Regarding Scientology

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So I was lurking on a post in the Autism Media forum about the anti-psychology movement and Scientology, and it got me thinking. I'm no defender of the group at all, the ideas they promote are utterly insane, and it is a pretty corrupt organization, however, it has always amazed me about the length that people go to in order to spread news about 'how dangerous' it is. I feel that focusing so strongly on Scientology is rather wasteful, especially when it is compared to other groups out there. I'm taking a class called Political Sociology right now, which is basically about studying how institutions influence and struggle for control the 'state' and the status quo, and I'm going to offer up some of the things I've learned in the last three weeks to make an argument as to why I think keeping an eye on Scientology is an irrelevant waste of time compared to other 'cults:'

How much influence does Scientology really have on society outside of it's own membership and business circles? The reason why I propose this question is due to the fact that there are plenty of other minority-cult-sect religious groups that are able to exert a very strong and traceable influence on society outside their own circles (ever heard of the Moonies? Hell even the Mormons could fall under this). But Scientology on the other hand, while very well financed and having several high profile members, seems to lack this influence on the outside world. Sure they are able to loudly blast their anti-psychology propaganda, and sue & harass the bejesus out of their detractors and ex members. But for all of that noise, they really don't seem to be able to exert any kind of influence on popular opinion or public policy.

I would say that off the top of my head the answer is likely because Scientology sits alone by itself. The Moonies, as bat$hit crazy as they are, are far better at hiding behind public think tanks, newspapers, and allying themselves with assorted political, business, and religious causes. The Church of Scientology (CoS) however, makes no effort to reach out to institutes with real public influence. Instead it spends it's time and energy on promoting itself, and the lunatic ideas it practices. Even if the CoS were to get it's narcissism under control and follow the example of the previously mentioned groups, they has a huge problem: Where is the profit? The Moonies and the Mormons both have several fronts that allow them to participate in Conservative, laissez-faire capitalism movements and business endeavorers, because, well, it's tied directly to their dogma. What is the dogma of the CoS again? Oh yeah, psychology is bad, buy our books, up your theatons, fight Xenu etc. First of all, their going to have a hard time competing with Big Pharma if they want to start influencing public policy regarding Psychology.

As fat as Tom Cruise's wallet is, it's a measly dime compared to the money that companies like Wyeth and Pfizer have sitting in their lobbying warchests. Oh they have some media influence, sure. But I doubt they can afford to put buy a Superbowl timeslot like the drug companies do for every new anti-depressant that they've come out with in the past year. Lastly, where are the political contributions? The other cults have hugely organized front business networks that offer real products and services that consumers actually buy. Because of this, and a recent SCOTUS decision, they can pump all of the money they want into candidates that support their platforms. Someone please tell me though, how in the hell is the CoS going to get their anti-psychology message across politically? They can't lobby congress to get the existing politicians to do it, big pharma and the the investment companies that profit off of them have way to much of a vested interest there. If they try and elect an anti-psychology candidate, assuming they could even sell that crap to the public in the first place, they have to cope with the fact that the previously mentioned industries will doubtlessly finance a far more sane sounding opponent.

What else does Scientology have to sell to the outside world? L'ron Hubbard's self help books? Sorry chief, but there is already a massive market for that in the first place. The only thing they can do is run a MLM/pyramid scheme through their members to try and get idiots to read the books and buy their classes (I'm not even going to go off on the book industry tangent). Basically my point is here, how can Scientology really effect public policy and public life, at least in it's current state? Right now they spend all of their money cuddling celebrities and putting out their own propaganda. But no cult can even hope to have an impact outside of it's own circle, unless it diversifies itself. And even if it does start doing that, it has to cope with the fact that much of it's wacko dogma is bad for capitalism and business, and it's REALLY hard to gain any kind of political and economic power when you advocate in opposition to that.

Anyways, that is the end of rant. If you found it interesting, I hope you enjoyed it, and I love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Insidious subterfuge. All local libraries in (AFAIK) the whole UK but certainly in our area received a complete set of L Rons scientology manual/bible/whatever for free to put on their shelves and introduce into the lending system.

None of the libraries bothered. The rest ended up on Ebay or in the bin or sent back. I have a set myself that were given to me. Does Scientology still have an evil plan if nobody pays for the self-help books?

Good question. I suspect that most of their money for financing operations like that comes from accrued interest from the funds they've stockpiled over the years, as well as contributions from some of their high profile members. I seriously doubt they make any kind of money of off those book sales at all, in fact they probably loose quite a bit of money by keeping them in print and having them widely distributed. Books have a terrible retail markup (30% at best), and the loss goes up drastically if you include fancy binding and color ink like theirs contain.

Interesting note of trivia: I used to work at a Borders, and I learned something fascinating about Scientology books when I was stocking the Metaphysics section one day. L'ron Hubbard's books are distributed under the condition that they be kept polywrapped until they are bought by a consumer. In short, no one is allowed to read them until they fork out the $40+ bucks for a super-cool hardcover with lots of fancy pictures and artwork!

(not that any bookseller would ever give a $hit if you opened one for sneak peak though)