To War!
by John Walker on Jan.25, 2008, under The Rest
Change, does not roll in, on the wheels of inevitability.
But comes through continuous struggle.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor.
It must be demanded by the oppressed.
Exciting times are afoot. Hacker group Anonymous have announced a full on war with The Church of Scientology cult.
It all began over this:
Well, it began long before that, but it was this particular example of TCS attempting to use their vast amounts of money and bullying powers to abuse copyright law that broke Anonymous’s back. The declared war. Like this:
And then like this:
There’s a press release about the war here.
An excerpt:
“Anonymous struck at the church; they blocked access to its website, made prank calls, organized protests, distributed anti-Church pamphlets and information, and extracted secret files from the Church of Scientology and its parent company, the Religious Technology Center.”
And excellent coverage of it all from Gawker.com, the site that stood up to Scientology’s lawyers when Google did not, here.
This could get interesting.
(For info on why they’re might be a problem, and not just some crazy kooks, ignore the melodrama and follow up the references from this. Goodness knows how much is true.
(Others have argued there’s a lot worse going on, especially for children).
Anonymous have also released a DVD rip of the 2007 Scientology summit, which turns out to be a very long, very technical (pun intended) sales pitch that essentially requires every single Scientologist to buy every single LRH-authored Dianetics book again, because they’ve found out LRH’s words weren’t in the right order, rather than being the ramblings of a madman. It’s a three hour infomercial, but one where you’re obliged to buy the product. And the CD player. And the training courses…
January 26th, 2008 on 11:54
If this is true it is a very worrying situation indeed. My previous impression was that scientologists were simply people who enjoyed fighting persecution for their religious beliefs, and so sought out that controversy. However, if these frauds, scams and murders are true, it is a very worrying indication on human nature. I hope that this has simply been blown out of proportion, because the consequences if it is true are not pleasant. Why, in our modern, civilised world, have we created this situation, and why is it being stimulated? Scientology does not seem to be something that can be allowed to grow on its own, or take root, for it deliberatly self-destructs it’s members for its own gain. However, when it uses a crack legal team and scare tactics, looking for a fight, challenging it is just something that they want, and they will focus all their attention on the individual brave enough to stand up, and, sadly, I am not that sort of person.
Although, I can calm myself by hoping that Annoyance are simply a group of bored students, who spend their time picking a fight with a small religion, and that all the claims above have little or no base in truth, and that the media at large are just using scientology as a populist target to focus hatred.
But I cant. Scientologists scare me, for if true, then their subversive nature it very, very frightening.
January 26th, 2008 on 13:17
For more information, have a look at http://www.xenu.net.
And don’t forget, this is a cult with its own battleship. A real battleship.
January 27th, 2008 on 12:22
That first Anonymous video is a bit melodramatic, isn’t it? FOR EVERY ONE OF US THAT FALLS, TEN MORE SHALL BLAH BLAH… Then again, having listened to Cruise’s flapping face spit out incoherent banalities, maybe portentous nonsense is the only kind of thing to which Scientologists will actually listen.
January 28th, 2008 on 08:36
I hope thats right Martin. It’s less scary if thats all it is. But the Church of Scientology wouldnt be the first religious group to have other aims…
January 28th, 2008 on 14:18
A jest surely? /b/ raids are hardly a crusade, no matter the cause.
January 31st, 2008 on 11:11
I think it’s bloody brilliant, more power to them.
We talk about this on the latest episode of my podcast:
http://www.inappropriatebehaviour.co.uk/