Human predators roam among us. Although there aren’t many of them, they have a tremendous influence. Every bad relationship, every destructive group, every dangerous government has a human predator at its heart. The Key to avoiding them is to know the signs!
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If you wish to spend the US $14.99 for a professionally printed version (18×24), you may buy one here.
This is not a standalone blogpost, but a series of notes for this video:
where my friend Chris Shelton and I mull over the top ten dystopias that the crew visits (or cults that visit the crew) in order of level of visible, actual control, as opposed to Sci-Fi control (in my opinion, anyway). Below is the complete list of the episodes, with brief synopses and the methods of control used in each, whether SciFi or societal.
10. The Gamesters of Triskelion (s 2 ep 16)
Kirk, Uhura, and Checkov are mysteriously transported to a planet where technicolor aliens engage in mortal combat for the entertainment of three disembodied brains.
SciFi control – collars of pain
actual control – ingrained loyalty, learned helplessness, ignorance
9. A Piece of the Action (s 2 ep 17)
Kirk and Spock get to play 1920’s gangster in a world that has developed to emulate the crime-lords of Chicago – but with New Jersey accents. Also contains the most memorable Nimoy line ever: “I would advise youse to keep dialin’, Oxmyx.”
SciFi control – none
actual control – fear of violence, gang loyalty, corrupt “governments”
8. Bread and Circuses (s 2 ep 25)
Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a world that’s totally identical to Earth(!), except Rome never fell.
SciFi control – none
actual control – totalitarian state, propaganda, slavery
7. Patterns of Force (s 2 ep 21)
Another day, another “Earth Identical” world. This one has Nazis.
SciFi control – none
actual control – totalitarian state, propaganda, demonization of the outgroup
6. For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (s 3 ep 8)
Kirk, McCoy, and Spock beam over to a planet-shaped spaceship that’s on a collision course with a real planet. The problem? the residents think they’re on a real planet and there’s no talking to them about it.
SciFi control – the “instrument of obedience” (devices that produce debilitating pain at a disobedient thought, action or word)
actual control – oligarchy, “forbidden” subjects, learned helplessness
5. And the Children Shall Lead (s 3 ep 4)
All the adults on a remote science post have been mysteriously driven to suicide – and unknown to the crew, their children have been “groomed” into following a murderous ghost.
SciFi control – the kids can make the crew see anything
actual control – the methods of grooming the ghost uses on the kids
4. The Way to Eden (s 3 ep 20)
The Enterprise intercepts a stolen shuttle full of “free-thinkers” who think whatever their leader tells them to. Also, we get to see Spock getting his groove on.
SciFi control – a “hypersonic” ray used to knock out the crew
actual control – a full-on controlling guru with a death wish for his followers
3. The Cloud Minders (s 3 ep 21)
Spock and Kirk find themselves entangled in a labor dispute between a world’s leisured upper-class who live in a fabulous sky-city, and the cave-dwelling workers below.
SciFi control – the Zenite gas that keeps the workers slow-witted and angry, an archway used for torture (in this world where “all forms of violence have been abolished”)
actual control – cultural indoctrination, apartheid, draconian handling of the lower classes
2. Mirror, Mirror (s2 ep4)
Kirk, Uhura, Scotty, and McCoy find themselves transported to a “Mirror” universe where the Federation is a totalitarian empire, assassination of your superior is the accepted method of career advancement, and Spock has a nifty goatee (actually a VanDyke – a goatee is sans mustache – but let’s not split facial hairs).
SciFi control – the “agonizers” (pain-giving devices worn on everyone’s belt), the “agony booth” (which gives Walter Koenig a chance to show off his grimacing skills)
actual control – totalitarian state, fear, violence, spying on each other, reign of terror
Honorable mention 1: The Apple (s2 ep 5)
The crew visits the planet of the Happy Blond People who spend their days feeding a giant lizard head made of stone. Kirk throws the Prime Directive out the window to “save” them from themselves.
