Accountability And the Information Super-Highway
March 20th 2008 11:23
In recent weeks, the actions of net based Anonymous have been causing ripples around the world in their war against the Church of Scientology. Their belief is that such an organisation, (these are their words now, not mine) that is as so corrupt, litigious and prepared to keep it's followers in the dark and repress the flow of information has no right to further existence and they have pledged to wage war both online and offline in order to dismantle the organisation once and for all. A video is available on youtube, here.
It has been said that the actions of passionate, dedicated individuals are the only thing capable of changing the world. It is also said that for every action, we will, in time, be held accountable. Their pursuit for the truth is honourable, and their means, so far, have been as true to their word as possible. They have done no individual physical harm, have caused no damage to property. But they are not alone. Sites like Operation Clambake, scientology-lies.com and boycottscientology are all sites calling for the destruction of the organisation of scientology, not because of their beliefs but because of the lacking accountability within the organisation. The fact that the internet can be used for such effective organisations of mob justice (very polite mob justice in this case, but the term still fits) is a historic sign of proletarian vengeance. Big Brother (whether it be in the form of business, religion or governments) now has to be aware that the people have a voice which can carry across the world. While the anarchist within me applauds such things, my fear is that a potential abuse of such a powerful medium is essentially around the corner.
It is a powerful part of human nature that once we find out that we've been hard done by, mislead, lied to, conned, cheated or found out that someone else has we tend to get passionate about what to do with the people that did the aforementioned cheating. At this time I've also found a number of people that are also against my church (Hillsong) on the basis that quite a few nasty things get said about them. I do tend to get asked quite a few interesting questions, and some of them are pretty funny. However, things have happened that ought not to have happened, there are people that are indeed jerks and mistakes get made. There are times when those looking for help don't always get the help they need (I could speak from personal experience but there's little point as it won't fix the problem) and this is a tragedy. For what it is worth to anyone that has been hurt by my church or a member of my church, I do apologise. In this day and age of easily found information, any slight against anyone from the church can very quickly lead to new web pages going up (at this time of writing I couldn't find www.ihatehillsong.com, anti-hillsong.com or any dedicated hate sites) at a rate that is astonishingly amazing.
And here's my point. We are entering a phase of history where information on anything is available with a few very simple keystrokes. As hard as governments crack down on informational dissent, new ways of subverting their holds slip through the net and breed resistance. As far as any organisation can attempt to put spin on any event, the truth is often found on an objective eye-witnesses blogsite. Public accountability will rise, and the next few years of life are going to change the way we trust anyone.
JZ
It has been said that the actions of passionate, dedicated individuals are the only thing capable of changing the world. It is also said that for every action, we will, in time, be held accountable. Their pursuit for the truth is honourable, and their means, so far, have been as true to their word as possible. They have done no individual physical harm, have caused no damage to property. But they are not alone. Sites like Operation Clambake, scientology-lies.com and boycottscientology are all sites calling for the destruction of the organisation of scientology, not because of their beliefs but because of the lacking accountability within the organisation. The fact that the internet can be used for such effective organisations of mob justice (very polite mob justice in this case, but the term still fits) is a historic sign of proletarian vengeance. Big Brother (whether it be in the form of business, religion or governments) now has to be aware that the people have a voice which can carry across the world. While the anarchist within me applauds such things, my fear is that a potential abuse of such a powerful medium is essentially around the corner.
It is a powerful part of human nature that once we find out that we've been hard done by, mislead, lied to, conned, cheated or found out that someone else has we tend to get passionate about what to do with the people that did the aforementioned cheating. At this time I've also found a number of people that are also against my church (Hillsong) on the basis that quite a few nasty things get said about them. I do tend to get asked quite a few interesting questions, and some of them are pretty funny. However, things have happened that ought not to have happened, there are people that are indeed jerks and mistakes get made. There are times when those looking for help don't always get the help they need (I could speak from personal experience but there's little point as it won't fix the problem) and this is a tragedy. For what it is worth to anyone that has been hurt by my church or a member of my church, I do apologise. In this day and age of easily found information, any slight against anyone from the church can very quickly lead to new web pages going up (at this time of writing I couldn't find www.ihatehillsong.com, anti-hillsong.com or any dedicated hate sites) at a rate that is astonishingly amazing.
And here's my point. We are entering a phase of history where information on anything is available with a few very simple keystrokes. As hard as governments crack down on informational dissent, new ways of subverting their holds slip through the net and breed resistance. As far as any organisation can attempt to put spin on any event, the truth is often found on an objective eye-witnesses blogsite. Public accountability will rise, and the next few years of life are going to change the way we trust anyone.
JZ
| 55 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by hewhocutsdown
Really Long Link
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by hewhocutsdown
The issues are:
1. Tax exempt status when it runs as a for-profit business; religious instruction costs. To get to the upper levels of learning you need to cash in over $400,000.
2. Those that want to leave Scientology communities often cannot, even when the situations become abusive. Look online, there are numerous examples of this documented.
3. The use of lawsuits and strong arm tactics to defeat critics. Rather than debating on a level playing field Scientology feels the need to stack the deck.
These are the primary issues. There are groups that believe Dianetics and practice them outside of the Church of Scientology and they are not targeted. Similarly, members of the church are not the issue. It is the church structure itself which codifies the above abuses that is the issue.
Comment by JoshZ
A Simple Christian
THanks for the link, and your time here. Ethan told all his friends and all who I've shown think it's very very funny.
JZ
Comment by JoshZ
A Simple Christian
first off, thanks for coming by, I hope you find something that you enjoy or want to ask questions about or even debate.
Secondly, Jordan pretty well covered all I was going to say. If my church acted like this, I would leave it. Most of the time we just ignore it.
Hope to see you again soon.
JZ