Regular Columns

Classic Comment

by Terry E. Scott, England

Bending the rules

There is a gross mistake made by many a religion, political party, philosopher... or just plain folks.

Paraphrased, it comes out as: We are the good guys, so it is okay for us to bend the rules and indulge in some juicy naughtiness.

Oh, the times that this error has cropped up throughout history! It is so seductive and so patently wrong-headed. Yet it gets repeated over and over.

Its innocent look and cute charm are so misleading. For it is one of the most dangerous of assumptions to make - whether you are the Church of $igh, a red-headed seafarer from Nebraska, or an Independent.

It is a formula for how all the bad guys got to be bad. Right down the track of time.

Not that we independents are about to make that mistake, that old "the means justifies the end". Surely we would not dream of doing any of the daft and eventually plain wicked things that A.N. Other organization did? Nah!

Hmm... mind you, there was the case of a non-Church person who wanted certain upper level materials and took them from a European organization not a million light years from Denmark. We independents won't do that kind of thing again, will we? Not even if we are a big success?

Especially if we are a big success?

I recall, 30-odd years ago, hearing an LRH tape called The Only One in which he said one had to plan for success. So should we independents. That also means we must beware some of the pitfalls and not drop into them on the basis of the "We are the good guys, therefore... " bit.

Incidentally, some of Ron's comments in that early lecture (1955, I think) seemed far-fetched at the time. He said that, if the organization began to want big headquarters and the like, look out: "Wrong pitch, wrong pitch." The idea of enormous buildings and associated trappings was fairyland to anyone in the movement in the mid to late Fifties.

I doubt that the tape is played much today.

When independents become very successful and are recognized widely as the good guys, we had better tighten ethics, and I'm referring to truly ethical behavior. Or we shall fall into the same trap that has ensnarled every other do-gooding enterprise on this planet.

First appeared In Uafhængige Synspunkter nr. 16 Dec 1990.