Today's blog post is about MLMers and their consistent use of double standards. Double standards are frequently used in society and some of the popular topics are, men versus women in the work place, whites versus minority groups in college, or gay versus straight in marriage (not as controversial these days). The main thing these have in common, aside from being wedge issues, is the introduction of a subjectivity standard. The truth is, there shouldn't be any subjectivity when it comes to whether it is right for men and women to have the same opportunity for employment, or if white people and minority groups want to go to college, or if gay people can get married. Whether your personal beliefs lean in one direction or another, there are clear and defined rights in the Constitution and they are not subjective.
It is important to recognize wedge issues for what they are, subjects designed to divide a population. Politicians and the mainstream media utilize wedge issues to promote conflict, generate donations, and distract the masses from important world events. The mainstream media, in particular, utilizes wedge issues to generate ratings, because people are more interested in watching a piece about abortion than Assad gassing his people.
Double standards work the same way, in that they promote an emotional response and are utilized as a way to divide people. The idea of promoting diversity has become so convoluted and strange that people don't know what is considered inappropriate or racist anymore. The idea that two people are not judged solely on their qualifications, but also on their genetic coding, is the definition of discrimination and is a double standard. We are currently witnessing this at Google, as James Damore, a former Google engineer, came out and said Google was showing discriminatory practices. There are more men than women in higher positions and the work environment was not female friendly. These double standards are real, and even extremely left-leaning groups, like Google, are not as diverse as they seem.
MLMers utilize double standards all the time, because it is one of their best ways to defend their "business". In fact, most of their arguments are rooted in some kind of double standard. An example may be, even though 99% of people fail in MLM there are 'systems' installed allowing each MLMer the 'opportunity' to have success". If any other business had failure rates upwards of 99%, then they would be out of business, and if we say something with 99% confidence in science, then that is considered a fact. Only MLMers can suggest that 99% is not strong enough evidence that MLM is a failure of an "opportunity". Another example is, MLMers often suggest that people outside of MLM don't know what they are talking about because they are not involved in MLM. Not only is this logically fallacious because it would suggest nobody can have an opinion about anything unless they had experienced it firsthand, but it also suggests that they are allowed to cast their own opinions about the person even though they know nothing about them or their research. In other words, the MLMer is trying to suggest that a person can't give a good opinion about jumping off bridges being bad for your health, even if they have never jumped off a bridge, and they are suggesting, non-MLMers can't give an opinion about MLM, but pro-MLMers can give opinions about non-MLMers reporting.
MLMers constantly try to create false dichotomies, and act as though the people that are not in MLM are failures and uneducated about MLM. The idea that non-MLMers can't know or understand MLM is ridiculous, especially since it is supposed to be "duplicatable". Let's be fair for a moment. MLMers don't tend to be the highest functioning members of society, and to suggest that they can understand something, that the majority of society cannot, is highly unlikely. Therefore, we can say, with 99% confidence, that MLMers don't understand what they are talking about, and are utilizing double standards to make their arguments seem more plausible.
On a side note, Google has hired a "VP of Diversity, Integrity, & Governance", and I bet you can guess what type of person they hired. It makes you wonder, why would a company that is supposed to be progressive need this department, and how many white men were overlooked for that position?
It is important to recognize wedge issues for what they are, subjects designed to divide a population. Politicians and the mainstream media utilize wedge issues to promote conflict, generate donations, and distract the masses from important world events. The mainstream media, in particular, utilizes wedge issues to generate ratings, because people are more interested in watching a piece about abortion than Assad gassing his people.
Double standards work the same way, in that they promote an emotional response and are utilized as a way to divide people. The idea of promoting diversity has become so convoluted and strange that people don't know what is considered inappropriate or racist anymore. The idea that two people are not judged solely on their qualifications, but also on their genetic coding, is the definition of discrimination and is a double standard. We are currently witnessing this at Google, as James Damore, a former Google engineer, came out and said Google was showing discriminatory practices. There are more men than women in higher positions and the work environment was not female friendly. These double standards are real, and even extremely left-leaning groups, like Google, are not as diverse as they seem.
