Book Review 2014: Going Clear — Scientology, Hollywood, & The Prison of Belief
Book #4
Not gonna lie, I’m a bit scared to write about Lawrence Wright’s recent book on Scientology. I chose to read this book because I’m weirdly curious about their ideas, it got mostly good reviews, and appeared on a list of books picked by the Economist, my favorite weekly publication.
Prior to reading the book, I thought Scientology was mysterious and bizarre. I didn’t know anything about it other than that some science fiction writer wrote about some creature called Xenu and a bunch of celebrities paid a ton of money to be involved. I also knew, from some unrelated legal research, that there is a ton of litigation surrounding Scientology. I was doing a copyright memo for my summer internship a couple years ago and one of the main cases was about how some Scientologists tried to take down an author for republishing some of L. Ron. Hubbard’s “religious” works. The funniest part was that the judge who issued the opinion reprinted several portions of the contested material, which meant that even if the scientologists won, the materials would remain public within the opinion. Lol. Anyways…
After reading the book, I still think Scientology is mysterious and bizarre (one might even say “that shit cray”.) However, I also now think it is brutal, scary, and kind of a bully of an institution. Wright bases much of his material from interviews with members who have defected for one reason or another, such as Paul Haggis, which makes the book feel fairly authentic. It is hard to know for sure, though, which parts remain shady and which parts are dead on.
There are several instances throughout the book, which depict the path Scientology has taken from L. Ron Hubbard’s early days until the present, where members of the “church” (sorry, I just can’t not use quotations for this stuff. I may be a lapsed Catholic but even so, I hesitate to throw these terms around loosely) who target outsiders that pose threats to them. One lengthy battle was between the “church” and the IRS over whether Scientology constituted a religion for tax purposes. While the IRS remained skeptical, in large part because the “church” reaped huge amounts of money, which were often used to fuel Hubbard’s and other high up members’ lifestyles, the members held firm. One argument that arose was that Scientology was like any other major religion in its infancy; of course there will be some brutality, some firm hands, and some disagreements, just as there were in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Stepping back, there is some truth in that sentiment, that many of the world’s major religions have had their fare share of turmoil. However, one difference, and maybe I’m crazy for pointing this out, is that the others were established a long freaking time ago. A lot has changed since then. We know, or should know, better than to treat people this way. If your religion won’t grow unless you sue anyone who threatens to reveal your secrets (if not worse), maybe there’s something a little bit off about the foundation of your organization. I’m sure there is some value for members who join, such as this alleged drug rehab program. If it works, why not? I’m not going to be receiving any auditing any time soon, but kudos to anyone who does…as long as you don’t wind up in a basement somewhere or on a crazy naval trip trying to take over all of Morocco. I typically try to be open minded about different cultures and ideas but clearly I’m not so open minded about this. Maybe the next Tom Cruise or John Travolta will someday convince me otherwise.
The big issue I had with the book itself was organization. Wright seemed to have the problem of having so much information at his disposal that he got too excited and wasn’t sure how to properly tell it all. It got hard to keep track of some key characters and timelines. Also, while some sections were really exciting, others felt like he was regurgitating information he had from another part of the book. If it had been neatened up a little bit, it would have made for an absolutely excellent book. As is, it’s just pretty good.
