And the hits just keep on coming!

(Update: Right after I posted this, I realized I should have titled it “OSA Goes Nuts on Marty.” Oh well.)

Okay, I swear that either Marty or the Church or both have got a top-secret program to derail this blog – and I’ll darned if it isn’t working.

Yesterday I said I would get back to talking about LRH and Scientology technology unless Marty did something irresistibly bone-headed. And look what’s happened! Technically, it was the Church, not Marty, who did something bone-headed, but Marty did post the video. I’m sure by now you know what I’m talking about:

Four Scientologists in “Squirrel Busters” uniforms, complete with hat-mounted video cameras (who wants to bet they’ll be called Squirrel Cams?), showed up on Marty’s doorstep, saying they were “investigating” and wanted to interview him.

Now, I must take a moment to say that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FUNNY about people showing up on Marty’s doorstep to harass him. This is the sort of crap that Scientology has been pulling for years, and it’s just plain wrong.

But for something that’s not funny, I must admit that it’s hard not to laugh. I mean, come on – did you see those T-shirts?

Besides, the Church has been doing this sort of thing for years – including the time when Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder were part of upper Church management. They’ve participated in similar activities, and many that were a lot worse, which is why I find laugher easier than sympathy.

In case you’re wondering what the Squirrel Squad is going on about, the Church is trying to discredit Marty’s brand of auditing by saying that he does not keep proper folders, he does not have a proper system of “case supervision” in place, and he does not have certified E-Meters (another Scientology scam – after you pay thousands of dollars for an E-Meter, you have to send it back to the Church for periodic “recertification”). They’re trying to prove that Marty is incapable of delivering proper Scientology services, the object being to a) keep people in the fold and b) prevent Church members from listening to those who have defected to Marty’s camp, or at least keep them from taking him seriously.

Now, it’s tempting to think that Marty set this whole thing up in order to garner sympathy, but I think this is just fortuitous timing. Note that one of the anti-Marty, pro-Church sites has already posted an article about it, which can’t be a coincidence. (Oh, and they did use the term Squirrel Cam. Darn.) Hard as it is to believe, the Church really does things this idiotic, and they really are dumb enough not to realize that they are generating sympathy for Marty at a time when he needs it most. (If I was Marty, I wouldn’t file charges, I’d send them flowers.)

Shocked as Marty and his followers may seem to be, as I said before, this is nothing new. Compare the Squirrel Busters to this 1999 video of Scientologists picketing Mark Bunker’s house. Aside from the reaction of the victims – Mark kept his sense of humor while Marty lost his cool, which is probably what the Church wanted – I don’t see a lot of difference. You could write both off as childish pranks, were it not for the ominous message that if you speak up against the Church, they will find out where you live.

As expected, Marty cites this as yet more proof that David Miscavige is an evil squirrel bent on destroying Scientology. But if he would just read the “technology” he claims to uphold, he’d see that David Miscavige is acting according to L. Ron Hubbard’s instructions:

“When we need somebody haunted we investigate. When we investigate we do so noisily always. And usually mere investigation damps out the trouble even when we discover no really pertinent facts. Remember that – by investigation alone we can curb pushes and crush wildcat people and unethical ‘Dianetics and Scientology’ organizations….We don’t care if they know you’re investigating them for us. In fact, the louder the better.” – LRH, Manual of Justice

“All you have to do in lots of cases is just say you are going to rattle their door knob and they collapse. I can count several heavy attacks which folded up by our noisily beginning an investigation of the attacker.” — LRH, HCO PL 18 February 1966, ATTACKS ON SCIENTOLOGY (Continued)

To be fair, Miscavige isn’t following exactly in Hubbard’s footsteps. After all, these folks showed up to his doorstep with cameras. Back in LRH’s day, they showed up on Paulette Cooper‘s doorstep with a gun.

Perhaps Marty should be glad Miscavige is squirreling the tech.

Read Marty’s take on events here.

ML,
Caliwog

(Another update: I’ve been going through the 500+ comments on Marty’s post, and it looks like that little uncomfortableness over David Mayo has been entirely forgotten! OSA, Marty owes you one.)