MLMers utilize double standards all the time, because it is one of their best ways to defend their "business". In fact, most of their arguments are rooted in some kind of double standard. An example may be, even though 99% of people fail in MLM there are 'systems' installed allowing each MLMer the 'opportunity' to have success". If any other business had failure rates upwards of 99%, then they would be out of business, and if we say something with 99% confidence in science, then that is considered a fact. Only MLMers can suggest that 99% is not strong enough evidence that MLM is a failure of an "opportunity". Another example is, MLMers often suggest that people outside of MLM don't know what they are talking about because they are not involved in MLM. Not only is this logically fallacious because it would suggest nobody can have an opinion about anything unless they had experienced it firsthand, but it also suggests that they are allowed to cast their own opinions about the person even though they know nothing about them or their research. In other words, the MLMer is trying to suggest that a person can't give a good opinion about jumping off bridges being bad for your health, even if they have never jumped off a bridge, and they are suggesting, non-MLMers can't give an opinion about MLM, but pro-MLMers can give opinions about non-MLMers reporting.
MLMers constantly try to create false dichotomies, and act as though the people that are not in MLM are failures and uneducated about MLM. The idea that non-MLMers can't know or understand MLM is ridiculous, especially since it is supposed to be "duplicatable". Let's be fair for a moment. MLMers don't tend to be the highest functioning members of society, and to suggest that they can understand something, that the majority of society cannot, is highly unlikely. Therefore, we can say, with 99% confidence, that MLMers don't understand what they are talking about, and are utilizing double standards to make their arguments seem more plausible.
On a side note, Google has hired a "VP of Diversity, Integrity, & Governance", and I bet you can guess what type of person they hired. It makes you wonder, why would a company that is supposed to be progressive need this department, and how many white men were overlooked for that position?
A huge double standard was 100% loyalty to Amway products. I recall seeing IBOs wearing crappy suits from the Amway catalog but diamonds were free to buy nicer suits elsewhere. Another huge one would be purchasing voicemail such as "KATE" when Amway sells voicemail service (IBOCS). But surprise surprise, upline makes more money off KATE.
ReplyDeleteFor the diamonds, it's clearly a case of do as I say and not as I do.
Joe,
DeleteThey probably tried to suggest that they were wearing "Partner Store" suits. These weasels have an excuse for everything, even when the excuse is worse than the original lie.
As for the voicemail software, that is the biggest crock. Those diamonds have laptops, cell phones, tablets, and other devices, therefore they know "KATE" is a pile of useless crap. Not only is the technology inferior, but it doesn't actually replace any of the regularly utilized devices. It reminds me of the cable packages and how you need to add a landline to get the cheaper bundle. That extra $8.00 a month to keep a brand new phone wrapped up in your basement serves a really good cause.
I recall a conversation with an ex WWDB insider some years back. I was told that KATE nets the upline diamond $10 a month or more. Imagine a diamond with 1000 downline or more. That's over $120K per year not including cds, books and functions.
DeleteJoe,
DeleteNow that is some serious money! That will definitely help pay for some of those jet skis.
Let's suppose that an IBO said to his up-line "I already have a voicemail system on my phone. I don't need a redundant and expensive system like KATE."
ReplyDeleteImagine what his up-line (and the asshole Platinum above him) would reply.
Anonymous --
DeleteWhen I was given the "offer" to join Amway at the FED I attended, they finally gave me a price breakdown of each month. Not only was I stunned to see how much it was to be a monthly member of "WWDB" (I believe it was around $50.00), but that did not include "KATE" or the conference tickets, or the CDs.
So, when I told them, "I don't want to pay these fees, but I will pay the one time Amway membership cost", their heads basically blew up on the spot. They started with the excuses, but you need "WWDB" to learn Amway, and you need "KATE" to talk to the team. I told them, I already have a cell phone and e-mail in case people need to communicate with me, and the only thing "KATE" had that I didn't was facsimile, which is completely unnecessary for Amway. I don't think anyone would be faxing their Amway orders to me, especially since everything was supposed to be run through the website.
