Saturday Night Live has just done a magnificent parody of the Church of Scientology and its 1990’s promotional video We Stand Tall.
What must the Church of Scientology think?
I can tell you what the Church thinks: L. Ron Hubbard had absolutely no sense of humor and hated what he called “Joking & Degrading.” Hubbard formalized this into a policy outlawing Joking & Degrading (J&D) in the Church of Scientology.
One of the first things Scientology does to a person is to outlaw and destroy their sense of humor. As Hubbard wrote in KSW:
The whole agonized future of this planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.
This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance.
Remember, this is our first chance to do so in all the endless trillions of years of the past.
Hubbard even made questions about J&D part of the False Purpose Rundown for Church executives.
Here is the actual Church of Scientology policy wherein L. Ron Hubbard outlaws joking & degrading:
Categories: The Scientology Money Project
Reblogged this on Infinitely More Trouble and commented:
For a man who insisted his literary swan song “Mission Earth” was a masterwork of satirical genius – skewering such undoubtedly worthy targets as psychiatrists, industrialists, and homosexuals – L. Ron Hubbard had a surprisingly thin skin when he himself became the subject of other people’s laughter. The following article from Jeffrey Augustine’s excellent blog, the Scientology Money Project, reveals Mr. Hubbard’s exact thoughts on why anyone would feel the need to make fun of him or his work. To summarize, such “jokers and degraders” are one of three things: evil, under the influence of evil, or insane.
One can only imagine Hubbard’s reaction to Saturday Night Live’s “Neurotology” song and video. Whether the producers, writers, cast and crew of SNL are evil or insane, I leave up to your judgment.
Read on for a fascinating glimpse into the paranoid and petulant mind of L. Ron Hubbard, in all of his passive voice glory.
LRH was a joke.
David Miscavige is LRH’s joke on us.
Both not funny.
Its a good point Jeffrey, and true. I haven’t thought about it in years, but yes one had to be mindful of anything that might be construed as joking or degrading. LRH seems to be talking about degrading or joking about the tech or their post, but the message was so serious it was often taken further to mean any joking around.
Question #74 tries to murder a sense of humor.
This is a prime example of one of those pieces of tech which introduces broad, sweeping changes in human behavior. This is Scientology social engineering.
“It is an old principle that people who do not understand something occasionally make fun of it.” – this is an “old principle”? Based on what? Evidence please, old man.
“A recent investigation however into the backgrounds and case condition of a small handful of people who were joking about their posts…”
Here we go again, LRH’s “research” and investigation. Did he look at one PC folder? Two folders? Or maybe none. And of course, this is all SINISTER. Evidence please, old man.
“The four categories above were, however, fully verified” – Evidence please, old man.
“In some cultural areas, wit and humor are looked upon as a healthy release. However, in the case of orgs, this was not found to be the case. Intentional destruction of the org or fellow staff members was the direct purpose.” – this is just plain evil. This single paragraph turns the workplace into a joyless, deadly serious environment.
And if you are caught having a sense of humor, they will auditing it out of you or forceably apply brainwashing Ethics conditions.
So now, we have:
If you are upset – you have overts.
If you crack jokes – you have overts.
If you criticise things – you have overts.
If you want to leave – you have overts.
If you have disagreements – you have overts.
Basically, any time you which to exert your self-determinism or express yourself, we will introvert you, sec check you and make you wish you hadn’t done that. If this isn’t a cult, I don’t know what is.
I was shown this policy when the Ideal Org strategy first hit the ground. Made to write up Conditions I didn’t agree with nor did I belong in. In hindsight, it was the beginning of the end for me. It messed me up bad.
I remember pointing out the LRH video that was circulating around at the time of him at the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital – and how the promotional video showed him faking he was a doctor to start his “research” into things. I told the “still wet behind the ears” WISE terminal that LRH was joking and degrading there. That didn’t go over to well, but in hindsight, I was lucky the shit hit the fan earlier rather than later.
My question to LRH: Didn’t you say that “seriousness equals mass.” So which is it Jokers are full of overts or people who are serious are full of mass??
Oh wait, I get it. People who are Jokers are full of overts but have no mass while people who are serious are have no overts and are full of mass. I guess am glad to be in the former…
And so it follows that, like photons, jokers and degraders are massless particles of energy whereas the Church of Scientology has went as completely solid as a rock in deep outer space.