There are some problems with Peter's reply/objection (below).

First, the "1984" society is NOT total. There are the proles and the world that Winston and Julia try to move into, in that room above the shop. The world of the proles is quite different.

Next, I did not say I was applying this to Scientology. My exact words (below) were, "...THAT is the world that one can find in Scientology's Sea Org."

Next, in THAT environment, there IS control, severe control, of what you eat, where you sleep, who you see, what you read and all the way down to what you THINK. (Try being security checked for a few days on what you are THINKING.) Or go one step further, the RPF, the Scientology gulag. Want to go one more? The RPF's RPF where you are put if you don't want do the RPF voluntarily and where you stay - isolated - until you "cognite" that you want to join the RPF, where you will stay until you are "rehabilitated."

Yes, this degree of control is not unique to this system and there is nothing wrong with making comparisons but let's keep it accurate. The "1984" world was not total and there is a Scientology world which parallels it.

Robert Vaughn Young
writer@eskimo.com