Just like that, he rescinded the offer and told me that is not how their "team" works. He then walked away and I was officially erased from existence. After all of that time spent, reading, attending the conference, going to the meetings, and "learning", the "opportunity vanished because I wouldn't pay for the "WWDB" portion of Amway. It was the most bizarre thing, and I recently found out the guy who rescinded my invite has a kid on the way. That poor kid is going to have a very difficult life.
Well, that's predictable -- for WWDB and all the other subsystems, Amway is nothing but a cover that provides them with some merchandise to let them pretend that it's actually a retail business.
ReplyDeleteThe real business of WWDB (World Wide Douche Bags) is recruitment of new IBOs, and tool-and-function fees. The idea of making people buy the absolutely outdated and superannuated KATE system is revelatory. This would be like buying a Sopwith Camel when you already have a supersonic F-18 fighter jet. KATE's only purpose is to enrich up-line.
The "products" in Amway don't matter. Even the Diamonds, Platinums, and other big pins now admit this openly. Everything is recruitment and training fees. Amway could can freeze-dried horseshit and it wouldn't make the slightest difference to WWDB or any of the subsystems, because nobody gives a damn about the Amway products.
In the past, when contraceptives were illegal, there were small factories in New York that dealt in "rubber toys." Their actual business was the production of rubber condoms, but they also made a small line of dolls and balloons and other inflatable gadgets for kids, and this was done solely as a cover to hide their main source of income.
That's what Amway does for WWDB. It makes a lot of unsellable crap (vitamins, energy bars, cheap cosmetics) that is used merely as a kind of play-money to hide what's really going on. But the milking of IBOs of endless fees and charges is the real business of WWDB.
Anonymous --
DeleteDo you have any evidence that the Diamonds and Platinums have explicitly said the products don't matter? I arrived at that conclusion because of the way they didn't focus on the sales of products, but I never heard them specifically say the products are a distraction. That would be a fantastic piece to publish if there was a high ranking member confirming it is a pyramid.
I agree, the WWDB system is as useful as a shovel to the head.
It's been said by various pro-Amway persons posting at Joe Cool's website over the years. They may have said it in anger, and would probably backtrack on it if you pressed them now. But it's clearly true. The products don't matter.
ReplyDeleteI recall one guy saying about Amway: "This is a business opportunity about business opportunities!" In other words, the selling didn't matter at all -- the key thing was to get people to take the business opportunity (i.e. recruit them, and get them to recruit others).
One other guy said "I haven't dealt with product in years. It's not a part of my Amway business."
A major proof of this is that many Amway types tell prospective IBOs that they don't need to sell at all! All they have to do is eat one energy bar and drink one energy drink a day, and get others to do the same. That's it.
The fact that at best only 5% of Amway products are retailed to non-IBOs is the real evidence. All the rest of the stuff either sits in the garages and basements of IBOs, or is self-consumed by them.
Anonymous --
DeleteJoe's blog has had many -- confused individuals when it comes to Amway's "business opportunity". I was hoping you had a YouTube video, or some kind of recording, that had a diamond telling their downlines it isn't about selling Amway products.
I specifically remember one Joe post where two Amway IBO's posted completely contradictory posts within a couple hours of each other. The first one suggested Amway is all about selling products, which is required by the FTC, while the second one said they never sell products and it is all about "teaching people about the opportunity", which of course, is completely illegal.
Now, I'm not trying to say that diamonds aren't responsible for this wrongthink, actually quite the opposite, but I still have never found anything directly from a diamond. Diamonds are as well insulated as crime bosses and every presentation I went to focused solely on the "dreams". They did mention, and sometimes draw out, the circles (pyramid scheme compensation plan), but they never explicitly said Amway products are irrelevant. I believe they are informed enough to know they should never say something like that, even to another high ranking member.
Well, the higher-ups at Amway are always very careful about PUBLIC statements. They wouldn't openly state that the selling of Amway products is nothing but a joke. That would be bad for business.
