You’re very sweet. I’m hypersensitive. Have a good one!
Flunk

If $cientology was traded on the market, I’d sell short.

Here are 3 perspectives I’ve developed on Scientology: The psychological make-up of the CEO, The structure of the organization, and The product itself.

The psychological make-up of the CEO
David Miscavage has been in Scientology since a young age. All of his education has been within Scientology, and he doesn’t have a high school diploma. He doesn’t have the reputation of an autodidact. He has never spent any of his adult life outside of Scientology, and has had little intellectual exposure to it.

He came up through the organization by means of chance, hard work and Machiavellian maneuvers. He got to see the machinations of LRH up close, and took advantage of his job in the sea org as LRH hid from the feds to position himself to launch a takeover after LRH died.

DM’s management style is colored by his rise. He is very aware of anyone who might be a threat to his leadership and makes it a point to dispose of or humiliate them if he feels that they might impinge on his power. He is paranoid about it. As a consequence, he has decimated the organization of any person who might have management
capabilities.

Since he runs the corporation by fear and intimidation, I think that senior management takes few chances or challenges him on ideas he may have, because they could be banished from power at a whim. Anything they do can run afoul of his temper. I suspect that his outbursts are a result of his emotional rather than rational state. His physical attacks on underlings are a measure of his extremely emotional state, and are also unconsciously calculated to intimidate everyone else in the organization.

At this point, I think he identifies quite strongly with the church to the point that anything that is in opposition to the church, he takes as a personal attack against him. On the other hand, he doesn’t have much regard for it as an institution, since he only sees it in
personal terms. Someone leaving is not just leaving, they are abandoning him in his mind.

I think he also has some anger towards the Co$ because he didn’t create it, he just executed a coup to get it. As a consequence, all that he wants to do is to keep it working for him. His goal seems to be to make money, and not to grow the organization. The slogan Keep Scientolgy Working epitomizes his outlook. There is no mention of
expansion, except in their own publications and publicity.

In short, DM is a thug.

The structure of the organization.
Scientology is set up ostensibly with a watchdog committee overseeing everything, and the Chairman of the Board running the day to day operations through the heads of different divisions, like a regular corporation. In reality, David Miscavage runs it as his own fief and it has been in chaos since he took over. When Shelly took it upon herself to fill some positions, he exploded. By constantly keeping things in flux, he keeps staff uncertain of their position and under his control because he keeps everything in turmoil.

The business education of the executives is supposedly based on the writings of LRH, but in reality, each has been moved into a job and learned it by mostly on-the-job training. Since each serves at the whim of the COB, they spend their time trying to please him, instead of doing their job of running the department in the most efficient, cost effective way.

To keep everyone in Scientology in line, there is a whole system of reporting on people, as well a self-reporting that is encouraged with the use of the e-meter. By the use of the extensive files on every person, the sec checks, and the writing up of Knowledge Reports, people are basically under a soviet style security system. The OSA, IMO, is the Scientology equivalent of the KGB. In a basically free society, it’s amazing that Scientology has been able to function in this way.

The Product of Scientology
The biggest problem is with the product. It was created out of whole cloth in the imagination of LRH. It contains many provably false concepts. It’s therapy is based on methods that have largely been discarded, using what is basically an ohmmeter that measures galvanic skin response, to supposedly detect the truth of a person’s reaction.

The reason it succeeds as much as it has is that the whole system it operates under is devoted to controlling the people inside of it. Unfortunately for Scientology, the general perception of it in the public eye has shifted from curiosity to disdain. This means that there will be even fewer new adherents.

If the whales desert Scientology, and Narconon starts losing money, it is done for, because without them, the burden of keeping it afloat will all fall on the adherents, who are already overtaxed.

I hope the failure comes soon.

I’ve missed everyone so much! Supermodel #1 is a lucky gal. But we already knew that. 🙂

As a professional in the world of IA/UX, I am sending the bottom feeder who thought this chart up to the RTF.

MK, you’ve succinctly recapped a lot of the credible scenarios for the decline of the cult including some of the points we at Global Capitalism HQ have raised in our analysis…

Remember, we’re experts at evaluating whether a company management team is running the organization effectively or are driving the company into the ground. We sometimes talk about a given company “having a 10% management discount,” which means that the stock should go up 10% the day after the board fires the CEO; in some cases when the CEO has gotten axed, the stock moves have been pretty close to the anecdotal phrase. I was one of a number of people who said that Apple had a 40% management premium because of Steve Jobs; over the year since he departed this mortal coil, that’s about how far the stock has declined. The “management discount” on Scientology is probably 50%, but there are enough fundamental problems on so many other levels that even if he disappeared this afternoon, the cult will continue to circle the drain.

So I agree with you on the issues around incompetent management of Miscavige, the fact that there’s no bench of management talent to take over (anybody left at this point is utter and complete nitwits). But the organization itself, formed in the image of Hubbard’s naval fantasies is structurally inept as well. If all the Harvard MBA’s who are constantly bombarding us with ploys to come work at Global Capitalism HQ all went to work for Scientology instead and did their best, the organization would still be doomed as long as it retained the same structure as it does today. And the membership will continue to decline because there are no new customers who are interested in a product that nobody wants to buy any more, and the existing customers are all getting older or broker.

Regarding the “Shadowmen,” I have had a number of conversations with J. Swift on this subject over the last year or so. I agree that “wog experts” have a surprising amount of influence over Miscavige, but I am not completely convinced that they are the real powers behind the throne including wielding the power to replace DM when they see fit. I respect J. Swift personally and the depth of his network of contacts in the cult enough to retain an open mind on his scenario, though I think things could easily go either way. We won’t know whether he’s right until DM is cast off his throne and we see in hindsight how it went.

🙂

Thank you very much. I’d heard about the Mission Holder Massacre, but I hadn’t read about it in this detail.

Here’s my opinion. (Remember, I’m a wog).
I don’t think that there’s going to be a walkout like 1982. Why?
1. Because the missions are much more tightly controlled, and that control is centralized.
2. Income was radically reduced for staff and auditors in 1982. There hasn’t been a corresponding reduction of income.

I sense that there are two items that are causing the major member dissatisfaction.
The constant regging of members for building funds.
The constant repetition of courses, which cost members more as they are at higher OT levels.

How much control or input do the Shadowmen actually have in regards to Miscarriage?
Are they simply a rubber stamp?
Unfortunately, IMO, there has been no real grooming of a second in command or a replacement of DM.
Also, the way that the whole {church} is managed defies sane management practices.
Between incredibly bad PR.and the increasingly larger footbullets it produces, the Co$ is in deep trouble.

I was trying to be a little funny and gentle, since he was vulnerable and sweet about his relationship lessons learned. So it just meant he was obviously treating the women in his life very well :-).
I hate to fuss with my pals, here or anywhere. Mr Casabeca would tell you that I give lots of love and respect to the men in my life. I respect and love denizens of the Bunker the best I know how.
Some of your posts are witty, some are thought provoking. I am just here to learn, and perhaps help the cause. Let’s be friends!