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Scientology’s L. Ron Hubbard: A Legacy of Hate and Intolerance
by Lilly von Marcab
Friday Oct 31st, 2008 9:33 PM
The Scientology cult’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was a white American middle-class male who grew up in the early 20th century. It is not surprising, then, to learn that he was a racist and homophobe, and that there are many examples of these sentiments in his written and recorded works. What is surprising is that in the year 2008, the Scientology cult continues openly to embrace Hubbard’s extremely offensive statements, and refuses to make even the smallest gesture to repudiate or reject Hubbard’s
Instead, in a tacit approval, Hubbard’s many books and recorded lectures in which these passages occur are re-published year after year after year, without any clarification, comment or footnote. Indeed, no individual Scientologist will personally reject these views, at least not in any public forum. To do so could earn him or her some time with the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), Scientology’s internal corrections and re-education system.
According to one of the thousands of Scientology web sites:
“The Scripture of the Scientology religion consists of the writings and recorded spoken words of L. Ron Hubbard on the subjects of Dianetics and Scientology. This Scripture includes more than half a million written pages, over 3,000 tape-recorded lectures and some 100 films….This Scripture is the sole source of all doctrine regarding the religion of Scientology and it is an inherent principle of the religion that only by exactly following the path it outlines can mankind achieve spiritual salvation. This concept of orthodoxy in religious practice is fundamental to Scientology. Thus, any attempt to alter or misrepresent the Scripture is regarded as a most severe breach of ecclesiastical ethics.”
Thus, it is simply not permitted to alter, modify, or update Hubbard’s work in any way (although the cult’s current leader, David Miscavige, has made many subtle changes). In fact, it is official policy that members must “exactly follow Hubbard’s path.” Still, even with the “scriptures” remaining relatively intact, this does not explain why the cult will not make a clear statement of its position on Hubbard’s extreme views, nor why it will not stop re-publishing them.
Here are a few examples of Hubbard’s views on people who did not fit into his scheme of things:
Hubbard spent a little time in southern Africa:
The South African native is probably the one impossible person to train in the entire world — he is probably impossible by any human standard. – Hubbard, PAB No. 119, 1 September 1957, as published in Level 0 PABS (c.1968, The American St. Hill Organization).
As long as a white foreman is there, they will prevent soil erosion; but the moment that a white foreman turns his back — boo! There goes the whole program. And you finally get up to the point of where he’s [native] supposed to take care of something, a lesson which has never been taught to the native of South Africa. – Hubbard, 15th ACC (Power of Simplicity) lecture “Education: Point of Agreement”, 30 Oct 1956.
The insanity rate per capita in South Africa is appalling. …it is easily seen that a primary requisite in any programme of the rehabilitation of the Bantu in South Africa would be mental health – Hubbard, HCOB April 1960, “The Scientific Treatment of the Insane”
[Y]ou’ll find in Africans a fantastic amount of heavy space opera and so on, going on … which makes the colored African very, very interesting to process because he doesn’t know why he goes through all these dances … and why he feels so barbarous ….– Hubbard, 1st Melbourne ACC, lecture “Principal Incidents on the Track”, 27 November 1959.
They took people who were totally dedicated to certain tribal procedures … and said, “You’re free.” And they said, “Free. Free? Free. Ah! You mean there’s no police anymore.” Boom! Boom! – Hubbard, State of Man Congress, Opening lecture, 1 January 1960.
…the Zulu is only outside the bars of a madhouse because there are no madhouses provided by his tribe. … primitives are far more aberrated than civilized peoples. Their savageness, their unprogressiveness, their incidence of illness … – Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
Illiterate cultures do not survive and they are not very high. The natives of the tribe of the Bugga Bugga Booga Boogas down in Lower Bugga Wugga Booga Woog are mostly no longer with us, or they are around waving red flags today and revolting against their central government. And they didn’t learn fast. Their literacy was not up to absorbing culture rapidly. They’ve been very happily down amongst the bong-bong trees, you know, dancing up and down amongst the bong-bong trees, and the highest level of their interest and so forth was their own back yard. – Hubbard, The Study Tapes, “Study: Evaluation and Information”, lecture given on 11 August 1964
African-Americans:
Actually, have you ever noticed how a Negro, in particular down south, where they’re pretty close to the soil, personifies MEST? The gatepost and the wagon and the whip and anything around there—a hat. They talk to them, you know. “What’sa mattuh wi’ you hat?” They imbue them with personality. – Hubbard, Therapy section of Technique 80 (“Route to Infinity” tapes), Part I, a lecture given on 21 May 1952
Gays and Lesbians:
(In his book “Science of Survival,: Hubbard establishes a “tone scale,” ranging from -3 to +4, for classifying categories of people and evaluating human behavior. “Perverts,” as he classified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, fall at 1.1 on Hubbard’s scale. He considered them to be extremely dangerous to society.)