ReplyDeleteBut privately, it's different. Among themselves they certainly acknowledge that the Amway racket is primarily about recruitment and fees. The Roman orator Cicero once said that he was amazed that when two astrologers met in the street, they didn't laugh out loud at each other over their shared fake profession. Amway bigs know very well that their racket is a scam, but they keep quiet for the same reason.
Nevertheless, when hot-headed Amway freaks show up at some anti-Amway blogs, they do let the truth slip out because of their anger. They'll say "I don't sell ANYTHING!" The truth often comes out when one is in the midst of a heated argument.
Anonymous - I have always assumed that when 'MLM' bosses meet in private, they piss themselves laughing at not only their flocks of economic cannon-fodder, but also at the (so-called) 'regulators.'
DeleteAs for 'MLM' adherents letting the truth slip out in unguarded moments:
More than 20 years ago, when I told my Ambot brother that no one in their right mind would want to buy his over-priced 'Amway' crap, he desperately tried to recruit me into 'the business' by openly boasting that 'selling product' (he never used the plural) 'for a 30% mark-up was OK for some people, but in the end, it was a waste of time and only for losers.' He then leaned towards me and, almost whispering, explained that the big money was earned by 'distributors' who 'worked smart and exactly duplicated the IBS business building plan' and who 'bought a minimum of 100 points of Amway product each month' and who 'recruited 6 others to duplicate the same plan' who then 'recruited 6 others to duplicate the same plan' etc. ad infinitum.
Ambot brother's kept staring straight at me - declaring that, if the 'plan was exactly duplicated, profits always automatically accrued in a never-ending geometeric progression... The more recruits you helped onboard: the more money you earned... The more recruits your recruits helped onboard: the more money everyone earned.'
Ambot brother then raised the volume and the level of absurdity - claiming that 'within 10 years all supermarkets would be finished in Britain, because the Amway business model was taking over.'
Ambot brother's final deluded 'MLM' preachment (before I could get away from him) was:
'In Amway sussess is built on helping others succeed... I only want to help you succeed... there are literally billions of £ at stake and you will kick yourself in the future if you don't come on board now.'
Yes, I have heard this business about "all supermarkets disappearing" (along with all brick-and-mortar stores) because the whole world will be "prosuming" or some such asininity. Amway isn't the only source of this craziness.
ReplyDeleteReally, it's part of an entire psychic delusion that is growing throughout the world, though the epicenter of the mental disease is here in the United States. All sorts of brainless people get glassy-eyed as they orate on how there won't be any more mailboxes or post offices, or how all bills will be paid on-line, or how we will all order our groceries by computer, or how cash money will become obsolete, or how there won't be any more land-line telephones.
All of this hallucinating imbecility is metastasizing like cancer. It's a religious phenomenon, like mass psychosis. Almost everyone is infected by the mania in some degree. Amway and other MLM rackets seize on it immediately, because it provides its proponents with the false sense that they are "on the cutting edge" of something big and grand and futuristic.
What does your brother say now, after twenty years, since the UK is still filled with supermarkets?
Anonymous - I agree, 'MLM' cult bosses have always been drawing from a deep well of existing credulity - whilst adapting, and up-dating, the exact content of original Utopian 'American Dream' controlling scenario to fit the spirit of the times, but it remains essentially the same.
DeleteAccording to the 'MLM' fairy story, anyone can transform from being an ordinary, poor, miserable enslaved human to being an extraordinary, wealthy, happy and free superhuman: simply by exactly duplicating a (pay-through-the-nose) proven 'step-by-step-plan.'
Part of the required payment to achieve the 'MLM' Utopia has always been the surrender of the victim/adherents' critical and evaluative faculties.
The original 'MLM' racket (hiding behind all-American household products) was tailored to fit the existing beliefs and instinctual desires of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men in the Bible Belt. These people (many of whom were WWII, and Korean War, veterans) were already exposed to the existing myth of 'American Exceptionalism' in its up-dated 'American Dream' format. They were also conditioned to accept the moral and intellectual authority of their 'Church Pastors.'
