Scientology web pages: hidden message
Dave Touretzky
The critics say Scientology is a cult that turns its members into
brainwashed robots, incapable of critical reasoning or original
thought. And the cult says:
"Oh yeah? We'll show you! We're gonna put up 116,000 individual
web pages for our members. And they're all gonna be in an identical
format -- 100% standard Scn web tech -- and will express similar
messages and contain one (1) approved LRH quote and one (1) approved
LRH picture and one (1) approved page of links to approved CoS front
groups. And all mail to these pages will be pre-screened by our staff.
"Yessir, we're going to show all you chimps we're not a cult. We
make people free! Just watch."
I gotta hand it to Scientology: they always manage to surprise me.
Who could have envisioned such a brilliantly self-parodying tactic?
This is an even dumber idea than their picketing the police station in
Clearwater back in December. I can hardly wait for their first 1000
spamalike pages to come online. Let's celebrate with them on L. Ron
Hubbard Way when the day comes.
Might take a while, though.
-- Dave Touretzky, KoX (SP4.9): 100% standard tech success stories, or else!
Eric Bohlman
Dave Touretzky <d...@cs.cmu.edu> wrote:
: I gotta hand it to Scientology: they always manage to surprise me.
: Who could have envisioned such a brilliantly self-parodying tactic?
: This is an even dumber idea than their picketing the police station in
: Clearwater back in December. I can hardly wait for their first 1000
: spamalike pages to come online. Let's celebrate with them on L. Ron
: Hubbard Way when the day comes.
$cientology's basic promise to the people it's trying to recruit is "you
can be totally free if you just do exactly what we tell you to." It's
logically absurd, but it often works because the two contradictory parts
both appeal to different emotional needs that people have simultaneously.
People desire freedom and individuality, but they *also* desire belonging
and security. The "if" part appeals to the latter needs, the "then" part
to the former. Rationally, the statement is nonsense, but it pushes two
emotional buttons at the same time, and both of those buttons are
perceived as rewarding. When they're both being pushed, it's hard to
think rationally about the contradiction and if one tries, one will
likely rationalize that $scientology's offer represents some sort of
moderate compromise between two conflicting desires.
Note that those two desires are particularly strong and particularly in
conflict in people who are just entering adulthood or are at other
transitional stages in their lives. And those are exactly the people who
get recruited for the most part.