Dear XXXXXX, At 04:04 01.07.2003, you wrote: > Hi Andreas, [SNIP] > Then when i read in one of your posted emails that LR hubbard > actually taught that there was no Christ, it opened up my eyes > to realise that the article i read was full of lies to get poor > people like me to recruit. > Thank goodness my cautiousness and a little bit of researched > saved me from that! > > I was slightly offended by something you wrote in one of your > posted emails: > > "Being a musician is something you are trained to be, and if > you also have a talent you might make a name. What is so great > about actors? They are good at being directed? Hey, I don't > see that as good human talent at all! Look at Pulp Fiction, is > that the best you can produce being a Scientologist???" > > I am a musician myself (singer, guitar, songwriter) although i > am not opposed to what you said in that respect. > The thing that annoyed me is your opinion of actors. > I agree with you in the sense that why should celebreties be > paid any special attention compared to other scientologists? > and understand this is because of the large amounts of money > they are willing to donate. > But I disagree with your opinion of actors in general. I myself > was once an aspiring actress although realised that my greater > talents lied in music. I believe alot of famous actors to be > hard-working, talented people, and i actually enjoyed the movie > pulp-fiction and thought it was directed very well. I agree that I was too general. My point was that being an actor in itself, and having the personal charisma and looks that makes you attractive for the masses, is not something that deserves respect. I admire good actors, their talents being a result of good fortune or hard work, but I don't like the tendency in society where people look up to famous actors as role models just because they play in movies. You can be extremely stupid and a bad role model and still become insanely famous. My reply to the Scientologist you refer to was in light of him using people as Travolta and Cruise as examples. Implying that Scientology can't be so bad if these famous persons are members. To me that is no argument, hence my generalization that being a good actor can also mean you are only good at being directed and look good. I agree with you that many famous actors are hard-working, talented people, and I also enjoyed the movie Pulp Fiction because it was directed very well. It's just the impossible leap from that to arguing that Scientology must be true or good that I want to point out. > "Hey, I don't see that as good human talent at all!" > > Have you ever tried to act in a play or anything else? If you > have no ability to mirror well placed, well timed human > emotion, or human reaction on call then you will be quick to > realise that you can't act. Poorly explained by me, I had a more complex argument in my head when I wrote it. Mimicking is being someone else than yourself. In Scientology you are trained a lot on controlling emotions, showing no emotions and being able to lie convincingly. They buy training sessions and do this for hours. While actors help me visualize moments and situations I would otherwise not be able to see, it is not a good ability if you are also like this in real life. I believe some are good professional actors who know very well what they do when they turn that on, but I also believe there are some "naturals" who are fake as persons and they are mistaken for being good actors. Hence my point that people like Travolta or Cruise have credibility only because they are famous actors. > So doesn't that mean that you have no ability? no TALENT? > ('You' of course isn't reffering to you personally, just > someone in general). We all have abilities and talents, but they should make us humble and not means to get credibility. CoS uses abilities and talents deliberately to gain credibility. That is what I oppose. I hope this somehow better explains what I meant. :) I took the liberty of adding this to the page you read, but without revealing your name of course. Take care. Best wishes, Andreas Heldal-Lund, Postboks 131, N-4098 Tananger, Norway Pho: +47 88 00 66 66 Fax: +47 90 32 35 46 E-mail: ahl@xenu.net http://home.online.no/~heldal/ htp://www.xenu.net/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- "Each of us does what we can do. Our obligation is to do it as well as we can, with as much grace, dignity, integrity and honor our egos can tolerate." - Robert Vaughn Young ----------------------------------------------------------------