The Mirrored Road into the Interior

The List:
Lemmings.
Mark Twain.
How Shakespeare relates to socialism.
And cheese. Of course, cheese.
Nietzsche and how his philosophies relate to modern factory farming
The decline of the American Space program
Rules you really do or really don't like in D&D
What you think of the steampunk genre (with photo links)
Your favorite sci-fi or fantasy book and why you like it
Fluffy chickens
Play-Doh!
Lucille Ball!
Food additives!
Scientology!

Hum,I should sort these by some metric that combines my interest in the topic with how much I know about the subject or its components.

I hate to start this series off with a negative topic, but it is one that has been on my mind for a while. Today, Scientology.

Back in the middle of the 20th century around the time that Congress changed the Pledge of Allegiance in part to differentiate ourselves from the Russians, a number of science fiction authors became interested in the growing influence of religious institutions in the United States. This was a mere generation before the Christian Fundamentalists would break with the left and sell their souls to the budding neo-conservative movement. The reactionary young men and women who would lead the United States into the era of Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, and the Dominionist in Chief were listening to their pastors, working with the new breed of celebrity clergy, and wringing their hands at the destruction of all that was good and right about America. They owned some damned fine rose-tinted glasses. The upswing in

Hum, that narrative isn't going where it should go... I'm already up to 1954 when Hubbard started his church 2 years before...

The United States are prone to bouts of religious hysteria. Under the editiorial guidance of Joseph Campbell, cience fiction authors were spending more and more time thinking and writing about sociological issues. One topic of great interest was the formation of social movements. There was a great deal of discussion on how to build a religion in the united states. Most of the authors who took part in this free ranging set of conversations used it to write. One of them was tired of making a penny a word off of his writing (As a side note, more than four doublings of the dollar later, the SFWA's professional rate is 5 cents a word for short fiction.) (As another aside, the guidelines for establishing a new religion are a stufy in applied memetics, even though the word "meme" wouldn't be coined for decades.) He also had a vision of psychology and medicine that he was trying to sell in a market that was glutted with faddish quack therapies. In the end he decided to combine his love of money with the selling power of religion, and by 1952 L. Ron Hubbard had put down the basic tenants of Scientology. It is important to remember that Scientology had two main goals. has one main goal, to make the leader of the Church a great deal of money. Of course, most of the really quick ways to make a lot of money are also rather illegal and/or taxable (which slows down the making a great deal of money part.) That is why you make a Church. You can make money without losing it to taxes (you do have to spend part of that money on Churchy things, but in any expansionist religion, charity is a major form of recruitment/outreach. I've no problem with trying to recruit while you provide aid, only with trying to recruit in the guise of aid.)



More Words Go Here

For more information, I've got a lovely linkbomb from pope_guilty.



WhyAreTheyDead.Net
FairGamed.Org
Xenu.Net
LisaMcPherson.Org

Operation Freakout
Operation Snow White
Dead Agenting
Fair Game Policy

The Unfunny Truth About Scientology
The Unfunny Sequel

Given the chance, the Church of Scientology will take your money, your friends, your family... and even your life. Learn about the crimes, practices, and doctrines of the Church of Scientology. The more widely their crimes are known, the fewer people they will be able to swindle, control, and kill.