Ia Ia Xenu Fhtagn! (Poor Little Clams Edition)
Ahh, Ailee Slater, where would we be without you?
Today’s gem is about the wonders of Scientology, a religion cult founded in the 50s by hack sci-fi writer cum avid boater L. Ron Hubbard. Her first real claim made me spit coffee all over my monitor, the folks in the next cube must think I’m insane:
Perhaps the reason that Scientology is of so much interest to celebrities as well as to U.S. citizens in general, is that the religion of L. Ron Hubbard is at once logical and completely juxtaposed to the American way of life.
Yes, she just claimed Scientology is logical. I suppose that if one thinks believing a malevolent space-emperor killed a bunch of aliens on Earth 75 million years ago, imprinted their souls with false memories, and thusly caused all of human suffering is logical, then, yes, Scientology makes perfect sense. I mean, giving birth in silence and not talking to your kid for a week after seems totally reasonable to me, it must be the “medical establishment” keeping such technology out of the hands of the masses.
She does bring up the growing use of anti-psychotic drugs in children, but I think part of it is the same misnomer I spoke about here. I also wonder just how many kids are on anti-psychotics versus things like Aderall or Ritalin. I think it’s a perfectly good idea to question the use of speed-like substances to regulate the behavior of “hyperactive” children, or the use of compulsory psychological treatment, as Szasz has been for quite some time; however, it’s useless to confuse the issue by getting the terminology wrong.
This bit from the penultimate paragraph, though, is my absolute favorite of the piece:
As humanity and science continue to develop, it will be interesting to observe how much we continue to rely on the advances of technology, rather than the natural, balancing health capacities innate to the human body.
Since our ancestors came down from the trees all those years ago, we’ve been relying on technology for our survival. What on Earth do you think a rock tied to a stick is? Thing didn’t fall from the sky like that. Furthermore, I think there’s a good argument to be made that everything humans do is perfectly natural, as last I checked we were still constrained by the laws of physics. Natural has become a synonym for primative, and frankly I’m sick of it. Most of us are alive purely by the graces of technological progress during the last 100 years: vaccines, antibiotics, improved farming technology, cold storage, and on and on. Without those things most of our parents would’ve died and we never would’ve made it past the gamete stage. If all of these “chemicals” are so awful for us, why are we living longer, healthier lives? If all this progress is so terrible, can somebody explain to me why a life expectancy of 46.9 is preferable to one of 77.7?
