Comments on: Scientology on tomorrow night’s Panorama http://wongablog.co.uk/2007/05/14/scientology-on-tomorrow-nights-panorama/ like balloons, but with dancing Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:29:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Rullsenberg http://wongablog.co.uk/2007/05/14/scientology-on-tomorrow-nights-panorama/comment-page-1/#comment-4495 Rullsenberg Tue, 15 May 2007 12:41:19 +0000 http://wongablog.djcounsell.org/?p=2479#comment-4495 After seeing the programme last night, my thoughts that the infamous YouTube clip was just a 'tad' out of context were proved: sheesh, after that level of paranoia-inducing frustration I think anyone would have lost their rag. Sweeney did himself no favours by losing it so dramatically but in the face of frankly out-right creepy and threatening demeanour from the Scientology gang, it isn't hard to see how and why it could have happened. Followed; undermined; any positive evidence FOR the Scientologists withdrawn because the nature of the questions themselves was too threatening to the organisation; any critic spoken to actively and publicly denounced for whatever wrongs they have done in the past (no 'whoever is without sin cast the first stone' concepts here); and the culminating head-buster of having to sit through some despicable appropriation of the Jewish Holocaust to make some point about the 'evil' of Psychiatry. Given my famous short-temper it would be wrong say even I would have lost it by then (I'd have long since responded) but i'd picture the most patient person I know and can hand-on-heart say they would have found it impossible to cope with what the Scientologists put Sweeney through in trying to explore the case as to whether they were a cuilt. As an aside, did you see the programme with Hardeep Singh Kohli a few months back? He got some access to explore their methods (minus the costs of course - and that's a crucial point) and found that the intention of establishing well-being was not in itself a bad idea; nor was the conducting of the tests unworthwhile in how it enable him to confront some hidden feelings. But how that sits against some of the costs, theories, celebrity centre mentality and the groups approach to family/friends is quite another matter. After seeing the programme last night, my thoughts that the infamous YouTube clip was just a ‘tad’ out of context were proved: sheesh, after that level of paranoia-inducing frustration I think anyone would have lost their rag. Sweeney did himself no favours by losing it so dramatically but in the face of frankly out-right creepy and threatening demeanour from the Scientology gang, it isn’t hard to see how and why it could have happened. Followed; undermined; any positive evidence FOR the Scientologists withdrawn because the nature of the questions themselves was too threatening to the organisation; any critic spoken to actively and publicly denounced for whatever wrongs they have done in the past (no ‘whoever is without sin cast the first stone’ concepts here); and the culminating head-buster of having to sit through some despicable appropriation of the Jewish Holocaust to make some point about the ‘evil’ of Psychiatry. Given my famous short-temper it would be wrong say even I would have lost it by then (I’d have long since responded) but i’d picture the most patient person I know and can hand-on-heart say they would have found it impossible to cope with what the Scientologists put Sweeney through in trying to explore the case as to whether they were a cuilt.

As an aside, did you see the programme with Hardeep Singh Kohli a few months back? He got some access to explore their methods (minus the costs of course – and that’s a crucial point) and found that the intention of establishing well-being was not in itself a bad idea; nor was the conducting of the tests unworthwhile in how it enable him to confront some hidden feelings. But how that sits against some of the costs, theories, celebrity centre mentality and the groups approach to family/friends is quite another matter.

]]>