On 19 Sep 2003 14:51:54 -0700, ksw@techie.com (john carson) wrote:

>Dear Gerry,
>
>Funny guy :.)
>When Hubbard wrote the "Jokers and Degraders" policy in Feb. 1977,
>were you there? I just read it recently and it says he based his
>"investigation" on a handful of staff making jokes. I'm curiouse who
>were the original jokers in Feb 1977, maybe they are on ARS now.
>What was the joke that pissed off Hubbard so much that he had to ban
>jokes?
>
>Thanks, JC

Funnily enough, when Hubbard wrote this bulletin, I was on the RPF in
Clearwater, Florida, and he was at La Quinta, California. I had been
ordered to the RPF by him personally, which was no joke.

Hubbard wrote this bulletin during his biggest -- and utterly
psychotic -- List-1 R/S period, where literally hundreds of people
were being routed summarily to the RPF for R/Sing on a List-1 item. It
was nonsensical to request a Comm Ev because there was no "recourse."
How could a person possibly contest a sec checker's noted R/S in the
worksheets?

Ordering people to the cult's prison for a needle movement on a
"religious artifact" is a lot like sending people to prison because
the entrails of a duck were the wrong hue of green. But I'll save that
subject for another day for another essay on Hubbardian and
Scientological "religious" persecution and insanity.

L-1 -- also called "The Scientology List" -- which Hubbard invented
(and didn't discover) in 1962, contained, of course, the cult's terms,
plus Hubbard, Mary Sue, Founder, etc. See HCOB 24 November 1962
"Routine 2-12 List One - Issue One The Scientology List." An R/S on
L-1 meant -- so Hubbard said -- that the R/Ser had an evil intention
toward one of the subjects on the list.

There were other periods when the paranoid Hubbard targetted R/Sers,
all the way back to his invention (not discovery) of the list. When he
created (and didn't discover) the RPF in January 1974, he made "R/Ser"
the first reason or criterion for assignment. His 1976-78 L-1 R/S
witch hunt, as those of us who were there well know, completely
dwarfed his other periods of R/S paranoia.

It was during this period, of course, when Hubbard invented (and
didn't discover) the "Jokers and Degraders" bulletin. And in the
bulletin, the first item or criterion he invented for his categorizing
of J&Ders is "rock slammers."

Some time after I got out of the RPF, I heard that the original
"joker" who, as you say, pissed Hubbard off, was John Ausley.

I had known John on the "Apollo" in the early 1970's, when he was, I
believe, pretty well the whole time, in the Tech Div. I think he was a
Class 8, OT 7, and for some time the Tech Sec. And he was a funny guy.

His sister was Liz Ausley, now Liz Gablehouse, who was for some time a
Hubbard Personal PRO on board. The Ausleys, I believe, came from a
prominent family in Tallahassee involved in Florida State politics.

John escaped from the cult a couple of years before I did. I met him
once or twice I think in southern California when both of us were out
in the early 1980's. Free from Scientological suppression, he was
funnier than ever, and we shared some laughs over the history and
horror.

He confirmed that he was indeed the J&Der who had tripped Hubbard's
wire. I recall him saying something about the "small handful of people
who were joking about their posts" referred to in the bulletin being
Hubbard's BS attempt to obscure the fact that John was the sole joker
who was "investigated."

I think that after leaving the Sea Org John got down to some real
joking and degrading, and produced some cartoons and a bunch of
written material that poked great fun at Hubbard the Gasbag and his
ever-so-serious cult. John's J&D works would be very collectible now,
worth much more than a Hubbard/SO#1 letter from that period.

Here's John's Ex-Scientologist Correction List that was posted to
a.r.s. some years back:
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=boydroidD3sA4J.Lpy%40netcom.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain

Here's John on Hubbard the redneck:
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=JIKv6.1725%24JM2.155575%40dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain

And here's a post on his sudden death in 1995:
http://www.google.com/groups?selm=boydroidD3sB5D.MFL%40netcom.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain

One of the ironies for J&D aficionados is that John's wife Paulette
Ausley, originally Paulette Fisher, a Flag Class XII and auditor of
Hubbard himself, was the person the Fat Fraud sent on mission to find
all those R/Ss and route all those R/Sers to the RPF. See, e.g.,
http://warrior.offlines.org/1997-0702.html

After the number of staff in some orgs or units being assigned to the
RPF for R/Sing reached 70 percent or so, someone cognited that there
might be something wrong. So the RPFs were emptied out and Paulette
was busted and blamed for Hubbard's big paranoid screwup. Think about
it. If one Class XII is totally wrong over hundreds of sessions,
isn't it likely that the rest of the Class XIIs are at least half
wrong in at least half their sessions?

And speaking of logic, how about this from the frightfully forgetful
Hubbard six years before he invented (and didn't discover) his Joker
and Degrader bulletin:

[Quote]

A sense of humor is in part an ability to spot outpoints that
should be rejected from a body of data. In fact a sense of humor is
based on both rejection and absurd outpoints of all types.

[End Quote]
HCOPL 23 June 1970 "Data Series 10 The Missing Scene"

Continuing on, in 1973 Hubbard wrote:

[Quote]

Laughter is rejection, actually.

And humor you will find usually deals with one or another
outpoint put in such a way that the reader or audience can reject it.

[End Quote]
HCOPL 30 September 1973 "Data Series 30 Situation Finding"

Hubbard writes in his Joker and Degrader bulletin:

[Quote]

It is an old principle that people who do not understand
something occasionally make fun of it.

A recent investigation, however, into the backgrounds and case
condition of small handful of people who were joking about their posts
and those around them showed a somewhat more sinister scene.