“The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in dynamic two [sexuality and procreation] such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically.” -Hubbard, “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”
“At 1.1 on the tone scale we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the second dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices…. People on this level on the second dynamic are intensely dangerous in the society, since aberration is contagious. A society which reaches this level is on its way out of history, as went the Greeks, as went the Romans, as goes modern European and American culture. Here is a flaming danger signal which must be heeded if a race is to go forward…. The person may claim to love others and to have the good of others as his foremost interest; yet, at the same moment, he works, unconsciously or otherwise, to injure or destroy the lives and reputations of people and also to destroy property… No social order which desires to survive dates overlook its stratum 1.1’s. No social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst…. Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics.,,, The only answers would seem to be the permanent quarantine of such persons from society to avoid the contagion of their insanities and the general turbulence which they bring to any order, thus forcing it lower on the scale, or processing such persons until they have attained a level on the tone scale which gives them value” – Hubbard, “Science of Survival”
Critics:
“Show me any person who is critical of us and I’ll show you crimes and intended crimes that would stand a magistrate’s hair on end.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 4 April 1965
“Somebody some day will say “this is illegal.” By then be sure the orgs [Scientology organizations] say what is legal or not.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 4 January 1966, “LRH Relationship to Orgs”
“If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 15 August 1960, Dept. of Govt. Affairs
“The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.” – Hubbard, A MANUAL ON THE DISSEMINATION OF MATERIAL, 1955
“ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967
“A truly Suppressive Person or group has no rights of any kind and actions taken against them are not punishable.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 1 March 1965, HCO (Division 1) “Ethics, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists”
“Now, get this as a technical fact, not a hopeful idea. Every time we have investigated the background of a critic of Scientology, we have found crimes for which that person or group could be imprisoned under existing law. We do not find critics of Scientology who do not have criminal pasts.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 5 November 1967, “Critics of Scientology”
“This is the correct procedure: Spot who is attacking us. Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies. Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them. Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Don’t ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 25 February 1966
Mental health professionals:
“The names and connections, at this time, of the bitterly opposing enemy are: 1. Psychiatry and psychology (not medicine). 2. The heads of news media who are also directors of psychiatric front groups. 3. A few key political figures in the fields of “mental health” and education. 4. A decline of monetary stability caused by the current planning of bankers who are also directors of psychiatric front organizations [that] would make us unable to function.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 16 February 1969, “TARGETS, DEFENSE”
“A psychiatrist today has the power to (1) take a fancy to a woman (2) lead her to take wild treatment as a joke (3) drug and shock her to temporary insanity (4) incarnate [sic] her (5) use her sexually (6) sterilise her to prevent conception (7) kill her by a brain operation to prevent disclosure. And all with no fear of reprisal. Yet it is rape and murder. We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one. This is Project Psychiatry. We will remove them.” – Hubbard, Sec ED, Office of LRH, Confidential, 22 February 1966, “Project Psychiatry”
“Psychiatry” and “psychiatrist” are easily redefined to mean “an anti-social enemy of the people.” This takes the kill crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions…The redefinition of words is done by associating different emotions and symbols with the word than were intended…Scientologists are redefining “doctor”, “Psychiatry” and “psychology” to mean “undesirable antisocial elements”…The way to redefine a word is to get the new definition repeated as often as possible. Thus it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards. This, so far as words are concerned, is the public opinion battle for belief in your definitions, and not those of the opposition. A consistent, repeated effort is the key to any success with this technique of propaganda.” – Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 5 October 1971, PR Series 12, “Propaganda by Redefinition of Words”
Beggars:
“A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country.” – Hubbard, ‘Science of Survival”
Other people “low on the tone scale”:
“Unfortunately, it is all too often true that suppressors to a creative action must be removed before construction and creation takes place. Any person very high on the Tone Scale may level destruction toward a suppressor.” – Hubbard, “Science of Survival”
“The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the Tone Scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered.” – Hubbard, “Science of Survival”
“There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the Tone Scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow.” – Hubbard, “Science of Survival”
But now it’s 2008
Why won’t modern Scientology refute, repudiate or reject these ideas? Why not an admission that Hubbard was wrong and insane? Individual Scientologists will not address this question. They will only change the subject, and insist that plenty of happy gays, people of African heritage, and other kinds of “minorities” can be found in Scientology; there is no policy against them; Hubbard was just a man of his times; criticism of this kind is pure bigotry; etc. etc. etc. They will attack the writer of the article and the writers of comments in support of the article; they will attack all critics of Scientology as obsessed losers in the pay of evil psychiatrists; they will attack everything Hubbard said they should attack in such situations; but they will NOT answer any of these questions: Does Scientology reject Hubbard’s statements? Should Scientology reject Hubbard’s statements? Do you, personally, reject Hubbard’s statements?
They just can’t bring themselves to answer these questions. Try asking a Scientologist for a simple “Yes” or “No” to any of those questions. They won’t oblige.
Thousands of people around the world are currently engaged in activism to make Scientology accountable for its human rights abuses, fraud, and many other forms of criminality. To join them, please visit http://www.xenu-directory.net http://www.youfoundthecard.com, and http://forums.whyweprotest.net
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/10/31/18547684.php
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