Racing Ponies

While bumming around the far reaches of the “Internets” I notice things, trends and patterns as they were, shapes of information defying description which help tailor my own posts (posts which shape and influence others thereby completing the cycle.) Some time ago I noticed and commented on a very odd thing. A whole bunch of pro-Scientology web logs had suddenly appeared, almost overnight!. I noticed that most of them were on one free service or another, most were worded in a similar fashion. I also noted that they were kind of bland. Like someone filtered all the passion, the heart out of an author’s writing, leaving a pale shadow of an otherwise interesting human being. Most web logs are very personal. Most, by their nature give some clue about the author, their passions, their dreams, their hopes. Their likes and dislikes. Most weblogs give authors a chance to rant, vent about things. These blogs were nothing like that. The authors didn’t seem to have any dislikes (with psychology being one telling exception.)

They had a strange stilted prose that suggested the blogs were anything but personal. They had a very narrow focus, basically the message was; “I am a Scientologist, I am successful and here are my opinions about two things; A) I think Scientology is the best! B) I think Psychology sucks ass.” There is very little about stuff outside of these two opinions. Little information about how these people lived, what they did for a living , movies they liked (that don’t happen to have Travolta or Cruse in them.) What books they read other than anything written by Hubbard. The writing on the blogs was generally pretty good. Not memorable, but well edited and proofed. For example, a typical entry on the Swirl blog;

“Befriended the Cat Next Door” I noticed last week that the neighbor next door has several cats. One of them is very friendly. I’ve been leaving milk outside by our door and one particular cat comes by and meows at the door. Yesterday, she approached me and let me pet her. Today she ventured into my office and is now laying on the floor next to my chair. She’s such a sweety. I haven’t figured out her name just yet. She hasn’t stood still long enough to let me read her tag.”

This was an exceptionally exciting thing to happen to this person, She apparently owned her own business, traveled extensively but we are not sure why, no photos ever show up on this blog (with the exception of the aforementioned cat.) Not too much was going on with this person, -ever! All of them are like that. They are boring– bland to the point of hopeless.

The strange bit is, they portend to depict extremely happy vibrant people. People who can see wonder in the world that us mere non-Scientologists simply can’t. People who are truly alive, truly free to think for themselves, unlike the rest of us poor slobs who just muddle along in frustration,. You-know, people like you and I. Most of them with the exception of “Bamball” had their comments turned off too. I suppose this was to prevent any unwashed “wogs” from horning into the party.

It is OK to utilize Internet resources for one’s own needs. I do it, you probably do it and Scientology is famous for doing it. One problem that Scientology keeps running into however is trying to blend into a culture they have little experience with. It’s less like blending and more like blundering. You cannot just walk into a culture and pretend to belong to it, when you don’t belong to it. If you think I’m joking, try wandering around downtown Clearwater Florida for a couple of hours. I have never seen such an out of place bunch of people in my life!

Scientology has done similar stunts in the past. Back around the late 1990s they issued a special church front-end package to their members and urged them to load the things on their computers. The package contained a net-nanny program that blocked many anti-Scientology web pages and an automated web page builder so that anyone could create their own cookie-cutter page on Scientology’s web site. Presumably they thought that by making thousands of identical pages they could steer traffic to places of their own choosing. None of these things had any long term effect on the Internet or critics other than as an annoyance.It was a kind of Internet attractive nuisance. Scientology brought a bunch of negative attention to itself by doing these and other things that were even less subtle (like trying to take down Usenet SIGs.)

Now don’t get me wrong, Scientologists are people too. Most Scientologists that I’ve met seem happy and content with their religion and their lives. I don’t agree with their complete focus on one group or their evident worship of L Ron Hubbard but that’s their trip, not mine. Hubbard’s opinion on psychology and his take on how the mind works are mind numbingly absurd (IMO) but it’s OK for people to believe in it. It is also OK for me to state categorically that Scientology does not resemble a religion, not in my world it doesn’t.

I have probably read more Scientology material than the average parishioner and calling this blend of pseudo- psychology and philosophical balderdash a religion is like calling Ufology a religion. In short, the Scientology web logs are exactly what they appear to be. A source of “good data” for us, the raw-meat general – wog public. More importantly, they served as a way to Googlebomb Scientology links all over the place. All the logs quite coincidentally had links to all the important Scientology web pages and very little else (I’m sure the people who wrote them have nothing else on their minds.)

Since then, Google and other search companies have relegated a  place for where their weighted algorithms are presumably hand written. Many Scientology web logs have become abandoned property. I’m sure the organization will make other attempts to further their stated goals of “clearing the planet.” I’m sure we will see many other tries by Scientology to bring the unruly Internet under their control. I cannot imagine why they would want to do that! People who are truly free need not worry about such things!

