement, I would direct them straight to your blog. Thank God nobody I care about is trapped in the cult. I wish you a very happy and very productive year, your doing a great job. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The St. Petersburg Times deserves much praise for their continuing exposure of the Church of Scientology's wrongdoing. Definitely!
ReplyDeleteShine the light in all the dark corners of that cult!
Hi Chuck! Great to have your thoughts as ever.
ReplyDeleteThe "talk therapy and exorcism" summation is brilliant. I have been trying to boil this down for years and will be using it.
You know what the really funny thing is?
ReplyDeleteAnon vs CoS was just a warm-up.
Now, the info-war is in full flow; Wikileaks, ACTA, CleanFeed, and more.
Not to mention the Open-Source Insurgency being seen on the streets the UK.
And, in my view, it was Project Chanology that set the ball rolling. It showed what the Internet can do when the will is there.
I would genuinely love it if, when history is written, many years from now, Scientology's primary contribution to the story of our world was as a practise target for a new breed of activist.
Re: Anonymous and Project Chanology
ReplyDeleteIndeed! This was the first, but it won't be the last -- and that, in my opinion, should be the way history records it.