Common Sense

| Print |

Saturday, 18 April 2009 09:59

Accept my apologies for blatant plagiarism in using the above title and the name of one of our (USA’s) most respected heroes but bear with me and I think you will see it is appropriate. THE POWER GAME On more than one occasion I’ve heard someone bemoan the current lack of truly big and booming missions such as used to exist. Apparently they were huge with large premises, hundreds of staff; some even had live-in quarters for the personnel. I have no personal knowledge of them but I certainly do remember hearing of these giants back in the late 70s. So what happened to them? Well I do know about that. I remember those mission holders were savaged by Miscavige in the early 80s and the Finance Police sent in to finish the job.  Some of those mission holders were verbally declared on the spot by Miscavage, in total contravention of LRH policy on justice and on how to deal with field and mission matters, namely no savage ethics, and I remember a small voice in my head which I quickly quieted, but not before it had said: “Verbal  declares? Savage actions on the field? That’s not right; nobody has the power to override LRH policy like that.” But I quickly ignored the whole affair; surely those mission holders were bad people and deserved it. And when they had been so alienated that they went over to the enemy and attacked the Church that just proved how truly bad they were. Or did it? Perhaps the small voice in my head had been correct. Had such an outrageous injustice been done to these people that they felt they had no choice but to revolt? Did their ARCXs generalize and did they think the combined ranks of the Church were against them? LRH points out what an extreme reaction injustice causes and the fact that it can create protest, riot, and revolution. And if it was such a correct action then surely the mission network would be better off, but it is not. And who can blame anyone for not wanting to build a juggernaut of a mission. Anyone who did has been obliterated. You can’t have it both ways. It’s one or the other. It has to have been a correct action leading to expansion or a destructive act leading to contraction. You decide. But if you are hung up on how and why such a senseless act of destruction is even possible?  Let me explain the context of that time period. LRH was not visibly on the lines. There was some kind of line to and from him but it was highly controlled. The leadership of Scientology was up for grabs. There was the Flag-FOLO-Org line, ED INT and of course CMO Int. But then there was the Guardian’s Office which numbered well in excess of a 1000 staff with a network stretching to just about every org on the planet through its Assistant Guardian and Guardian Finance networks. It was the biggest, best manned group and network in the Scientology world. It wielded real power and influence. But more than that, the entire Mission Network was run by Mission Office Worldwide at St Hill in England which was under Guardian’s Office Worldwide control. And that included these mega missions and very powerful mission holders who had dominion over huge staffs and a large number of public. The leaders of the GO had compromised themselves and were weak at that point. Add to that the fact that the top mission holders were in good with Executive Director International and the fact that the CO CMO Int and some of her staff were not entirely against the Guardian’s Office and you have most of the picture. Miscavige was only an Ops in CMO Int but did have power on the subject of external affairs as he headed a project on that point. And it’s true the Guardian’s Office (the only defense arm of Scientology in existence at the time) had screwed up.  It needed to be brought under control and re-organized. But instead of doing that, Miscavige used its overts as an excuse to scatter it to the four winds. If a handful of CMO staff hadn’t independently made moves to salvage parts of it all would have gone. And as a note, I am told by very reliable sources that those salvaged served with distinction in the real defense of Scientology in the following years. But it didn’t end there. In the same accusative manner ED INT and three successive CO CMO Ints and others were taken out by Miscavige, and the top mission holders as I described above, which left a vacuum into which he stepped with no one with any real power left around to object. There was no other way to accomplish it after all. It’s not like he was appointed by LRH. He had no mandate from anyone to rule Scientology, he just up and grabbed it, using each conquest as a stepping stone to the next. Quite the coup, in the light of the fact that the only LRH instructions that were left regarding his succession were the fact that Annie Broeker was to lead RTC as Inspector General and Pat Broeker was meant to be Loyal Officer (yes that’s right) but Miscavige took those two out of the equation as well in the mid 80s, after LRH died and dreamed up the post of Chairman of the Board. But back to my main point: what are the odds on the key leaders of the GO, three successive CO CMO Ints, ED Int and the mission holders of the big missions all being SPs in the same time period? Well, I can tell you EXACTLY what the odds are. There is a 1 in 40 chance anyone is an SP (2.5 in every hundred). So the odds that a line of 16 guys are all SP is 40 to the power of 16, or 40x40x40x40x40x40x40x40x40x40x40 x40x40x40x40x40. I got half way into the calculation (40 to the power of 9) and I was already at 2.3 trillion to one. There is more chance of you and I both winning the state lottery, and both of us being hit by lightening all on the very same day. In other words: it’s impossible. And what happened back in the early 80s continued to happen and is still happening. What remains of our key leaders are currently under declare by Miscavige, held together in a room, unable to do their jobs, somehow trying to work their way through A to E steps that are impossible to get through because they are not SP. It’s impossible they are all SP, its mathematically impossible not to mention the fact that it utterly violates LRH tech and policy. My small voice is no longer quiet and it says: it may be impossible for every member of any given group of key execs to be SP. But it is not impossible for their lone accuser to be one, those odds are very finite. I’m for LRH, Scientology, its organizations and their hard working staffs; I was one for many, many years. As for what I’m against, that’s just one thing, one person, the trail of destruction is unmistakable. Oh, I know he’s characterized himself as the savior of Scientology but don’t buy the PR. I wonder where we’d be if those mega missions would have been handled in a standard and on-policy manner, corrected, nurtured and encouraged. The expansion would have been phenomenal. And that’s just the first in a long line of questions. And I know it would be great if we had lots of those shiny new buildings for all our orgs around the planet. But what Miscavige doesn’t tell you is that LRH obtained buildings for many orgs around the world over the years and he had an exact way of doing it. He never used the pattern being used today. It’s not covered anywhere in LRH policy and there are many, many policies which indicate the pattern of operation should be otherwise. I should know I’ve read all of Scientology policy.  