I was thinking about how people acted on both sides of the protest in Los Angeles last weekend. Thinking back, it was obvious that the Scientologists could not act on their own initiative. As soon as we arrived at the testing center, instantly the security guy got on his walkie talkie and the other people got on their cell phones. They were on those things a lot. Were they calling their moms to see how they're doing? No, they were calling to get instructions. It was all top-down action. There is no independent initiative within Scientology. It is all like one big organism with only one brain.

Every aspect of Scientology shows the leadership's disdain for independent thinking. So much for Total Freedom. In fact, "total freedom" in Scientology means submission to authority. Sure you can do whatever you like, just so you only like obeying orders. In the movie "Forrest Gump" when Gump was in boot camp, his drill sergeant yelled at Forrest "what are you going to do today, private?" To which Forrest instantly yelled back "whatever you tell me to do, Drill Sergeant!" The sergeant replied "Forrest, you are a Goddamn genius!"

On the protester's side, there wasn't even a top to get orders from! It was all bottom-up. We had Total Freedom. In fact, part of "the plan" was to protest at the Big Blue building at the time of the Auditor's Day celebration.

By the time we picketed all afternoon and wound up at the party relaxing and eating, we decided not to. We didn't call anybody. We didn't check the duty roster. We just decided we had done enough protesting for one day.

So who has Total Freedom?

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