It is therefore, no coincidence that Messrs. DeVos and Van Andel (who were both WWII military veterans, albeit without combat experience) dressed and spoke like 'Church Pastors' or that they taught their core-followers to copy their behaviour. Indeed, 'Amway' shills used to be widely referred to in the USA as 'Black Hats.'
BTW. I haven't had direct contact with my brother for many years. As far as I know, he remained botted to the eyeballs throughout the 1990s (giving up his teaching job whilst financing his unpaid 'MLM' preaching activity with my family's considerable capital assets which he'd obtained control of by convincing my sick elderly mother that 'Amway' was 'the business for the 21st century'), but he quietly slid out somewhere around the turn of the century (when, probably out of embarrassment/guilt, he began pretending that he'd never been involved with 'MLM'). At that time, my brother went back to teaching.
I have no doubt that if he was challenged today, my brother would still deny ever having been a mindless believer in, and unpaid preacher of, the 'MLM' fairy story. He would also try to character assassinate me or anyone else threatening his self-esteem and related psychological function.
To give you some idea of how dangerously deluded my brother is/was: in a reality-inverting written deposition my brother once sent to a French court (via French attorneys), he pretended that I was lying about him being an 'Amway' adherent, and that he had never been under contract to 'Amway,' but that he believed that I was.
Fortunately, I retained a copy of 'Amagram' magazine in which my grinning Ambot brother's image had appeared (alongside his grinning Ambot girlfriend) when he had achieved the rank in the pyramid known as 'Gold Producer.'
David --
DeleteThis may sound terrible, but your brother may never snap out of his delusional mindset. This sounds like a character trait that became extremely pronounced through the MLM/Amway vessel. I have seen this before with my mother during my parent's divorce. She actually started multiple lawsuits during the divorce proceedings because half of all assets wasn't enough. She wanted to punish my father and she was successful. She actually sued him for lack of alimony and child support but she was nearly thrown out of the court room because my dad was actually overpaying and she knew it. The worst part, if it could really get worse, is my mom is a lawyer and knew these lawsuits would destroy him. This level of hatred is directly correlated to a deep state of narcissism with psychotic traits. She was more destructive than anyone else I have known.
John - Your own family experience has given you great insight into the cult phenomenon.
DeleteYears before my brother dragged the 'Amway' Trojan Horse into my family, an insightful woman warned me (after meeting my family only once) that my brother was a dangerous indvidual who was totally unconscious of his own character flaws and instead, projected these flaws onto others. The same woman observed that my mother was also dangerous, because she was blind to my brother's flaws. At the time, I didn't understand Narcissism or how easy it can be to manipulate Narcissists by reflecting their own ego-protecting delusions as reality.
Before 'Amway,' outside his teaching job, my brother steered well clear of serious persons who might see through him. That said, one of his best friends from college was a psychiatrist, albeit a psychiatrist who enjoyed drinking and smoking dope.
After 'Amway' arrived, another insighful woman observed that, had my brother been around in 1920s Germany, he would almost certainly have joined the Nazi Party.
I fear that my brother has always been a very weak character, a cruel bully and liar pretending to be brave, tough and honest. He has repeated so many ego-protecting lies, for so many years, that he no longer knows what the truth is.
In many respects my brother's character and indeed my own previous ignorance of, and complaisant attitude towards, the cult phenomenon, made my family the perfect target for a cult.
David --
DeleteI came to the same conclusion about why I almost fell for the Amway cult. If it wasn't for my ignorance of cults and MLM mixed with my complaisant attitude, then I believe I wouldn't have been a valid target.
The third, and possibly most dangerous ingredient, was my lack of stability and individuality. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US, there is an extreme pressure on men to be as self-reliant as possible. If you are still receiving assistance from a relative or a friend, then you are royally chastised, especially if you have finished your education. This made me extremely vulnerable due to the huge expectations from successful family members mixed with inherent societal norms and pressures.
