Who Will Lead the "Independents"?

Grown men do not need leaders.

                                                        Edward Abbey

Anyone who has read much in this blog will already know that I'm no longer a True Believer of Scientology.  If they have been paying attention, they would also realize that I am not, in actual fact, anti-Scientology (specifically, the belief system) either.

I think that some of Scientology can provide benefit to some people.  If a person wants to practice Scientology (and if they can avoid the abuses and fraud that Scientology seems to engender), then they should be allowed to do so.

Also, readers of this blog will know that I consider the Church of Scientology, and its leaders, to be criminal and fraudulent.

But now we have the self-named "Independents" who appear to want to reconstitute the Church of Scientology in a "reformed" version.  They want an organization.  They want a leader.

OK, so looking at this from the viewpoint of a Scientologist, how could one go about picking a good leader for Scientology?

Scientologists have a limited but lousy record in their choice of leaders -- specifically David Miscavige.  So far, they've "chosen" their leader by accepting whoever declared themselves leader.  To put it bluntly: They have been sheep.

If we pretend they have a choice and they have the will and power to choose their own leader, what qualifications should they look for in their new leader?

Let's try to be serious here and list what a sane group of Scientologists would see as important qualifications for their leader, shall we?  If I were a True Believer and if I were selecting a leader, I would want:

1. Someone who was personally trained by L. Ron Hubbard or, if no one was available, then someone who was directly trained by such a person.
2. Someone who has successfully completed all training and processing with excellent results and who has not been indoctrinated in any of Miscavige's "altered tech".
3. Someone who has successfully run a mission, an org and a Scientology "Continent" (group of churches/missions in one geographic area).
4. Someone who has a track record of successfully running a business in the real world.
5. Someone who has always fought David Miscavige and upheld "Standard Scientology" against Miscavige's rewrites, edits and corruption.
6. Someone who has never allowed or participated in any of the Church of Scientology's crimes, abuses or corruption.

Even with these qualifications, I see Scientology as doomed unless their new leader also is:

7. Someone who explicitly repudiates and rejects any and all Scientology policy that promotes the Scientology abuses, crimes, lies and fraud -- including disconnection, "Enemy" lists, "fair game" and all such anti-social policies.
8. Someone who acknowledges the crimes, abuses, lies and fraud committed previously by Scientology -- even those ordered or condoned by L. Ron Hubbard himself.

Not surprisingly, there do not appear to be any aspirants to leadership in the "Independents" movement who meet the criteria 1-6 and certainly none who meet the last two points.

Of course, these would be my criteria if I were a Scientologist and, before the "Independents" get their knickers in a twist, I would never tell them what to do.  Besides, there is no indication that any of these are actually desirable to the "Independents".

No, this is just an exercise in logical thinking.  I actually expect the "Independents" to use their previous method of choosing their leader: Don't look at a person's track record, don't look at what they've actually done, just accept whoever wants it the most and who says the correct-sounding things.  After all, that worked so well in the past.
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David Miscavige - Scientology's Leader

Meet David Miscavige, Church of Scientology's leader.

What kind of a leader is David Miscavige?

Let's see, when I think of great leaders, I think the greatest of all lead by example. They are the first ones to risk it all, they ask nothing of their followers that they themselves wouldn't do. They lead from in front and are an example of all that is good in the group.

Nope! Leading by example is definitely not Miscavige's style. He demands long, long hours from all staff, with poor food, very poor pay, no rewards and no benefits for his workers. His staff sleeps in bunk beds or, very often they are forced to sleep under their desks. While he, himself, sets his own hours, has luxurious private quarters with servants, has the very best food and whiskey, $500.00 Egyptian cotton shirts and $3,000.00 suits, his own custom van, private cars, and a $20,000.00 custom motorcycle. He takes multiple vacations every year -- at no cost to himself! Staff pay is around $50.00 per week, if they are lucky (and they often are not so lucky), while Miscavige pulls in over $140,000.00 per year -- with no out of pocket expenses!

