Word: cults
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...article on that page was about the cult of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. A photograph accompanying the articles showed a black man unloading crates from a truck. The caption to the photo read, "Scientology can change intelligence upward at the rate of one point per hour,' L. R. Hubbard...
...interest in this cult began after a close friend of mine became disturbingly fanatic about it and began spewing forth a most incredible stream of theories and arcane terminology. All of which are purportedly based upon painstaking "scientific" research. "Thus, along with science, Scientology can achieve positive invariable results," writes L. Ron Hubbard. "Scientology can change intelligence upward at the rate of one point per hour." Hubbard continues, "The amount of benefit to be gained from Dianetics exceeded anything that Man had ever been able to do for anybody in the history of the human race." Finally, "Scientology...
...seized 100 E-meters, and brought legal action against Dianetics for "false and misleading claims." After a long case, the E-meter was found guilty in 1967. But in Feb. 1969 a Court of Appeals reversed the conviction, ruling that the E-meter was an integral part of the cult's religious practices. On the basis of that decision, Scientology has established itself as a bona-fide religion. However, advertisements for the E-meter now include a note in fine print saying, "The E-meter is not intended or effective for the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease...
...second play on this double bill, Jakey Fat Boy, is a hilarious putdown of the hopped-up cult of being "with it." Much of the humor revolves around malicious In jokes about Kenneth Tynan, deviser of Oh! Calcutta! Jake, the hero (O'Connor), is obsessed by Tynan, referring to him as being "uptight with now," or else identifying with him: "I am up there with Ken Tynan and all the great lovers, all the major erotic figures." What Jake actually is, of course, is autoerotic, an onanistic intellectual voyeur...
...answer is not as pat as it might seem. Though most Americans still accept efficiency as virtuous, there is a growing counter-cult that views efficiency as a dehumanizing, soul-devouring force. The cult began long ago, with Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. In their nightmare Utopias, Brave New World and 1984, they depicted future dictatorships made all the more oppressive by relentless efficiency. The counter-cult has strong expression in modern science fiction. Example: in This Perfect Day, Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby, describes a futuristic society ruled by a gigantic computer, Uni, which calculates the most...