Freedom of Knowledge | Print |
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 15:32

The world has changed drastically since the 1990s and one big reason for that is freedom of information. You are reading this now directly because people decided to make information free. No one would really argue that the world has not benefited from the achievement.

As a comparative, Tesla wanted to make energy free to everyone. He had the technology to do it. Edison wanted to meter it out and sell it for money. And so you set the thermostat to shave money off that monthly electricity bill. Where would we be today, however, if a century ago unlimited energy would have been available to everyone for free?

Today we stand at a crossroads in history. Scientology is comprised of profound yet practical discoveries which would benefit all mankind. The original genus of Scientology was as an answer to genocide and the possible annihilation of the human race by his own hands. Now indeed there are a number of environmental threats any of which could change life as we know it on earth as swiftly as nuclear war: global warming, asteroid or comet impact, the return of an ice ages, super volcanoes as Yellowstone, pollution, pandemics.

If the purpose of Scientology is to put the tools for better living into the hands of anyone who wants them, and if there is even a slight chance that our days on earth are potentially numbered, then WHY are we hording the technology?

In 1989 I had global responsibility for marketing Dianetics worldwide. I found that the price of the Dianetics book in many nations was above the average wage-earner's monthly income. When I tried to change this, to make books affordable to people all over the world, I ran directly into David Miscavige who forbade any consideration. It was hard to accept at the time that anyone calling himself a Scientologist could be so utterly devoid of care for his fellowman, but in retrospect the facts of the case are as clear as a knife in the back: David Miscavige didn't care what happened to some father down in São Paulo trying to save his daughter's life. What he cared about was money #1. And image #2.

Hubbard introduced a sometimes misunderstood concept called "clearing the planet" based on his observation that if only about 20% happy, decent people were mixed into a defeated or criminal group, the whole group gained a new outlook on life. Applying that principle to the planet at large in the aftermath of World War II, the looming threat of atomic destruction, and the grief that occasioned some 13 million murdered at the hands of the Nazis... he began to broadcast his discoveries as an answer to the doubt and shadows into which the culture as a whole had sunk.

If only some 20% were to regain their potentialities, it would be enough to rap the planet's proverbial "clear" button (borrowing from the analogy of the calculator where the button marked "C" for "Clear" erases all past additions and confusions so that correct and logical answers can be obtained). 

The objective was to regain for humankind their collective ability to lift ourselves to higher and better places instead of lowering down the stairs to our own destruction.

Why can't we align Scientology and bring it into agreement with it's basic purposes? The books, lectures and greater knowledge of Scientology could be freely available online. Organizations could still manufacture and sell books of all qualities, expensive for people who want them. Hardbacks. Paperbacks. And for those of us who don't care about paper, the technology could be had. 

By making the technology that L. Ron Hubbard originally intended as a gift to mankind actually free to everyone, Scientology would be taking a giant step toward shedding it's cult image. 

Should Scientology knowledge be free?

-- Written by Thoughtful