Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Did he seriously quit over this?

I've been skimming the Isaac Hayes rumors that are flying around not only the blogosphere but the "Respectable" newsmedia. I found the episode YouTubed and linked on someone's livejournal.

I hadn't seen it, but was naturally curious. Was is possible that it was treated with less respect than the major organized religions? I mean, the Mormons got smoked. Maybe there's a reason to be offended. Maybe people are massively misunderstanding Scientologists. My own religion embraces some fairly kooky stuff. It has questionable origins. Who am I to judge?

So, I did try to approach this objectively. Two items did me in.

I'd forgotten what the E-meter was. I've read about the little black box before and was under the impression that it was an unreliable medical tool (In Cults of Unreason I remember reading that shortly after Hubbard began using it, the regular medical community stopped using it) for measuring body temperature and pulse. Good thing I googled it. It's really just an Ohmmeter for your flesh. Now, I must confess I do believe in a lot of New Age and mystical stuff, but I also work on electronics and I can't imagine using test equipment to try and pin down the metaphysical without learning what it's doing and what causes it to do that in the natural world. I think it comes from having to actually read up on all that stupid test equipment in case I actually do need to know how an Ohmmeter is measuring resistance to account for a bad reading. This knowledge about the E-meter threatened to melt a part of brain when I saw it.

I survived that mention, only to have my brain turned to mint jelly around the time they said "..looked like DC-8s.." You see, I've been in Aviation longer than Electronics. I couldn't handle that, and the accompanying animation didn't help.

I had a nice Green Lantern essay in mind, but am unable to complete it because of this experience. While my mind recovers from the shock, see for yourself:

The Episode



The South Park Scientology Episode.

15 comments:

  1. Wow, that was awesome. Do they *really* believe all that? Now I want to start a wacky religion...

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  2. Heh, I don't actually think it was worse than any other South Parkian take on religion...

    I'm thinking specifically of the Catholic Church molestation episode. By the time the great Spider Queen appeared, I'd died laughing.

    And the closet jokes were funny. :-P

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  3. http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/bfm/bfmconte.htm is my favorite recount of Hubbard. It's a lengthy read but hilarious and chilling at the same time.

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  4. Oops, that's what I get for skimming too quickly...I just gave you a link you already had!

    Anyway, I think there's a real possibility someone at the CoS took it upon themselves to quit on his behalf during his recuperation without actually telling him. But even if that's the case, we may not ever learn the facts...

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  5. Yeah, I'm seeing reports that Scientology issued a statement for him and that he had no prior knowledge of it, what with his stroke and all. Actually, Dark Horizons claims Hayes hasn't even quit, so take that as you will.

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  6. Scientology isn't a religion, it's a cynical money-grabbing scam. That ep is better than it deserves.

    http://www.xenu.net/

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  7. ...So I pull out MY GUN

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  8. You confess to believing a lot of new age stuff? That means you realize that all that new age stuff is completely crazy made-up lies yet you still believe it? I can understand people who believe in things and just don't know any better. But how can you continue to accept something you know is wrong?

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  9. Why apreche, that comment is certainly phrased oddly. It includes a leading question that makes an offensive assumption. This question is followed with a dig at the intelligence of people who disagree with you. It seems very much like a logic trap. The entire thing is set up like an ill-advised attempt to start an argument by "Catching" someone of a different philosophy in a "lie" so that the asker can support their own ideological position in a self-congratulatory condecending manner. This would allow a person to feel "Right" about a highly subjective subject at the expense of another.

    Fortunately, the purpose of this post wasn't to explain why I disliked Scientology or open a dialogue about my beliefs, it was simply to explain why I have trouble considering Scientology objectively. My own phrase that you're commenting on was a qualifier to point out that I hold beliefs that others may find silly or mockable also, and give the Scientologists a bit of a break in this post, but I don't see any reason to explain or justify my particular beliefs to you or anyone else.

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  10. The Consumerist says the whole "Isaac Hayes Quits" thing was a publicity stunt, but that's the only place I've seen that theory.

    http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/scientology/a-word-from-our-sponsor-scientology-162107.php

    Sorry, but I've never actually learned to make with the linkies in these comment boxes.

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  11. scarlett and anonymous -- Thanks for the links. This whole movement's history is pretty interesting to me.

    rab and jon -- Hope you guys are right. He seems awfully hypocritical otherwise, especially since the Mormons got it just as bad. (Oh, and try HTML for the links)

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  12. Oh, wow. I just caught the episode they did in response (retaliation). Wow. Remind me never to get on those boys bad sides.

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  13. Pulp illustrator Edd Cartier told me that he knew L. Ron Hubbard reasonably well, and that (during a conversation at a pulp publisher's office) Hubbard remarked: "Edd, I'm convinced that the only way to get rich these days is to start your own religion." Other people have claimed that Hubbard made similar remarks back in the 1940s.

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  14. FYI, I caught the tail end of a CNN story on this issue. Apparently Hayes did quit and it was over the Scientology thing. Which I watched (thanks to your link) and, really, it was about on par for the way Southpark does any kind of religion. Heck, they even called Scientology a religion, which is a lot more than I can bring myself to do.

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