In the course of my research into Scientology's fight against psychiatry,
I came across a number of interesting items which for the first time prove
conclusively that Scientology pursued a policy of racial discrimination
within its South African organisation. I thought I'd share them, as a sort
of appendix to my "Scientology's Fight for Apartheid" article, which can
be found at http://www.demon.co.uk/castle/audit/aprtheid.html (I'll
probably rewrite that article slightly to take account of the new material
I've found, but it won't happen for a while yet.)
The first clue was a couple of photographs published in issue 19 of
"Understanding", the magazine of the South African Hubbard Association of
Scientology International (HASI SA). The photos, dating from 1959, showed
the staff of the Jo'burg org celebrating the second anniversary of its
founding. The two pictures were rigidly segregated: one showed a large
group of solely white people, identified as "the staff and students",
drinking champagne in a room decorated with party streamers and balloons.
The other showed a small group of black people identified as "the African
Staff" sitting around a small table in a back alley; the caption makes it
clear that they were not allowed to have their party in working time (like
the whites) but in their lunch hour.
The next clue came from "Understanding" issue 13, in a photospread showing
the staff of the Jo'burg org. Without exception, the black staff held the
most menial jobs - cleaner, guard, typist etc. - and the white staff held
all the teaching or administrative posts.
A third clue came from a Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin of 30 July
1960, which included a piece from Norma Webb, HCO Secretary World Wide, on
why HASI SA was proving so succesful. It made it clear that Scientology was
only being disseminated to whites -
"How do they manage this [success], well there are several reasons ...
Remember that they have only got 2 million white people living there,
and they can do it!"
Then came two conclusive pieces of evidence, both written by a South
African Scientologist and published in *mainstream* - note, NOT just
South African - Scientology magazines, consequently enjoying the approval
of L. Ron Hubbard (who acted as editor-in-chief of international magazines).
The Scientologist in question was U. Keith Gerry, who was definitely a
favoured associate of Hubbard: in 1955 he had collaborated with Hubbard
to produce an anthology of Hubbardian thought entitled "The Key
to Tomorrow". In a late 1950s issue of "Ability" magazine he wrote an
article entitled "How It Is Going In South Africa". This makes abundantly
clear what Scientology's approach was in South Africa. Remember, this was
approved by L. Ron Hubbard himself: he was happy to endorse a racist and
discriminatory approach despite his claimed commitment to equality:
"... There is also a master plan of Albert Low's to which we are all
contributing. Albert's plan is to get Scientology known throughout
the white population of South Africa within another four years; to
have it established in that period in the schools; in the Universities;
in industry; in the Mines; and in the Government and government
departments and services...
In case it all sounds too easy and too dull to attract more people to
the field it would be just as well to give a few of the problems which
we are up against. The first is not the native problem. It is the
Afrikaans-English problem. It can be expressed in many ways, none of
which will give a full picture. Perhaps it could be summed up by saying
that the English feel guilty at having been conquerors and the Afrikaans
people are resentful at having been conquered, and from this has arisen
all the factors present today. Before South Africa can be a happy
country this division will have to be reconciled.
After this comes the native problem and Scientology offers the only
route to its solution. False sentiment, ignorance, utterances from
pulpit and editorial desk by people who should know better, continually
impede progress. When we can get the white people properly straightened
out this problem will be nine-tenths solved, evolution and mass
processing will do the rest.
For anyone who wishes to see action, South Africa is going to be an
intensely interesting country in the next few years. We are not trying
to patch up an old order but we are going to create a new one in a land
with vast natural resources, with an active people who still retain that
streak of courage and enthusiasm which led the voortrekkers into the
unknown, with a vast number of natives who would be happy working with
their hands for understanding employers, with an ideal climate and with
the geographical position which can lead the whole of Africa to a happy
and united future."
It's pretty clear which side Gerry was on - amidst the welter of racial
stereotypes, the condemnation of the critics of apartheid and the
characterisation of the "natives" as obedient manual workers stand out. But
what was the Scientological justification for this benighted view, given
that the philosophy was supposed to *support* equality, and why was racism
only overt in the South African HASI and not elsewhere?
