OFFICE OF SPECIAL AFFAIRS
31 October 1987
OSA Network Order No. 21
OSA NW
REPUTATION OF SCIENTOLOGY AND LRH
(Originally written on 22 July 1976.)In some recent communications on lines it has been seen that some PRs are of the opinion that Scientology and LRH are in some disrepute.
This issue is written to properly orient that opinion and also possibly de-PTS some PRs.
By the nature of his work the PR comes into contact with the writings of and the questions of the front line suppressives on the planet—the media, the guiders of the media, the executive branches of governments and their officials.
What the public thinks and what these individuals think are entirely separate things.
General surveys show that people do not trust or believe what they read in the papers. Other surveys show the executive branches of government to be held in the most thundering contempt.
To tune your statements and issues intended for the publics of Scientology to what some media weirdo or government psycho is going to say or think is to admit defeat in the dissemination of Scientology, to express personal overwhelm and actually to further a 26 year studied campaign by the bad hats to squash one of the brightest hopes for mankind.
The public is not looking for statements that we are “harmless and innocent and kind of like psychologists or Christian Scientists but kind of different you know.” The public is looking for something that will take them out of the swamp and spin of their lives and the morass of a degenerating society. To moderate your statements away from the fact that we can do that and become defensive and mild is to lose the game.
This war is actually a war of thought and utterances. It is won with the best think and the best speak.
The R in PR has to also stand for Reality.
When you degrade your statements about Scientology into a pale defense, you are out-R. In fact you are being a bald-faced liar.
If you have any doubts about what Scientology can do, and if you think its results are all bad even in some tiny mission or org, you should get in touch with the production lines and actually talk to some people about what Scientology has just done for them. It isn’t slight. There is no other agency on Earth that could have done that for them.
Sure, tech gets its failures. You may hear about those. But the percent is slight. The psychologist and psychiatrist get nearly 100% failed case reports—as well as suicides, murders and deaths. And as to our failures, few as they are, why is it so many freeloaders actually pay their debt? And why is it the leading opponent in Canada self-audits and gets gains? These are staff failures, organization failures—they are not tech failures and for sure they are not my failures if you saw how hard I work to keep tech in and how many I recover.
But on reporters—have you ever seen one write anything nice about ANYBODY? Really glowing nice? Look at the papers and see what they write about other people. Most of them are lies and nearly all of it is entheta.
And as for the government—any government today—have you ever seen it going out of its way to be decent or to make people happy?
You can grind away with the media and the officials and after a while you think Scientology isn’t respected in the world and that everyone thinks Hubbard is a bum.
And by taking such an attitude you can unwittingly further it.
I’m reminded of a tough old marine sergeant, sour of the world, posted at the Apollo in Corfu by his SP officers (who let their men starve in rat-infested transports) to forbid any marine or sailor from coming aboard the Apollo. The officers (acting on government orders) had briefed their men to stay away and the men hadn’t—they wanted to help paint a building we had and to talk about Scientology. The old sergeant had his orders and being a marine he carried them out and didn’t let his patrol let anybody from those navy ships aboard. But when asked by an Apollo crew member if he’d heard of Hubbard the sergeant said, “Hubbard? He’s a good man. Yes, I’ve heard about L. Ron Hubbard.”
So don’t get conned into carrying an enemy line.
Defensive PR may be necessary in a flap. But start specializing in offensive PR and to hell with whether the SPs consider it offensive to them—since it is!
Say what Scientology really is.
And if you have any doubts about what I am and what I do, then find out for yourself.
It will be your theta that pushes them and their entheta into the common grave of historical oblivion. WE are the future. Not them. Always play it on the bright and winning side. That’s us. And me.
Feel de-PTSed?
L. RON HUBBARD
Founder
Notes
- This document in PDF format. ↩