Enjoy these blogs, I sincerely doubt they will be around much longer. A short list of Scientology web logs (in no particular order.)
Help Yourself Last post, Monday, June 12, 2006
Racing Ponies Last post, Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Cat Servant Last post, Sunday, April 16, 2006
Equivoque Last post Apr 12, 2006
My Realm Last post,8/14/2006
The Lab Last post,Sep 1, 2006
Homeschoolmum Reviews Last post,Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Give Life a Little Swirl Last post,Sunday, November 19, 2006
Garden Girl Last post,Nov 7, 2006
My Life as Momkat Last post,Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Bamball Last post,Wednesday, July 13, 2005 And a really puzzling one;
My Life as a Mom “This blog is under review due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations and is open to authors only” (no date) Some active weblogs
My Eclectic Blog Good News Waterbug (this one was inactive from December of 06 until June of 07. I’s never shown much activity other than posting news items, all pro Scientology.
, Garters and Lace My Issues on Children

The massive Scientology cookie-cutter webpage site. Click any of the 16000 links and find out absolutely nothing about people from all over the world! Not my idea of a fun five days (assuming I looked at all 16,000 people pages for two minutes each.) A big list of Scientology blogs from http://orgsaroundtheworld.wordpress.com/scientology-blogs/ Scientology Blogs http://www.blognow.com.au/scientology/ http://scientology.blogspot.com/ http://whyihelp.blogspot.com/ http://blackfoot-whatsgoingon.blogspot.com/ http://takeawin.blogspot.com/ http://waterbug.typepad.com/ http://homeschoolmum.blogspot.com/ http://scientologylives.blogspot.com/ http://davidmiscavige.blogdrive.com/ http://davidmiscavige.blogspot.com/ http://equivoque.blogdrive.com/ http://momkat.blogdrive.com/ http://dianeticsofboulder.blogspot.com/ http://scientologymissionofboulder.blogspot.com/ http://gdnews.blogspot.com/ http://myscientology.blogspot.com/ http://church-of-scientology-of-seattle.blogspot.com/ http://scientologysurfer.blogspot.com/ http://scientologist.blogspot.com/ http://publicheroes.blogspot.com/ http://home.earthlink.net/~rekon2/ http://scientology.wetpaint.com/ http://silver-skater.blogspot.com/ http://jetteroheller.wordpress.com/ http://flashanswer.blogspot.com/ http://thechewy.blog.com/ http://orgsaroundtheworld.wordpress.com/ http://www.freedommagazineblog.org/blog/ http://scientology.tblog.com/ http://sk8erg.wordpress.com/ http://scientologyvm.wordpress.com/ http://fastpagemode.blogspot.com/ http://gettothechoppa.wordpress.com/ http://scientology-volunteers.motime.com http://wellequipped.blogspot.com/ http://educationquotes.blogspot.com/ http://spiritualquotes.blogspot.com/ http://bighappyfamily.blogspot.com/ http://thelab.blogdrive.com/ http://eclecticstuff.blogspot.com/ http://www.jbasoon.blogspot.com/ http://blogging-against-drugs.blogspot.com/ http://freedom-mag.blogspot.com/ http://churchofscientology.blogspot.com/ http://numnutzclan.blogspot.com/ http://www.angelfire.com/hero/garlic/butter/ http://swirl.blogdrive.com/ http://greatstuff.blogdrive.com/ http://bamball.blogdrive.com/ http://gardengirl.blogdrive.com/ http://chess_wizard0.tripod.com/scifi/ http://kiwiaussie.blogspot.com/ http://kidsoffdrugs.blogspot.com/ http://youth-rights.blogspot.com/ http://missionofthefoothills.wordpress.com/ http://creativexpression.blogsome.com/ Personal Sites: http://livingastherapy.blogspot.com/ http://livingness.com/blog/index.php http://ourearthlyrights.blogspot.com/ http://www.afreshopinion.com/ http://marcozna.wordpress.com http://views-on-the-news.blogspot.com/ http://johnalexwood.blogspot.com/ http://www.mysteriousperson.com/MYSTERIOUSPERSON/thezblog/ http://renaldfortin.spaces.live.com http://news-from-meat-street.blogspot.com/ http://lesweet.wordpress.com/ http://sheilamacd.wordpress.com/ http://artist4life.blog.com/ http://dorkdesign.blogspot.com/ Themed blogs http://thiscouldwork.com/ http://mybuzzpoint.blogspot.com/ http://aerospacebob.blogspot.com/ http://mycodeblog.blogspot.com/ Italian sites: http://scientology-italia-dirittiumani.blogspot.com/ http://scientology-italia-prevenzionedroga.blogspot.com/ http://scientology-italia-ministrivolontari.blogspot.com/ http://scientology-italia.blogspot.com/ http://pensaconlatuatesta.blog.tiscali.it/ http://agoralibero.blog.tiscali.it/ http://goodnewscity.blogspot.com/ http://www.casperize.com/ Scientologists on Social Networking Sites http://bluedot.us/users/turbotad http://www.garkoville.com http://www.myspace.com/photoserge http://www.myspace.com/psychiatrypsucks http://www.myspace.com/thetruthaboutpsychiatry http://www.myspace.com/shanluna http://www.myspace.com/dianeticsracing http://www.myspace.com/forevernewlyweds http://www.myspace.com/laurensweetland www.myspace.com/michaelduff Scientologists in Other Languages: http://religo.ch/ (German) http://youthforhumanrights.blogspirit.com/ (french) http://scientologue-geneve.blogspot.com/ (french) http://psy-confidentiel.blogspot.com/ (french) http://myscientologyswissblog.wordpress.com/ (German) Share and Enjoy!