I have a blog entry on “Look Don’t Listen” almost ready to go, but I can’t resist posting a commentary on Marty’s latest, The King of the Squirrels.
This is what is known in Scientology as an attempt to repair an ARC break. For those unfamiliar, the “ARC Triangle” is Affinity, Reality, and Communication. In Scientologese, affinity means regard or liking; reality means a common point of agreement; and communication means the same thing it does in English. According to LRH, these three things go hand-in-hand, and raising one factor will raise the other two. (This isn’t entirely true, something I talked about in this blog entry.)
What Marty did was go out-reality with his public, thereby causing an ARC break. Translation: Marty said something people disagreed with (David Mayo is a bad guy) and pissed people off. So how does Marty fix this? He has to get reality (agreement) back in by posting something his readers will agree with: David Miscavige is a ruthless little twat who is ruining Scientology. Can’t go wrong with that!
As part of his damage control, Marty tries to downplay the controversy:
“The earlier beginning to my having even gotten into this terrain, was a controversial comment of mine to the effect that folk promoting their skype auditing, and long-distance internet NOTs supervision was, in my view, squirrel.”
That’s a rather creative way of looking at things, especially when you consider what Marty actually said:
“I have noticed over the past year several old AACers coming out of retirement and hanging up their shingles… Well, over the past couple months I have had some bedraggled souls wind up on my doorstep who have been mauled by old-timer squirrels… Squirrels leave the church seeking freedom to do whatever hair-brained scheme their banks feed them.”
No matter; the way I see it, the real reason this whole thing started (and forgive me if I’m repeating myself) was that Marty posted what amounted to an advertisement for his auditing services, saying that he has legitimate OT-level materials (because the OT5-OT7 materials published on the Internet by Mayo are legit) and he’s best qualified to deliver them (because other Free Zone auditors are – and I quote his original post – “hucksters, clowns and pick-pockets”).
No matter what spin he puts on it, the bottom line is that Marty pissed off the faithful, so now he’s doing what any good performer does: Give ’em what they want. If a comic tries some new material and it bombs, what does he do? Go back to the old stuff that always gets a laugh. In this case, there’s nothing like some anti-DM rhetoric and a Tale from the Ol’ Days to rally the troops.
Of course, if one reads between the lines, one can see that Marty’s foot is still firmly in his mouth. After all, he just labeled David Mayo and his ilk as squirrels, and now he’s calling David Miscavige the King of All Squirrels. So basically, he’s lumping Mayo in with Miscavige. (Marty was less subtle in his previous post, where he came right out and classed them together as “iconoclasts.”)
So will this latest post alienate his followers even further?
Of course not!
See, Scientologists have a knack for ignoring uncomfortable truths – all you have to do is give them some little shred they can agree on and they’ll rally around it. (I shouldn’t single out Scientologists; this is a common trait among the blindly faithful.) All it takes is a shiny object to distract them, and an anti-Miscavige story is the perfect gem.
And the proof that this works is in the comment section: Karen De La Carriere has returned with this comment about how evil David Miscavige is. I bet Marty breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that! And unlike her defense of David Mayo, after which Marty wisely kept his trap shut, this time he was Johnny on the spot with a reply – six minutes after she posted her comment, he replied with “Nice sum up Karen. Your conclusion is absolutely spot on.” Way to go, Marty – the customer is always right!
Judging from the comments posted – or at least the ones Marty didn’t censor – the shitstorm isn’t entirely over, but the worst has passed. If Marty is smart, his next few posts will get back to basics: More trashing of DM and stories of Scientologists leaving the Church, and fewer advertisements and swipes at Free Zone auditors.
Personally, I’m hoping Marty isn’t that smart, because this has been a very entertaining week!
ML,
Caliwog
Related: The BS of ARC
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