Letters

Scientology misleading and manipulative

Is the Daily Bruin getting so hard up for ad revenue that now even crassly infamous cult groups are allowed to insert their flyers? L. Ron Hubbard, who I recall best as the man who stated in a mid-1950s interview that the best and shortest route to a million dollars was to start a new California religion, was basically a fraud. To call the nonsensical, mind-bending propaganda that Scientology represents a science is a stretch of the definition; a stretch that in fact renders the term meaningless. The Scientology organization, which over the past decades has paid out tens of millions of dollars in damage awards to victims they have harmed, is little more than a coercive, mean-spirited, money-making machine that never hesitates to prey upon the weak and confused.

Back in the mid-1970s, I lived in the Westlake-Macarthur Park area, at that time a very active center of Scientology facilities and programs. I had many occasions to interact with the Scientologists living in the area and I can never forget how manipulative and heavy-handed their “recruiting” tactics were. Steadfastly maintaining my independence, I was variously told by organization members how much better off I would be if I joined up, and how useful it would be to turn over essentially all of my personal assets in return for Scientology’s loony and disingenuously dangled carrot of “clear” enlightenment. The truths clear to me at the time centered on how desperate these folks sounded, their practice of pounding down anyone who confronted their self-serving ideas, and the look of dazed bliss they all shared in their demeanor. Resisting their irresponsible cult dogma was one of my better instincts.

While I totally support our precious First Amendment right to express and publish religious and philosophical views, I can only hope that the sharp minds of our students will see the insert for what it is: something to be tossed into the trash can of exploitative, irrelevant beliefs. Science is a wonderful system of enquiry. Seeing it in the same sentence with the words Dianetics and Scientology will always be a disconnection from reality in my opinion.

Solomon Matsas Student Affairs Staff Coordinator Office of the Vice Chancellor