The key is in the third paragraph quoted above - the word "evolution", near
the end. In "Certainty" magazine vol. 1 issue 14 (Feb. 1955), Gerry
explains the South African "native problem" from a Scientological
viewpoint. The underlying reason is simple: the blacks are simply further
down the evolutionary ladder than the whites:
"There is no room for sentiment in the native problem. It is manifest
as a conflict of the white reactive mind and the black reactive mind ...
Those who have dwelt for many years in a stable society may come to
feel that evolution is something that happened in the past and that it
isn't happening any more. This frame of mind leads to the belief that
the differences, or the unbalanced states, which cause evolutionary
changes to take place, no longer exist. This leads to the belief that
the white man and the black man are equal. They are not. To insist
that they are is to try to perpetuate a lie and any Scientologist knows
what that will lead to. Ask any honest South African if he feels that
he is the same as a native and he will deny it. Ask any native if he
feels the same as a white man and he, too, will deny it. This is no
discussion as to whether the native ought to be the same, whether he has
the same potentials, whether he is better or worse, happier or unhappier,
or whether he could become like the white man if this, that, or the
other. This is the matter of the cold-blooded fact that there is a very
big difference between the white and the black man. The native problem
can never be 'solved' until that fact is accepted, for that very
difference *is* the problem. In the technical language of Scientology
it is those who try to "not-is" that consideration or those who try to
educate natives as white men in order to "not-is" it, who make the
problem persist. To see that a difference exists goes a long way to
blowing the problem, in fact it goes more than a long way, it solves
the problem.
The solution of the problem does not end the evolutionary contest. If
the problem were to disappear immediately the process of evolution
would go ahead quite smoothly. While the problem persists it is likely
that evolution will follow a bloody trail of force. The end product
will be the same. The forces of evolution are far stronger than any
individual who would try to deny they exist.
There are in South Africa less than three million Europeans, or whites,
and perhaps about twelve million natives. Both these populations are
increasing rapidly. Until both races can see the truth about the
problem it will remain... As the fear dissolves, so it will be possible
for Scientology to reach the natives. There may be a few new things to
learn here, but if native auditors can be trained in numbers and a
mass group-auditing technique can be evolved for illiterate people the
results might be surprising to all. The next few years will be an
exciting time in South Africa for any one who wants to see action."
Again, this view would have been endorsed by Hubbard - not just by allowing
the article to be published, but in subsequent public and private statements
expressing his support for racial discrimination and for apartheid policies
such as forced resettlement. But from where did Gerry get the idea that
South African "natives" were somehow un-evolved? Perhaps unsurprisingly,
it was Hubbard who set a lead in this regard. The following statement
comes from his original 1950 book "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
Health" - written long before he ever visited South Africa - and amazingly,
can still be found in the latest editions:
"Primitive societies, being subject to much mauling by the elements,
have many more occasions for injury than civilized societies. Further,
such primitive societies are alive with false data. Further, their
practice of medicine and mental healing is on a very aberrative level
by itself. The number of engrams in a Zulu would be astonishing.
Moved out of his restimulative area and taught English he would escape
the penalty of much of his reactive data; but in his native habitat the
Zulu is only outside the bars of a madhouse because there are no
madhouses provided by his tribe. It is a safe estimate, and one based
on better experience than is generally available to those who have
conclusions on "modern man" by studying primitive races, that primitives
are far more aberrated than civilized peoples. Their savageness, their
unprogressiveness, their incidence of illness: all stem from their
reactive patterns, not from their inherent personalities... The
contagion of aberration, being much greater in a primitive tribe, and
the falsity of the supersitious data in the engrams of such a tribe
both lead to a conclusion which, observed on the scene, is carried out
by actuality."
[Hubbard, "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" (1988 ed.),
book 2, chapter 8, p. 183 - 'The Contagion of Aberration']
The circle is closed.
--
| Chris Owen | c...@nvg.unit.no |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --
| WORLD'S BIGGEST SPECTRUM ARCHIVE -- http://www.nvg.unit.no/sinclair |
