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From: Gerry Armstrong <gerry@gerryarmstrong.org>
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Subject: Re: Scientology as a
pokerplay
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Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 16:21:09 GMT
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On 10 Mar 2007 23:48:55 -0800, "Roger Larsson" <exinsane@tiscali.se>
wrote:
>If Ron
Hubbard played with nothing making it to everything and won
the
>money from the believers in him he was a good pokerplayer
holding his
>face learning the believers in him how to hold their
faces also.
>
>Is it all what scientology is
about?
>
>It's better to point on Hubbards bad cards than to
be a part in his
>deal.
>
>Roger Larsson
Back in 2002 you posted about the Scientology cult as a poker player
and I
responded then as follows:
[Quote]
This reminds me of a statement made by Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge Ronald
Sohigian in a hearing in May 1992 in a case in which
Scientology sued
me.
[Quote]
"The information (Gerald Armstrong's evidence) that's being suppressed
in
this case (by the organization), however, is information
about
extremely blame-worthy behavior of the plaintiff which nobody
owns; it
is information having to do with the behavior of a high
degree of
offensiveness and behavior which is meritorious in the
extreme.
It involved abusing people who are weak. It involves taking advantage
of people
who for one reason or another get themselves enmeshed in
this
extremist view in a way that makes them unable to resist
it
apparently. It involves using techniques of coercion."
(5/27/92
hearing transcript at p. 107, l. 6)
"There
appears to be in the history of [the organization's] behavior a
very,
very substantial deviation between their conduct and standards
of
ordinary, courteous conduct and standards of ordinary,
honest
behavior. They're just way off in a different
firmament."
"..it's the
kind of behavior which makes you sort of be sure you cut
the deck and
be sure you've counted all the cards. If you're having a
friendly
poker game you'd make sure to count all the chips before you
dealt
any cards." (5/27/92 hearing transcript at p. 108, l. 15, l.
21)
[End Quote]
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/legal/affi-1993-02-17.html
In the poker game paradigm, Scientology, holds a bad hand and all the
other
players know it's a bad hand.
Everyone knows that the cult's big bets are bluffs.
The cult's only rational play is to fold, but rationality is not how
Scientology thinks it wins.
The cult tries to buy the pot, and the rest of the players can't match
their gargantuan bets.
When everyone got in, they thought it was a table stakes game, and
according to Hoyle.
But Scientology doesn't play by the same rules; it cheats, it bullies
and it's a terrifyingly poor loser.
Almost all
the would-be players can't even come up with the ante.
Most good
players don't get in because if the poor losers lose they
mug the
winners in the alley as soon as they try to get out with
their
winnings.
A few players
have sat through the whole deal. They've been cheated,
lied to,
stolen from, threatened and kicked. But they've followed
Judge
Sohigian's rules, learned to count the cards, cut the deck and
even
count the chips. They know the poor losers hold nothing. It's
all
puffery. The good guys would raise the roof if they could, but
they're
all in.
They know
they'll be mugged, or even shot. But they're holding three
bullets,
so the poor losers can't have enough left to take them all
out. They've got half the ladies to go with the aces. And they've got
alligator blood. So they call. And sit back and wait for the
showdown.
[End Quote]
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/msg/d633562e2ab93ba8?dmode=source&hl=en
And see Judge Sohigian's comments here:
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/legal/sohigan-hrg-1992-05-27.pdf
I think that since then more players have come up with the ante and
are in the
game, e.g., South Park; the cultists are still bluffing;
the pot is
bigger; and they're even worse losers now. They've
been
identified as sociopaths, and everybody knows that sociopaths
will do
anything to win.
From Matha Stout, PhD in *The Sociopath Next Door*:
[Quote]
Rather, [for sociopaths] the game is the thing. The prize to be won
can run the
gamut from world domination to a free lunch, but it is
always the
same game-controlling, making others jump, "winning."
Evidently,
winning in this fashion is all that remains of
interpersonal meaning
when attachment and conscience are absent.
[End
Quote]
http://www.carolineletkeman.org/refund/docs/sos-6.html
And see the
whole section "Ron the Sociopath :: Life is a
Game:"
[Quote]
Without our
primordial attachments to others, what would we be?
Evidently, we
would be the players of a game, one that resembled a
giant chess
match, with our fellow human beings as the rooks, the
knights, and
the pawns. For this is the essence of sociopathic
behavior and
desire. The only thing [the sociopath] really wants—the
only thing
left—is to win.
[End
Quote]
http://www.carolineletkeman.org/refund/docs/life-is-a-game.html
The solution
for Miscavige, the sociopath who now runs Scientology,
since his cult
can't win against players like Viacom, is to bully, mug
and win
against individuals with no resources and no power to fight
back.
Scientology and Miscavige haven't changed, as sociopaths almost
never
change, but they've lowered their sights to the defenseless
few
players they can win against.
So if you're
in the game with the Scientology sociopaths, be very very
careful out
there.
© Gerry Armstrong
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org