Basically, this book is nothing more than an attack on nearly every aspect of organized society, not just the psychiatry profession.
|
|
|
|
Today I stopped by Target and checked out the book section. They have
a limited, but moderate-sized selection of mass market paperbacks
there, and I figured this would be one place where slotting fees would
have to be rather expensive.
I confimed this by finding out there was only one slot (out of a
hundred or so) occupied by a Hubbard publication. The slot was full.
No copies sold so far, though I will be checking back now and then to
monitor the supply. Some other slots nearby were full and others were
low or empty. I noticed Seinfeld's book was a big seller.
Anyway, I plan to break down each and every paragraph of that book and
to publish a detailed academic analysis of everything in there.
However, the way in which I am going to do it will constitute fair
use. Also, I plan to be fair and keep an open mind. Unfortunately
though, right off the bat I found some deception. On the copyright
page it shows two copyrights -- 1988 and 1997. According to the
Library of Congress of the United States, 1965 is the earliest
recorded copyright of the book:
TITLE:Scientology; a new slant on life
PUBLISHED:[n.p.] Hubbard Communications Office World Wide [1965]
DESCRIPTION:160 p. 18 cm. SUBJECT:Scientology.
CARD NUMBER:66-54131
The same book was also copyrighted in 1972, 1976, and 1990.
Perhaps a better title for the book is An Old Slant on Life, since the
material is now at least 32 years old.
In fairness though, the book is compact, neatly laid out, and it reads
well. However, there are various Scientology ads placed throughout
the book, including a "BUSINESS" reply card for receiving a free
personality test. Other than that, the book is teaming with
footnotes, mostly definitions of words most people would never have to
look up, unless they are completely illiterate.
The book starts off by firmly admonishing the reader not to skip over
a misunderstood word. But after I read through the first 17 (or so)
short chapters, I saw a clear theme emerge. Basically, this book is
nothing more than an attack on nearly every aspect of organized
society, not just the psychiatry profession.
I particularly liked the section about the merchants of chaos. It was
quite amusing. These are your members of the defense establishment,
men and women in uniform, and law enforcement, oh, and don't forget
individuals and family members -- they are part of the merchant of
chaos defintion too. It is a thesis which I would like to explore in
considerable depth at a later time.
I must say that I was pleased to see a few positive paragraphs written
about engineering (which is my undergraduate discipline). But things
go downhill from there as biology is called "almost a science." Sorry
you chemists, geologists, meterologists, mathematicians, and
physicists, you did not deserve honorable mention as a science. Here
too is another area I would like to examine in depth.
And my favorite statement for the whole book was -- the person who
always has to be right is a person on the way out. The attitude that
I am right and you are wrong is as low on the scale as you can get, by
defintion. I am thoroughly delighted in reading this. It has pleased
me so much that I have developed a reverse corollary called the
Student's Corollary as follows:
If you have to be wrong and will only let other people be
right, that is as high on the scale as you can get! A person who
always has to be wrong is on their way in!
And that, my friends, is the definition of Scientology in a
nutshell.
As I said, I plan to publish an entire dissertation on the
book, so there is no need for anyone to go out and buy it. And why
would you since you could probably glean everything it has to stay in
less than 15 minutes anyhow. Now, my single greatest problem is to
obtain a copy I can review at length for the dissertation because I
absolutely refuse to purchase a copy of the book.
Oh, and by the way, I saw that the books were misfiled, so I relocated
them to a nicer location. They are still slotted, but the real estate
where I placed them is much more appropriate for that type of genre.
Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help!
Peace,
A. Student