scientological publicity and symbolic decline
Music: Peter Murphy: Deep (1985)
CNN "journalist" Piers Morgan hosted a former member of the Church of Scientology recently on his show. They were discussing the separation and divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in relationship to the so-called religion of Scientology. Because of their various techniques of brainwashing and the strange culture particular to Scientology, the former church member suggested the divorce would be particularly traumatic.
From the very beginning of their marriage (which some argued was "arranged" by the church), journalists, critics, and various sundry MSM windbags have suggested there is a deep, religion-based tension between Cruise and Holmes (as was apparently the case with Kidman). Holmes and Suri were apparently "public members" of Scientology, which apparently is some sort of face-saving non-committed membership or something like this, whereas Tom Cruise is the church's most popular, public spokesperson. Unquestionably differences between Tom and Katie about Scientology had something do to with the divorce, if only because Cruise believes in Scientology so strongly (indeed, it has structured his entire inner-life).
Of course, I think the real reason for the split is Cruise's psychotic tendencies, which of course , have fascinated me for many years. One of these days I am going to write the essay (now currently an undergraduate lecture) titled "Celebrity Crazy," in which I try to tease out the strange and increasingly ubiquitous relationship between publicity and psychosis.
For the moment, however, I think it's very interesting to watch how the Church of Scientology is responding to the stories that are starting to circulate about this high-profile divorce. For the next two weeks, I predict more and more mediated discussions about Scientology and Cruise's role in the church (incidentally, the best expose I've come across is Janet Reitman's briskly written and smart expose). What's absolutely fascinating is that Scientology meets almost every principled definition of a "cult" that you can locate (pyramid structure, esotericism, elitism, enforced estrangement from outsiders, and so on), and yet, MSM talking heads seem fearful from saying the word; Scientology's legal department is mighty, we're told. What's even more fascinating is the rhetoric of their public statements, which reads more like a Donald Trump attention-grabbing maneuver than an earnest and professional rebuttal of criticism:
With respect to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes divorce, the Church has no comment. Please direct any questions to their representatives. This is and always was a private family matter and the Church will continue to respect their privacy.
With respect to your other questions, the Church regrets that excommunicated self-serving apostates are sadly exploiting private family matters to further their hate-filled agendas against their former faith. Having left the Church many years ago, these sources have no current knowledge about the Church and their recollections are distorted by their animosity.
Every religion has its detractors and these stories come at a time of tremendous Church growth. Anyone desiring correct information about the Church can find it on the Church’s website,www.scientology.org, which contains thousands of pages of information and hundreds of videos involving all aspects of Scientology.
Very truly yours,
Karin Pouw
Media Relations
Church of Scientology International
The phrase "excommunicated self-serving apostates" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, and just look at all those "devil" terms: "exploiting," "hate-filled agendas," "distorted," "animosity." It reads like the sound of my cat's vocalizations when I try to give her a bath.
The comparison to Trump is apt because of the hyperbole, but notably this kind of rhetoric reeks of Fox News and Tea Party discourse as well. Which, in a backward way, gives us a clue into why the Scientological enterprise is seeing "tremendous" growth: as Jodi Dean might say, it's another attempt to respond to the decline of symbolic efficiency. On the one hand, characterize truth and fact as belief or mere opinion. On the other hand, promise to have the way through an esoteric system of belief. To wit: draw on the widespread fear of the suspended Big Other while, nevertheless, offering access to the Big Other. This tends to be true of most religions, of course, but Scientology is especially unique because of its reliance on a rather massive publicity machine and it's active courtship of actors and beloved public figures---which is to say, Scientology is unique because of its contemporary star system, a model abandoned by Hollywood in the 1950s and just now being dismantled in politics (e.g., note the erosion or decline of the political star). Scientology may be a folk psychology on the inside, but that's only half of it. The other half consists of publicists---the evangelicalism of postmodernity.