I also believe the person that targeted me was the perfect type of cult adherent in which I would respond affirmatively. I have seen many of these lunatics, even at the first meeting I attended, and would have laughed off their feeble attempts to recruit me, but my former sponsor was different. He was relatable, charismatic, well-spoken, and at the same stage in life as I was. He was someone I felt a willingness in which to enter battle, and he was the type of person I wanted to be. To this day, I believe he was probably well-intentioned, and his innocence mixed with ignorance is the perfect combination to make him an effective manipulator. I'm inclined to believe he has no idea what he is actually doing or what his association is.
I fear I was probably one of the 'successful' relatives who made my brother more vulnerable to the 'Amway' fairy story. I wasn't wealthy, but I had wealthy friends and associates via the art and antiques trade. At a glance, I seemed to be everything my brother could never be as an unglamorous teacher entering his thirties.
DeleteMy brother was recruited into 'Amway' by an attorney whom he went to school with. There was a real financial consultant in my brother's group, and in 'Amway' my brother suddenly began wearing business suits and styling himself as a 'financial consultant.'
'Amway' seemed more absurd than dangerous at first.
I am deeply sorry to hear of the family tragedies of both Mr. Brear and Dr. Doe. In my case, my wife's sister was also a sick narcissistic bitch who did everything in her legal power to impoverish and destroy us, so I am keenly empathetic to your stories.
ReplyDeleteAbout Mr. Brear's analysis of the historical context of MLM delusions, I agree but with some revisions of his opinion. The problem doesn't lie exclusively in the Bible Belt, but with the the originating intellectual DNA of America itself.
America had its embryonic beginning in New England. And that place was founded by a group of religious crackpots whom Americans still honor as "The Pilgrims." These pilgrims were the very worst variety of fanatical Nonconformist Dissenter Protestants -- self-righetous, puritanical, Calvinistic, anti-intellectual, psalm-singing nutters. They had to leave England because they couldn't even accept being ordinary Low-Church Anglicans. They had to come here, and create a theocracy, a utopia, a "City on a Hill" -- a place where the Lord's work could be accomplished and a new Zion be established. These maniacs were like ISIS, but with Bibles and Geneva bands.
The specifically religious aspects of this Puritan fanaticism are long gone, but survive in a very virulent form in the American need to "save the world," and to "bring people hope," and to devote yourself to some sort of mindless enthusiasm which will garner you happiness and personal salvation. The MLM schemes are just a low-grade commercial variant of this disposition. In short, New England Puritanism has been secularized into the modern American compulsion to always be in a state of glassy-eyed semi-hysteria about something.
Has no one noticed how the United States is the source of almost every new idiocy and insanity that bedevils the world? Feminism? Health-food mania? Insane novel religions like Scientology and Mormonism? Prohibition? Veganism? Alvin Toffler-ism? Animal-rights activism? Multiculturalism? Wars "to make the world safe for democracy"?
The rest of the planet has simply followed suit. But we are the pool of intellectual bacteria from which these plagues come.
Anonymous - The limited point I was making was that 'Amway' originally recruited exclusively in the Bible-Belt and that the 'MLM' fairy story was first tailored to fit the minds of white male Protestants, but since then, the exact detail of the controlling narrative has been adapted to ensnare a much wider range of adherents.
DeleteAlthough there's something about Americans which seems to have rendered a significant % of them particularly vulnerable to crackpot cults, I fear that the USA is far from being the source of almost every new crazy belief system. That said, the USA has spawned some of the most notorious latter-day cultic rackets, but cults can never be entirely original.
e.g. L Ron Hubbard got the idea to start a cult when he encountered Jack Parsons, an adherent of Aleister Crowley - the psychopathic drug and sex-fiend, British instigator of 'Thelema' and 'Crowleyanity,' but Crowley's controlling narrative was itself far from original.
The gruesome list of non-American criminogenic cults is vast, and one of them is in the headlines at the moment.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41079736
The maniac mentioned in that BBC link you gave may be from India, but everything in his story and the accompanying photos smells of California freak-scene 60s radicalism. Despite his name, he is simon-pure USA. This what I mean about America poisoning the globe.
