
How the Church of Scientology fought the Internet and why it lost - aaronbrethorst
http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-sections/14384/scientology-versus-the-internet-going-clear/
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Animats
From the article: _“Scientology is cutting-edge technology for 1950. All of
the most important policies were laid down by the 1960s.”_

Yes, which is their problem. Scientology is stuck with 1930s science. The
"E-meter" is just an skin resistance ohmmeter, the least useful channel of a
lie detector. If they were keeping up, they'd have the Scientology E-Meter
Bracelet, a custom version of a Bluetooth fitness bracelet, reporting pulse,
respiration, and skin resistance back to HQ in Clearwater, FL. They'd have
auditing over Skype, server farms analyzing member communications and
movements, and functional MRI machines at major Scientology centers.

Even when they had a good idea, they didn't keep up with technology. In "How
to Live though an Executive" (1953), L. Ron Hubbard describes what is
instantly recognizable as a ticket system for handling problems. But it's all
manual, with boards and hooks and paper cards and messengers. They never
computerized that.

A competing organization, the Rosicrucians, had the same problem. They used to
have a "Science building" at Rosicrucian Park in San Jose (if you're in
Silicon Valley, visit; they have great architecture, gardens, and museums),
but it was stuck with 1950s high school physics experiments. Now they're
building an Alchemy Museum. So retro.

I wonder if you could get venture capital to start a modernized religion,
using modern surveillance technology.

~~~
lisper
> I wonder if you could get venture capital to start a modernized religion,
> using modern surveillance technology.

For the love of all that is holy, please stop asking this question. Because
the answer is almost certainly "yes".

Roko's basilisk doesn't scare me. But the thought of a clone of the Church of
Scientology that is technically competent scares the living shit out of me.
Seriously, how would we defend against that?

~~~
jacquesm
The way religions and other factions have duked it out in the past: war.

Most wars have been either about property, religion or both.

~~~
jqm
I think most wars involving religion have actually been about property.

~~~
pygy_
Religion is such a nice tool to channel our tribal instincts.

The neurohormone oxytocyn, undelies not only brotherhood but xenophobia, which
probabaly explains why you can find people who are both deeply religious and
xenophobic.

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PaulHoule
There was the alt.relgion.scientology wave and then anonymous got involved
after that batshit crazy Tom Cruise video got leaked on Youtube and the church
tried to hide it.

One trouble with the church is their idea of of "ethics" is that when you are
in trouble with the church you need to "Deliver an effective blow to the
enemies of the group one has been pretending to be part of despite personal
danger."

This is like if you work at a pizza restaurant and you come in late for work
or if you don't sell as many pizzas as you did last week you are expected to
firebomb a competing pizza restaurant.

And these people are so confused about why they have such consistently bad PR.

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deftnerd
I wonder if the internet has had a decrease in the power and occurrences of
cults as a whole.

I know the FBI has task forces that focus entirely on monitoring cult
behavior. Any published statistics? I imagine that they might be wary of
branding any "niche religion" as a cult to avoid accusations of violations of
religious freedoms.

Regardless, I wonder what the overall trend is now that information access and
easy communications are so prevalent.

Hell, North Korea's government can be seen to be operating as a kind of cult
and even they are having difficulties with information leaking into their
ecosystem through smuggled cheap Chinese phones and contraband radios.

~~~
Steko
The internet seems to have been a boon to conspiracy types, racist and
religious fanatics more generally. It might be more fair to say that it's hurt
certain type of cults, such as the kind that relies on secrets/esoteric
knowledge.

~~~
deftnerd
And likely the type that requires blockading members off from interaction from
the world.

Good points though. The internet has allowed people to create echo chambers to
get a global pool of potential devotees.

It's still a different situation from the stereotypical cult system where they
cut you off from the world and strip away your individuality.

Regardless, excellent point.

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jacquesm
The Church of Scientology lost because of two reasons:

(1) Karin Spaink

(2) xs4all

If not for those two they would have very likely won.

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johansch
Germany is one of the few countries that gets destructive cults like these. I
wish more countries would learn.

~~~
cmurf
Please clarify. The German government doesn't recognize Scientology as a
religion, but rather as an abusive business. Meanwhile in the U.S. ...

~~~
anon4
I think he means "get how to deal with them", or "see them for what they are".

~~~
johansch
I did.

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simonblack
An interesting read is "Bare-faced Messiah" \- an unauthorised biography of L.
Ron Hubbard.

