humphrey

I won't lie to you. There's a lot of really good science fiction out right now. Post-singularity shit that would stand your hair on end. There are some good minds writing some really thoughtful stories.

Why then, is the only going science-fiction author cult of personality devoted to -- of all people -- L Ron Hubbard?! If Scientology were pretty much exactly the same but centered around Philip K Dick, my god -- I'd want in, for his secret scriptures! The lectures on cosmogony! The resonant gnostic insights that made PKD's work so mythic!

If the Philip K Dick cult were, in all other ways, exactly the same as Scientology, I'd probably be quite upset that they were 'squirrelling' PKD's tech. But if it was PKD tech, they wouldn't have to change it... at all, or ever! [Also note that PKD wouldn't have told his followers they were ubermensche with the sacral right to destroy all lesser life! Not only would it have actually valuable books, it would be a much kinder, gentler cult... though even a PKD cult might run into the same problems Scientology is having trying to keep their upper-level materials secret in the Internet age... in fact, it would be worse for a PKD cult, because unlike the poisonous barbiturate-drenched Hubbard scrawl, people would -want- these materials! Yaaa]

I'm just saying it's a shame that these people aren't being sold materials that are culturally sanctioned as eye-opening or mind-expanding. The scam goes all the way down to the value and style of their foundational content, which are abysmal.

If it was a PKD cult people would join -because they worship PKD-! No-one joins Scientology out of love of L Ron Hubbard. People join out of confusion and misdirection and are taught about him as a side-effect.

A shiny gold star to anyone who can find me a non-scientology-affiliated L Ron Hubbard fan club.

:D