Each of these persons fell into one or more of the following
categories:

1. Were rock slammers (some List 1).

2. Were institutional-type cases.

3. Were "NCG" (meaning no case gain) (the only cause of which
is continuous present time overts).

4. Were severely PTS (potential trouble source) (connected to
rock slammers).

.....

In some cultural areas, wit and humor are looked upon as a
healthy release. However, in the case of orgs, this was not found to
be the case. Intentional destruction of the org or fellow staff
members was the direct purpose.

Therefore, all executives, HCO personnel and Case Supervisors
as well as Qual personnel and Staff Section Officers have a valuable
indicator. Where they have a joker and degrader on their hands, they
also have one or more of the above four conditions.

[End Quote]
HCOB 5 February 1977 "C/S Series 100 Jokers and Degraders"

As Hubbard makes clear here, in Scientology paranoia trumps logic. The
truth is that he couldn't tolerate his philosphy, his "technology,"
his policies, his actions, his words or his organization being
examined for outpoints. Anyone with half a brain who applied actual
logic to Scientology and the Scientology cult would laugh his ass off.

And that is exactly what is needed and therapeutic for the cult and
for the Scientologists practising the cult's "tech" and way of life.
Yet Hubbard was so paranoid that he prevented Scientologists -- on
penalty of being labeled "J&Ders," or "R/Sers," or "NCGs," or "SPs,"
or "instutional cases," and being RPFed or off-loaded -- from
exercising their God-given ability to spot the outpoints that should
be rejected from the body of data in which they were involved, and in
which they had placed their trust for their futures.

Indeed, Hubbard wrote about the paranoia out of which he invented his
vilification of the logical folks who would joke about his tech and
cult in the same Data Series PLs in which he credited humor.

[Quote]

The fear of being illogical is a secret fear of being crazy or
insane.... Or at the least being thought a fool or dullard or at the
very, very least unworldly and uneducated.

.....

A person who feels queasy about his sanity really doesn't dare
look at outpoints or confront or use illogic. Yet it ~is~ the way to
full sanity itself.

[End Quote]

For those who can still think, it should be obvious that Hubbard is
giving us here a whack of contrary facts. So let's have a great laugh
and reject his absurd outpoints from our data. The guy who is so
queasy about his sanity that he couldn't bear to have the people
around him look at outpoints, lest they laugh, and couldn't bear to
have people laugh, lest they were looking at his outpoints, is the guy
who most needs to be laughed at. The guy who is so terrified of
rejection of his outpoints that he is locking up jokers is the guy
whose outpoints most need rejecting.

For those who can still think, and aren't terrified at being thought a
fool but want full sanity, this would include the rejection of the
Jokers and Degraders outpoint, the R/Sers outpoint, and the whole
suppressive person-PTS doctrine. And if in rejecting these absurd
outpoints or absurd and pernicious doctrines all of Scientology must
be rejected, then have a huge laugh about that. Remember, if it isn't
funny it isn't true.

Applying Hubbard's Jokers and Degraders bulletin to the man himself,
it can be logically concluded that there is no wit and humor in his
$cientology "scriptures," since he would never act on the direct
purpose of intentionally destroying his organization or his staff
(would he?). Therefore we can know that when he orders R 2-45 be run
on people he's not joking. He really means to assassinate them. When
he says that he's the "Prince of Darkness," he's deadly serious.

He's either not joking, or he's intentionally seeking to destroy the
org and staff members. Any other possibility would be an outpoint, and
must be rejected. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

In 1978, a year after he invented the J&D label, I was myself the
victim of Hubbard's paranoid application of his own paranoid policy.
He got the idea that I and five other crew members were making fun of
his movie-making and he assigned us all to the RPF at the La Quinta
base for joking and degrading. Here are the Findings & Recommendations
from a Comm Ev convened after the assignment:
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/findings-recs-1978-10-04.html
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/1978-co288-1-f-r-comm-ev-ga.pdf
In truth, I wasn't joking at all, so I spent eight months on the RPF
because of Hubbard's silly paranoia and had to live with his wrong
indication.

Scientology's labelling someone wrongly an R/Ser, or an SP, or a Joker
and Degrader, causes that wrongly labelled person to be that evil
thing in the minds of all Scientologists. In reality, all such labels
by Scientology are wrong, because these identities are all wrong.
There are no such things as R/Sers, SPs or J&Ders as Scientology
teaches and as Scientologists believe there are. All these evil beings
are the inventions (not discoveries) of the paranoid mind of L. Ron
Hubbard.

It is no laughing matter to be identified and labeled an R/Ser, SP or
J&Der because along with the label comes fair game. And fair game, of
course, is justified by the label. But what can anyone do who is so
hated by fifty thousand Scientologists that they would welcome, and
indeed seek, his death? What can anyone do who is the target of fifty
thousand fanatics who are not permitted to see the outpoints in their
hatred and evil purposes? What can be done about fifty thousand
Scientologists who are so afraid of being crazy or insane and so
queasy about their sanity that they really don't dare look at
outpoints or confront illogic?

Well pity them, of course. Forgive them, of course. Be willing to be
there and communicate logically and sanely, of course. Stand up to
them, of course. And joke about their absurd outpoints. Of course.

So, how many Scientologists does it take to change a light bulb
anyway?

Well Scientology says there are eight million Scientologists, all of
whom believe that the whole agonized future of this planet, every man,
woman and child on it, and their own destiny for the next endless
trillions of years depend on what they do here and now with and in
changing the light bulb. Unless that light bulb is NCG, in which case
it must be disposed of quietly and without sorrow.

© Gerry Armstrong
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org