SciFi control – the antennae of their leader that communicates Vaal (stone-lizard god)’s will
actual control – habit and non-questioning of the status quo.
Honorable mention 2: Return of the Archons (s 1 ep 22)
This is the one that everyone thinks of as “culty,” because it’s got the Hollywood version of “brainwashing.” The population is made up of smiling zombies who have their own mini-Purge, there are guys in robes running around who shoot a “brainwashing” ray at Sulu and turn him into another zombie. Once again, the Prime Directive is studiously ignored.
SciFi control – the brainwashing machines controlling the population
actual control – fear, habit, learned helplessness
1. Taste of Armageddon (S1, ep 24)
The Enterprise is under orders to make diplomatic contact with a planet – but are told to stay away for their own safety. Why? because they’re at war with their neighbors. It’s a war waged not with actual bombs, but with theoretical strikes that “kill” their citizens, who then have 24 hours to report to vaporization booths.
SciFi control – none, except maybe the fish-shaped hats. No one should be wearing hats like that.
actual control – 1-3 million people a year reporting to their deaths because their government tells them to. For 600 years.
And finally, here is the complete set of Trek ‘memes’ I created:
I made this for Jon as a birthday present some time ago. But now he’s doing videos in the room where it is, so I put it here so folks from the channel can see it full size.
All the words are quotes from Hendrix himself.
And if you don’t know about the boss’ YouTube channel yet, here it is.
Those of you who know me are aware I’ve never cracked open a Scientology book, let alone stepped into an Org. The only Hubbard material I’ve read is what I’ve had to read for my job, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s more than enough Hubbard to last me a lifetime. I’ve also read most of the books on the subject, from Jon Atack’s Let’s Sell These People A Piece of Blue Sky and Russell Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah, to the heartrending survivor accounts written by such brave folks as Amy Scobee, Marc Headley, Nancy Many, and so many others – and I’ve gone to the footnotes and verified the material. In short, even as a “never-in,” I know more about the Cult That LRon Wrote than any sane person should.
There’s no doubt about it: Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was a narcissistic, abusive, drug-fuelled monster who created one of the most mind-bending, soul-sucking, money-grabbing organizations known to humanity. I’ve studied the “Training Routines” and seen them for the hypnotic inductions they are, and know, from my conversations with many well-trained professional psychotherapists, exactly why Scientology doesn’t work.
So, I’m certainly no fan of Scientology by any means. That said, I’m a fan of people, no matter what they believe. I also was in a cult, but that didn’t mean that I was foolish, or stupid, and it certainly didn’t mean that I was evil. It simply meant that I was mistaken – and we all make mistakes.
So it saddens me when I see ex-Scientologists or other critics of Scientology calling those still in “scum” or other insults – or worse, attacking those who have left the abusive group but still hang onto the ridiculous beliefs. I was over a decade out of my own cult (and had become a dedicated cult watcher) before I shed the web of magical thinking and faulty reasoning I had developed in my cult. Just as an ex-Jehovah’s Witness will sometimes still believe in Jesus and the Bible, not everyone who leaves an abusive religion will become an atheist. Many of those leaving Scientology will still find some value in the system they used in the cult. I might know that Hubbard’s theories were not only not his, but completely wrong, but that does not prevent someone else from knowing the opposite. We have a right to be wrong, but we do not have a right to abuse others.
If an Independent Scientologist has left the abusive organization, but still finds comfort and solace in a system that I know is total bullshit, I still have no right to abuse them, just as I have no right to abuse those who still attend their churches, synagogues and mosques, even if I don’t believe the “sky-father” they’re praying to is anything but a made-up concept. I know Scientology doesn’t work, but that doesn’t entitle me to abuse those who are mistaken about its utility. They believe it works for them, and no amount of insulting them will turn them from that belief.
