Op Ed 4-28-2013
Sunday Op Ed - (Opposing or Opposition Editorial - a newspaper tradition of presenting dissenting viewpoints to the publisher's general stance)
I don't know if I'll do this every Sunday but if others want to present topical views here as well, it will be welcome.
A few months ago I posted here that the number one fear OSA and the Church management have is for their public to learn that Bridge services are available in the Field, outside the corporate structure. And therefore the number one thing Field Scientologists could do to weaken the corporate grip on their public and bring about reform would be to get going on their own Bridge in the Field, make it broadly known they were winning and to help promote that information through a highly ranked public website, Scientolipedia.org.
For the past four years high ranking former executives promoted the idea that dragging all the corporate churchs' dirty laundry through the mud in the press would create pressure from outside and bring about reform. The collateral damage to the Scientology name was presumed a necessary by-product with some, not much but some attempts to distinguish the philosophy/subject from a corrupt corporation in the minds of degraded journalists and the public consumer.
The same former executives, having failed their number one duty i.e. "Keep Scientology Working and out of the hands of mad men, were now promoting another failed strategy while sucking up all the attention units of the Field and effectively barring any broad-scale development of Scientology practices outside the corporate orbit.
I won't go so far to say this was a planned blocking maneuver but the net result was the same. Marty, ever the street-smart and crafty political manipulator, (he didn't get to be # 2 by being stupid) saw the writing on the wall back around the first of the year and has tried to "get out in front" of the failed strategy by creating a new track record and history of philosophical "higher ground" to avoid the inevitable stain on his resume from yet another failure. Others who revel in the chaos and not as quick on their feet as Marty are still beating the dead horse. Sadly, too large a percentage of the "Field" have failed to notice these things and still support them.
The above type of thinking and talk has landed your humble editorialist, me, in hot water with that crowd. They've done everything possible to shun and ostracize me and the Scientolipedia website.
Thankfully however, the idea of promoting true Scientology, real Scientology, Scientology without the hype and corporate baggage turned out to be the correct idea. People have embraced it and love a "DM Free Zone". (the only kind of free zone we endorse btw) Scientolipedia announced it would promote Scientology and make it widely known that Scientology, Scientologists, LRH and the Tech are GOOD things.That they are not in any way related to a corporate entity which has hijacked the brand name.
To be fair, others have promoted this idea as well. But none had a web platform capable of generating high enough search rankings, as is the case with the wikipedia model we are following, to pose a serious challenge either to the church or the former church execs' efforts.
So the idea of promoting the hell out of success and winning stands in opposition to the idea of promoting dysfunction and failure.
You be the judge as to which is the better idea.