The more I've read about and looked into $cientology over the years, the more I've come to the realization that it can be better understood by reading Orwell's book, 1984. For example, the doublespeak/doublethink practiced by it's adherent's. (You can see examples right at this moment in ars - Claire, VelcroKitty, querty, etc. etc.) The Co$ also amply demonstrates it's insatiable lust for power in it's treatment of current members (RPF - arbitrary Sec/Checks - use of coercion and fear to keep them in line), ex-members (being designated S/P and enemies), critics (Fair Game policies still being applied), and the judicial system (twisting and subverting the intent of the law through intimidation, coercion, blackmail - Moxon, et al) $cientology is managed and controlled by Miscavige and a hand full of lawyers and accountants, none of whom are practicing $cientologists. There have been, literally, hundreds of examples of this lust for power over the last 50 years. Have a read of the following excerpt from the book. The parallels are striking and ominous. This is why Germany, which has had direct experience of these tactics under Hitler, considers $cientology such a dangerous cult. They recognize it for what it is! Simply change "Party" and "Big Brother" to $cientology. 1984 - George Orwell Part III Chapter 3 Quote / 'There are three stages in your reintegration,' said O'Brien. 'There is learning, there is understanding, and there is acceptance. It is time for you to enter upon the second stage.' [...] 'As you lie there,' said O'Brien, 'you have often wondered - you have even asked me - why the Ministry of Love should expend so much time and trouble on you." ... 'Do you remember writing in your diary, "I understand ~how~: I do not understand ~why~"? It was when you thought about "why" that you doubted your own sanity...' [...] 'You understand well enough ~how~ the party maintains itself in power. Now tell me ~why~ we cling to power. What is our motive? Why should we want power? Go on, speak,' he added as Winston remained silent. [...] Nevertheless Winston did not speak for another moment or two. [...] 'You are ruling over us for our own good,' he said feebly. 'You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themselves, and therefore - He started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot through his body. O'Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five. 'That was stupid, Winston, stupid!' he said. 'You should know better than to say a thing like that.' He pulled the lever back and continued: 'Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?' [...] 'We are the priests of power,' he said. 'God is power. But at present power is only a word so far as you are concerned. It is time for you to gather some idea of what power means. The first thing you must realize is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual. You know the Party slogan: "Freedom is Slavery". Has it ever occurred to you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone - free - the human being is always defeated. It must be so, because every human being is doomed to die, which is the greatest of all failures. But if he can make complete, utter submission, if he can escape from his identity, if he can merge himself in the Party so that he ~is~ the Party, then he is all-powerful and immortal. The second thing for you to realize is that power is power over human beings. Over the body - but, above all, over the mind: Power over matter - external reality, as you would call it - is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.' [...] 'But how can you control matter?' he burst out. 'You don't even control the climate or the law of gravity. And there are disease, pain, death -' O'Brien silenced him by a movement of his hand. "We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees, Winston. There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility levitation - anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wish to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of these nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature.' [...] ...'How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?' Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said. 'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but ~more~ merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy - everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except for the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always - do not forget this, Winston - always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever.' /Quote

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