Paul Krassner on Scientology…
I don’t know how much of Paul Krassner’s latest NY Press article is true, but I can attest that it’s 100% funny.
In 1971, I announced in an ad the features that would be included in the 13th-anniversary issue of The Realist. Among them, “The Rise of Sirhan Sirhan in the Scientology Hierarchy.” The Church of Scientology proceeded to sue me for libel; they wanted $750,000 for those nine words, the title of an article that I had not yet written.
What’s relevant here is the paranoid mindset of Scientology, as revealed in this excerpt from their complaint:
“…Defendants have conspired between themselves and with other established religions, medical and political organizations and persons presently unknown to plaintiff. By subtle covert and pernicious techniques involving unscrupulous manipulation of all public communication media, defendants and their co-conspirators have conspired to deny plaintiff its right to exercise religious beliefs on an equal basis with the established religious organizations of this country.”
Read the whole thing. I’m inclined to believe every word of it, especially the part about attempting to force The Realist to publish an article by Chick Corea, but Krassner is a satirist.
