I read an interesting article that dealt, with the totalitarian mindset. It was about China, but a few bits struck me as relevant towards Scientology:

"...Most of the lies they tell you are so flimsy, you think they can only be doing it to test you in some way... Surely, you think, they know that I know that it's a lie -- so why are they saying it?

"The best way to advance your understanding in this matter is to refuse to accept the lie being offered. As gently and courteously as possible, point out that the world is _not_ flat...

This produces a striking result. They get _angry_. Now, this is not a natural reaction..."

"All despotic societies have a state of ideology of harmony, of unanimity, of perfect conformism."

While the author was living in China, he got into a bit of trouble. The advice a friend gave him for dealing with the authorities was: "Flatter the leaders, criticize yourself. Make a big matter into a small matter."

I don't have much experience with Scientology, but its history and the statements of former members point out a lot of parallels.
The article was http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire040501.shtml -- crawford@iac.net

"Ideology, in creating a bridge of excuses between the system and the individual, spans the abyss between the aims of the system and the aims of life. It pretends that the requirements of the system derive from the requirements of life. It is a world of appearances trying to pass for reality.

"The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary use of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance.

Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.

"Individuals need not believe all these mystifications, but they must behave as though they did, or they must at least tolerate them in silence, or get along well with those who work with them. For this reason, however, they must live within a lie. They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact, individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, ARE the system."

From "The Power of the Powerless" by Václav Havel
-- ptsc

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