Nope! Miscavige is not that kind of leader. So what kind of leader is he?

Well, some very good leaders have lead by inspiration and charisma. These leaders inspire great things from their followers because they have a vision, a force of will, ideals that people just want to support and follow.

Nope! This is not Miscavige's style of leadership either. Actually, Miscavige has no vision he can admit to. His core vision is making money and controlling people, which he can't really admit to publicly. When Miscavige is "running things" in any one of his many offices, he has all the charisma of Attila the Hun. Oh, he can appear to be charming at his grandiose, fanciful events, but every phrase, every smile, every pause-for-applause is carefully scripted and is completely fake. No, charisma is not in Miscavige's skill set.

Nope! So far, we've discovered what kind of leader Miscavige is not. But what kind of leader is he? Let's look further:

Does he lead with courage? Some mighty fine leaders get by with great amounts of courage alone.

Nope, Miscavige is a coward. He is a bully. He beats people up because he knows they can't fight back. He browbeats people because they cannot answer. He struts around -- but only because he is surrounded by a retinue of muscle-boys and sycophants. No, Miscavige has never shown any courage.

Well, how about leading by taking responsibility? Some leaders take on huge amounts of responsibility and excite, in their followers, a desire for more responsibility themselves.

Oh lord, definitely not! Miscavige comes up with these "bright" ideas for things, slams his idea through and then takes absolutely no responsibility for the inevitable disaster that follows. Miscavige's "bright" ideas always cause failure and inevitably result in things getting much, much worse. But whatever happens, it is never his fault! He's never responsible for the disasters directly caused by his plans! He blames anyone and everyone else, and metes out punishment by the truckload -- usually by sending his targets to the church's private prison camp. But no matter how many people Miscavige blames for his failures, he keeps failing.

So how does David Miscavige lead the Church of Scientology? He uses these:

• Intimidation: He yells, threatens, insults and abuses.
  
• Lies: He will tell any lie to get what he wants. He tricks, he lies, he fools people.
  
• Beatings: He likes to hit, choke, slap, punch. But only when he has his muscle-boys with him. He especially likes to attack people without warning. He smiles as he does it.
  
• Punishment: At the Int. Base there are many levels of punishment. You can lose your pay, your time off, your meals, your rights to go home and sleep, to see and talk to your family, to take a bath, to get medical attention. These and many more "privileges" can be and are denied by Miscavige and his henchmen, for some minor infraction or for no infraction at all. Note that there are not, and have never been, any balancing "rewards" for good work. Miscavige has used up all the rewards on himself.
  
• RPF: The "Rehabilitation Project Force", a private prison at a number of primary Sea Org bases, where those who are to be punished are forced to do manual labor, with poor food and little sleep, and they must engage in endless "confession" sessions, for years, many years. Some, who "know too much", will, apparently, never be released.
  
• SP Hall: The nickname for a large room at the Int. Base where Miscavige has locked up many of the prior leadership of the Church of Scientology. Their crimes are unknown, but they, too, must endure the never-ending punishments and "confessions" of the RPF.
  
• Sec-checks: All the staff at the Int. Base must endure never-ending "Security Checks", intense sessions of confession, to elicit confessions of any and all transgressions. If a staff member has no transgressions, they are hammered at until they confess to something, anything. Under this intense pressure, most will confess to completely fictitious "crimes", just to escape the room. Oh, but, Miscavige does not, ever, get a Sec Check. Or auditing. Or training.
  
• Degradation: Miscavige loves to read aloud, at staff meetings, everyone's confidential "confessions" from their Sec Checks, the more discreditable, the better. Despite the claims of the church that "auditing sessions are confidential," for Miscavige, they are the joke-of-the-day. Given that these "confessions" are forced and, often, fictitious, the results are truly degrading. But Miscavige has a very good time.
  

So, that's "leadership" as defined by David Miscavige. That's at the very top of the Church of Scientology. That's the epitome of Scientology in action. That's what Scientologists support, every day.

What kind of a leader is David Miscavige? He leads by psychopathic abuse.
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