. . .
I enjoyed reading the book. Jesse has an honesty and self examination that's refreshing.
Unlike some other
big swinging dicks* who have left.
My main takeaway -- and humor me please because
I'm beating my favorite dead horse
again -- there's no way in heck that all the upper management personalities from 1986
onward didn't know everything that happened and everything that had gone on
earlier. All the sordid events, all the secrets, all the crazy crap . . . about Hubbard, MSH,
the non-extant upper levels, the failure of the first OT8, myriad OT deaths, on and on.
Reading directly and between the lines, I could see that the upper management talked
behind closed doors an awful lot about an awful lot. Imagine if you worked in a place for
twenty years -- that's 7300 eighteen-hour days -- with the same folks, more or less. Imagine
the number of closed door conversations you'd have, the water-cooler chats, the late-night
gossip, the 2WCs to try to get some "charge off" with another terminal about something
that was bugging you badly, stuff you'd heard in sessions, etc.
There's no way anyone at the top did not know about the most terrible aspects of the fraud,
the con, but they soldiered on and kept it going. Why? Don't ask me. I left when I found out.
The excuse, "There are some things I didn't find out about until after I left," does not apply to
the upper strata. They knew. They knew it all. This is the kind of people you are dealing with
actually, both those out now and those imprisoned in
The Hole for the rest of their lives.
Marty and Mike could tell 1000X more than they have. They saw and heard much, much
more than they've ever revealed. I sorta suspected this all along, but Jesse's book put it to rest
in my mind what went on. It's just that the knowing criminality, sly evil, and personal enrichment
was something I've always had hard time getting my wits around.
Decent people have a hard time understanding indecency. People with pure hearts have a hard
time comprehending evil. (And so are easily taken advantage of in life at times.)
Anyways, I'm sorry for beating my favorite dead horse again, but this is my main takeaway from
the book -- a bird's eye view of the scheming by all involved for decades. Otherwise the con would
have certainly collapsed around 1986-88.
“There are no innocents. There are, however,
different degrees of responsibility.”
― The Girl Who Played with Fire
― Millennium Trilogy
Well, read the book. Support Jesse. See what you think.
* big swinging dick -- a big time mover and shaker; a man who feels self-important; a badass.
An expression made famous by Michael Lewis in Liar’s Poker (1989).
I want to read Jesse's whole story! There's so much I don't know. From cult survivor to cancer survivor, man, he's been through it all.