When I was in my cult, people calling me names or insulting my beliefs only hardened my resolve to follow my leader farther – the theory of cognitive dissonance tells us that the more someone pushes you not to believe, the more you will believe. Calling people names and labeling them as the enemy will never work, whether or not they are in an abusive group, or have left the abusive group but still cling to the beliefs. Insults only separate; compassion and empathy are what bring people together.
So even though I hate the processes and the techniques of Scientology, I will never hate the people – at least not just because they’re Scientologists (folks like the odious Masterson brothers or the Cardone family are loathsome, not because of their beliefs but their actions). Those still in the clutches of the cult are to be viewed with pity, for the most part; I, too, was once a captured soul – what right have I to condemn someone who is still captive? Those who have come out and still practice Scientology are no longer culpable in the crimes of the cult, responsible only for their own actions – to them, I wish them luck on their path, but I will not insult them or denigrate their progress. If they’re no longer complicit in a destructive group, then their beliefs are no business of mine.
Simply put, there is no good reason to insult people – we are concerned with ending the abuses of Scientology, not punishing the people who were unlucky enough to end up in its snares.
So I was debating the new CGI “tweaks” to the Old Star Trek with some friends, and one of them remarked: “why not just paint eyebrows on the Mona Lisa?”
So I did. I even gave her a touch of eyeshadow and some lipstick:
Something about entering large swaths of data into a spreadsheet just brings out the blues in a gal. So, for the first one, a bit of explanation: I’m currently re-reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series (trilogy? pentogy?) and for some reason got the “Old Janx Spirit” drinking song in my head.
So I decided to do my own version. The first verse is Adams’ ; the second verse my own humble expansion. The melody is (mostly) mine, taken from my admittedly foggy memory of the excellent David Dixon’s rendition in the old radio series.
It’s just your standard Orion blues song. And, as we all know, blues songs on Orion are in 7/8 time, that is, seven beats per measure.
Call it a waltz with a limp; I loves me my uneven meters.
So, then, later on, after it was really too dark to do a video, I decided to do an old song of mine that is also in a compound meter – 7/8+3/4. Talk about a waltz with a limp. And, no need to get worried – writing songs like this makes the sad, hopeless feelings they describe go away. 🙂
I know I’ve been neglecting the heck out of this blog, but the Open Minds Website 2.0 is nearly ready for launch and many exciting things are happening.
But, because of the relative coolness of my boss, I’m encouraged to keep up on my own art, and, because I’ve been working with words with such precision, it was only natural that I’d start seeing words as art in themselves. So, here’s a few samples:
Then I decided to try some punctuation. This guy looks like something out of South Park:
and as soon as I did him, I realized what word would be really fun to render – that one that all the cartoon characters say –
At one point I asked Jon what word I should try next. I should have known:
A friend of mine and I were discussing teleportation, and he said he wouldn’t want to travel that way because he knew he’d end up looking like Jeff Goldblum in ‘The Fly.’
I’ve never seen either version of the SciFi classic, but I can’t imagine that it would be that bad. I mean, how bad-looking could Jeff Goldblum get, even as a fly?
There’s no doubt about it: Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was a narcissistic, abusive, drug-fuelled monster who created one of the most mind-bending, soul-sucking, money-grabbing organizations known to humanity. I’ve studied the “Training Routines” and seen them for the hypnotic inductions they are, and know, from my conversations with many well-trained professional psychotherapists, exactly why Scientology doesn’t work.
When I was in my cult, people calling me names or insulting my beliefs only hardened my resolve to follow my leader farther – the theory of cognitive dissonance tells us that the more someone pushes you not to believe, the more you will believe. Calling people names and labeling them as the enemy will never work, whether or not they are in an abusive group, or have left the abusive group but still cling to the beliefs. Insults only separate; compassion and empathy are what bring people together.
and then, well:
Then I decided to try some punctuation. This guy looks like something out of South Park:
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