The following point has been made by others but bears repeating by someone who knows them from the inside.

Scientology is a completely knee-jerk organization. This allows one to judge or evaluate, based on the response that is created. For example, one posts blah-blah to ARS. Nothing. One posts blu-blu to ARS. There are now three posts from the usual drones/mouthpieces attack you personally. This tells you that blu-blu was more effecting that blah-blah. Now let's say you post dah-dah and a few days later learn that someone tried to access your bank account, phone records and ISP, your employer has been called to ask about you and two neighbors/friends have been contacted by PIs who are doing "routine background checks" on you, so dull and routine and all that jazz. Right. Then you REALLY know you've been effective. Drawing heat from dweeb999@aol.com or whoever shows up to give their two cents before going back to playing Doom, is not the measure. The trick is to know the measure and many regulars here know who comes out of the woodwork to apply the old and tired LRH tactics of attack the attacker.

You can also do the same measure with others. Watch who gets attacked by whom. And what is important is the NATURE of the attack. Is it personal? Are they attacking the person rather than the issue? Is this pretty much what they do, personally attack people who have something to say about Scientology? If so, then you know they are being effective.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the cult is that it cannot change. They cannot say, "Hey, maybe we should stop doing this because it is tipping off our hand." Nope. They are completely unable to do so. Why? Because LRH told them how to do it and that is the only way, the true way and the best way. And if it doesn't work, it's not LRH's fault. Never. Never. Never. Never.

So this gives a good measure for people who want to measure their effectiveness on ARS, or elsewhere. How much the Knee-Jerk Cult comes back at you is directly proportional to how effective you are. And don't worry. They can't read and understand this, despite the wonders of LRH study tech.

Robert Vaughn Young
writer@eskimo.com