{"id":3983,"date":"2018-03-01T13:18:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T21:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/scientologybeliefs\/?p=3983"},"modified":"2018-03-01T13:18:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T21:18:21","slug":"media-propaganda-scientology-war-two-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scientologybeliefs\/2018\/03\/media-propaganda-scientology-war-two-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Propaganda: Scientology and the War of Two Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In a blog published on STAND, Scientologists Taking Action Against Discrimination<\/a>, Scientologist Rodger Clark puts media propaganda into perspective.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was 1938. Adolph Hitler (Time Magazine\u2019s \u201cMan of the Year<\/a>\u201d) had begun dropping in on his neighbors without an invitation. It was also the year that a 23-year-old genius actor-director named Orson Welles had a bright idea. He decided to punch up the drama on the radio show\u00a0The Mercury Theatre on the Air<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0which did dramatizations of classic novels.<\/p>\n

\n
\"War<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

For\u00a0his show on Oct. 30, 1938<\/a>, Orson\u2019s idea was to dramatize the 1897 H. G. Wells sci-fi novel\u00a0War of the Worlds<\/em>\u00a0as a series of breaking news alerts about a Martian invasion. As\u00a0the story goes, the effect was so realistic that half the country went into a panic, calling the police, grabbing guns, hunting for Martians, jumping out of windows, etc.<\/p>\n

News reports sensationalized the panic as \u201ca wave of mass hysteria\u201d with stories of mass panic and death that resulted from the broadcast. However, once the dust had settled, as usual, the\u00a0only\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0mass hysteria was in the media<\/a>. When the numbers were finally crunched, only about 2 percent of the radio audience was listening to the show in the first place, and the majority of those took it for the entertainment that it was intended to\u00a0be.<\/p>\n

I remember this broadcast being taught in high schools as an object lesson in public gullibility\u2014an admonition not to be fooled by media reports. The fact that the object lesson didn\u2019t sink in is itself an object lesson in human nature. It shows that a certain percentage of people will panic at pretty much anything if you spin it the right way.<\/p>\n

Orson Welles\u2019\u00a0War of the Worlds<\/i>\u00a0broadcast also turned out to serve as a time-tested template for the news and entertainment media on capturing public attention, selling ad space, spinning any story in any direction they wish and generally leading people around by the\u00a0nose.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Boston<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Fast forward and I find myself in a snit about a media panic piece on Scientology (you know, the one where\u00a010 people who were kicked out<\/a>\u00a0claim to be smarter than millions who weren\u2019t? The one where they gripe about problems that happened 30 years ago, caused by people who were also kicked out? Yeah, that one). That is, until I started to crunch the numbers. The most watched show in the series has less than 0.8 percent of the adult U.S.\u00a0population tuning in. After that the numbers began to fall off.<\/p>\n

So why the expenditure of millions by corporate elites to silence one religious philosophy and create the illusion of a problem where none exists?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now\u00a0to the media<\/em>\u00a0that might seem a big audience share\u2026 to the\u00a0media<\/em>\u2026 In the real world less than 1 million people (about the population of San Jose, CA) out of 115 million (the rest of the country) in the highly valued 18-49 demographic in the U. S. bothered to watch the show. Less than one percent. So what am I worried about? This is the percentage of radio listeners that marched off to fight Martians in 1938. It\u2019s just about right for the percentage of the population that one can expect to be addicted to drama, panic and paranoia. The ones who will believe anything as long as you make it sound\u00a0\u201cbad.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why the expenditure of millions by corporate elites to silence one religious philosophy and create the illusion of a problem where none exists?<\/p>\n

The applied religious philosophy known as\u00a0Scientology<\/a>\u00a0emphasizes and promotes\u00a0independence<\/em>\u00a0over\u00a0dependence<\/em>. That includes dependence on drugs, the media, economics, \u201cauthority\u201d in general and just about any other influence which would,\u00a0to any degree<\/em>,\u00a0enslave the mind<\/a>\u00a0of the individual. Fear, anger, hatred, depression, drama and ignorance to name a few more. The majority of the practice of Scientology dissolves dependencies an individual may suffer, restoring an individual\u2019s native creativity and enthusiasm for living life.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, many corporate elites of the world are (erroneously) taught that their very survival rests on the creation of dependence within the general population, as\u00a0opposed to\u00a0creative interaction<\/em>. This, to put it mildly, creates a problem between corporate media, various business interests, and Scientology.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake. The few who fight Scientology are engaged in a war between two philosophies: dependence vs. independence, blind obedience vs. responsibility, passiveness vs. creativity, apathy vs. action, fear vs. fascination, blind belief vs. discovery, doubt vs. confidence, superstition vs. understanding. It\u2019s a war in which everyone has a stake and no one, ultimately, has the luxury of remaining neutral.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a blog published on STAND, Scientologists Taking Action Against Discrimination, Scientologist Rodger Clark puts media propaganda into perspective. It was 1938. Adolph Hitler (Time Magazine\u2019s \u201cMan of the Year\u201d) had begun dropping in on his neighbors without an invitation. It was also the year that a 23-year-old genius actor-director named Orson Welles had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1278,1320,1374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-scientologists","category-stand"],"yoast_head":"\nMedia Propaganda: Scientology and the War of Two Worlds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a blog published on STAND, Scientologists Taking Action Against Discrimination, Scientologist Rodger Clark puts media propaganda into perspective. 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