So maybe there’s some hidden data line? No way man! No way! Don’t fall for that one. RTC’s purpose, as laid down by LRH, is to hold firm the form of Scientology so why is Miscavige “doing it all”. He should be making sure everyone else is doing their jobs; instead he’s bypassing left and right. Even a graduate of How to Improve Conditions in Life knows that’s wrong. But wait, “I’m not management so I can do anything” he says. Well, the Ideal Org strategy he is running sure looks like management, tastes like management and smells like it to me. Let’s face the truth; we have a dictator running the show, plain and simple -- a short, wise-ass punk kid from Philly who saw his chance to run the greatest movement on earth and took it. And did everything necessary to hold onto that power regardless of the cost to the organizations and those around him CLIMATE OF FEAR – REIGN OF TERROR Over the years Miscavige has kept his successful power-pattern going. He ruthlessly dominated and removed any other potential leaders of Scientology and stepped into the vacuum left behind, his influence growing and growing. Try and count how many individual victims there have been. The list is incalculable. And organizationally there’s just him now, there’s no CMO Int, no Watchdog Committee, no Exec Strata, a neutered upper middle management and very confused organizations out in the continents. The array of ever increasing savage polices and actions over the years served to create a climate of fear. And it worked. You could be screamed at, ridiculed, spat on, embarrassed, threatened ferociously or beaten. You could lose Scientology, your Bridge, your friends, your family, your parents, you will be split off from your spouse, you will have no money, no job, you will be cast out into the world penniless and alone if you ever dream of standing up to the one “true leader”. I have witnessed all the above with my own eyes. The climate of fear became a reign of terror as, one by one, these threats became reality and they became more and more common. And the basics of Scientology tell us that fear is not the way, punishment is not the way, as it’s all below 2.0 on the tone scale which means its non survival and destructive. And any Grad V knows that such unbending ruthlessness means the person is completely out of valence. And those who know Miscavige will all agree on one thing I am certain, that he is utterly ruthless. Well, that ruthlessness is contrary to the scriptures of Scientology which include the Congresses and Basic Books. Miscavige surely must have listened to these lectures and read the books. But he doesn’t apply them. No, don’t dub in a reason to explain that away. It’s an observable, empirical fact. It is what it is, face it. If he did apply these materials there wouldn’t be countless organizational and individual victims, you wouldn’t be wondering what the hell is going on or sneaking around in fear and I wouldn’t be writing this paper. And any auditor observing Miscavige’s wild animal reaction and outrageous behavior would easily recognize and label it, if allowed the freedom of speech, to be the result of missed withholds. But what withholds could his staff and management possibly miss? Well, quite in addition to the fact that his pile growth daily, how about the fact that he took a position that was not his, was never assigned to him, that nobody elected him to, for a start. Face the truth; the real problem is we have a dictator and a bully running Scientology. That was not LRH’s plan I assure you. Where are the checks and balances he undoubtedly would have planned? LRH says bullies rise to positions of real power because they were not taken out when people had the chance, when they were small and weak.  OK, we messed up, we all need to take responsibility for not doing what we could do when we had the chance, but this is our Church, and Scientology belongs to us, the people. LRH’s legacy was left to Scientology – that’s you and me. It’s not too late. But this is where the common sense comes in. I know there are a great number of hurt people out there. And I know the tendency is for the ARCX to generalize and as a result Scientology or its organizations, its staff or L Ron Hubbard get attacked. But those actions just make them all close ranks around Miscavige and protect him. That makes things worse. And why do what Miscavige does? Why try and punish, get even, attack, belittle etc., that’s not the way for you or I either and little good will come of it. It hasn’t worked for Miscavige, it won’t work for you or I. As he’s dictator of Scientology he’s the correct target. The handling is simple, remove Miscavige from his bogus position of power, put a social personality at the helm that will restore our organizations and implement the overdue reforms. There are so many changes and reforms long overdue so let me summarize them in this way: how about we apply some common sense and common decency, how about the fact that if we are ever to re-assume our position in the world as upholder of human rights that we first apply those rights to our own people, and yes our “ex-people” if that’s what they choose to be because that’s their right, along with the right to speak without fear of reprisal, the right to communicate with families and friends, the right … well, you fill in the rest, you know just as much as I do. It all resolves when you realize that the “King of Scientology” was not appointed by LRH or God or anyone, he grabbed and ruthlessly held onto the crown in the same grubby, down and dirty ways any dictator grabbed and kept power in the history of this tortured planet. Enough is enough. We need a benign ruling body that will rule for the people, all the people and we need a bill of rights (firm policy that will prevent this situation from ever happening again). Written by T. Paine