ReplyDeleteDon't confuse simple greed, lust, and duplicity with cultic psychosis. All nations and races produce plenty of the former. The latter, however, is peculiarly linked to Nonconformist Protestantism and the secular successors to it. In the UK, how many Liberal and Left-Labourite MPs still come from Dissenter backgrounds? How many Communists were originally from chapel-attending families?
The intellectual DNA of this group is stable, going right back to the anti-episcopal and anti-royalist movements of the 17th century, to the Whiggery of the 18th century, and to the socialist Fabianism of the 20th. These types run true to nature. England was wise to keep them out of Oxford and Cambridge by requiring a pledge to the 39 Articles.
Luckily for Britain, there has always been a strong aristocratic and traditionalist ruling class to keep these Nonconformist lunatics in line. But America has never had that blessing! You sent those crackpots HERE! Puritan New England parsons have totally dominated educational and cultural life in the United States. Combine their psychotic enthusiasm with America's vicious capitalist competitive streak, and you get the breeding ground for MLMs.
I'll admit that Hubbard had some contacts with the Crowleyites very early in his career, but he broke with them decisively and there was some prolonged legal dispute involved in the split. In any case, L. Ron Hubbard was such a glaringly malignant psychopath that he hardly needed Aleister Crowley to set him on the path to cultism.
But this historical wrangling is unimportant now -- what is really significant is that three of us (you, me, and Dr. Doe) have all independently testified to the existence of a rampant malignant narcissism in the world today, one that turns persons into savagely cruel and heartless monsters of greed and haughty pride.
An excellent overview of this problem (from a Roman Catholic point of view) can be seen in Ann Barnhardt's long video on "Diabolical Narcissism." If you watch it, I can guarantee you will jump with startled recognition at some places:
https://www.barnhardt.biz/diabolical-narcissism/
Anonymous - India was producing gurus long before the USA existed. The latest crop have merely tailored their controlling scenarios to fit the 'capitalist/ pro-USA' spirit of the times in the sub-continent.
ReplyDeleteTalking of the California freak scene:
Hubbard had no real money and had no known contact with cultists prior to 1945-46. It's very doubtful that 'Scientology' would exist today, if Hubbard hadn't met with Jack Parsons in California.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_(rocket_engineer)
That said, Hubbard was already a severe and inflexible NPD sufferer, but he became far more dangerous when he personally witnessed how a mystifying comic-book fiction could be peddled as fact and used to exploit, and abuse, a group of vulnerable people.
On being discharged from the US Navy at the end of WWII, Hubbard abandoned his wife and family to stay in a sort of pre-hippy commune in California which was the little kingdom of Jack Parsons (a rocket engineer who had inherited a large property and who was a devoted follower of Aleister Crowley). At this time, Crowley was a seedy old recluse with a terrible reputation hiding in a boarding house on the S. coast of England, but Parsons (who regularly communictaed with Crowley via letters which still exist) didn't understand this. Hubbard observed how Parsons practised hypnotism and had control over the members of his commune, particularly the women. Parsons' commune wasn't very large or stable. It mostly comprised out of work young actors, actresses, musicians, various drop-outs, etc. Hubbard also observed that Parsons was controlled by Crowley and his mystifying 'black-magic/permissive' narrative. Parsons' commune was the remaining vestige of Crowley's 'Thelema' cult.
When Hubbard had learned enough, he left Parsons' commune. He took Parsons' girlfried, Sara, with him and eventually married her bigomously. He also defrauded Parsons out of more than $20 000 by feeding him a fairy story about buying yachts and going on an exciting expedition. Parsons then sued Hubbard, but he never got full redress.
Hubbard soon began pretending that he'd been sent to infiltrate, and destroy, Parsons' satanic cult by US government intelligence agancies. Hubbard also began pretending that after being wounded during the war he'd briefly died during surgery and visited hHaven where he had acquired a superhuman secret knowledge, etc.
Several years later, Parsons died in very suspicious circumstances - officially he blew himself up whilst handling explosives as part of an experiment.