Scientology Critics - Want To Win ?

I have recently begun studying the history of the United States as I live here and have abandoned the Scientology beliefs concerning this and wish to understand the country I live in, its history and relationship to the greater world and humanity.

Howard Zinn famously said if you don't know history it's like you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday anyone can take advantage of you because they can tell you anything and how will you know if they are lying ?

Zinn went on to explain how many aspects of American history have been distorted or omitted or lied about to fool Americans. He wrote A People's History of the United States which was an effort to remedy this to a degree.

Notably he credits mass movements with forwarding social progress, often in defiance of established authorities. He covered the US labor movement and strikes, many unions which history books never mention and has commented on civil rights, women's rights, labor rights, the abolition of slavery, the peace movement during the Vietnam war and other examples of effective or influential movements.

He is joined by Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky in telling people that effective change socially requires organized, well informed cohesive mass movements.

Zinn participated in the protests against the Vietnam war. Chris Hedges participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Both produced heightened awareness of issues by the general public. The Vietnam protests created tremendous awareness of the atrocities the US military committed while the Occupy movement has created tremendous awareness of income inequality and oligarchic aspects of the US political and social structure.

Chris Hedges has notably said writing angry screeds alone on your computer leaves you still alone, right where the government wants you. Now I am not saying the government is a partner or master to Scientology.

I am saying I believe Zinn, Hedges and Chomsky are correct in saying groups that are successful in persuading governments, even slightly or merely by gradually influencing the population which a government seeks to control, are groups that have certain qualities.

They persist despite opposition. They attend to practicalities. If their potential members need food they feed them, or make getting food possible. If they need leadership and plans that can be understood and executed they provide that.

The movements' members require information. Chomsky has spoken on how a biologist doesn't read everything in every journal on biology because it would consume all their time. Instead they learn what to look for and where to find it and only read that. Similarly there is an enormous amount of information on Scientology available.

At some point some organization of the information would be helpful with a curriculum available for exes and critics, obviously it won't be perfect. Additionally organization of critics and coordination of activities like protesting will greatly increase the effectiveness of critics efforts in my opinion.

Examining other movements for examples of successful and unsuccessful actions can be very helpful. Scientology, though bizarre, isn't special and magical. It can be defeated just as other practices have been throughout history. Slavery, women being treated as chattel and many other seemingly unbeatable social institutions have fallen, or been reduced, so Scientology just like all the others can be as well.

Now, this would carry certain undeniable liabilities. Scientology would instantly focus on any group and target it infiltration and destruction. The cult's lawyers and spies would close in to crush any such group with billions of dollars in backing.

But history says actually organizing as others have in the past can win, merely having small efforts and online posts has no proven record in my opinion.

So ultimately our choice is to organize, face Scientology's wrath and have a chance of victory or to reject organization and honestly accept that we are not truly attempting to stop Scientology, but to do something else, perhaps to watch and comment on Scientology.

Consider slavery without abolitionists or slave revolts or the US Civil war, it would persist. The same is true regarding all rights gained.

Chomsky has said there is no magic answer, it takes organization, education, persistence and hard work. It takes the same methods used in the past.

I would love to see a unified successful effort to defeat Scientology. I think protesting is a very good idea, tremendously good and its effectiveness increases exponentially with large scale multi city organized protests with consistent understandable messages for media and the general public. THEY are the target for protests, not staff.