Elisabeth Moss, Scientology and the Unanswerable Question
Communication is supposed to be one of Scientology’s great strengths. Yet the notorious cult has never been able to give famous cultists a good answer when asked by journalists why they have decided to devote their time, money and energy to being part of a celebrity fame slave cult.
That’s probably because there is NOT a good explanation or a valid rationale for being a Scientologist. That has ALWAYS been true but it has never been truer than it is now.
L. Ron Hubbard’s malevolent brainchild has always been the longest of long cons but in previous decades it was protected by money, wealth and power. It was not untouchable but it had the power to make the lives of critics hell.
That’s not the case anymore. Scientology is a wounded beast, just barely holding on for dear life. It has been discredited. It was once a big deal when famous people left the church.
Now former Scientologists like Beck Hansen and Jason Lee just sort of wander away from the cult for reasons everyone can understand and it’s no big deal.
The existence of smart, cool Scientologists has always been something of a mystery. How can someone like Beck believe in that nonsense on anything but a deeply ironic level?
If I were to interview Tom Cruise, something that, honestly, is probably not going to happen, I would start off with a question like, “Tom, you’re one of the biggest movie stars in the world. You regularly risk your life performing amazing, dangerous stunts. How do you justify belonging to a celebrity fame slave cult? Does it have anything to do with all the slave labor you receive for being a famous celebrity?”
That’s the eternal question when it comes to the biggest names in Scientology: how can you be savvy, strong-willed and ambitious enough to rise to the top of some of the toughest fields in the world yet be gullible enough to fall for Scientology’s nonsense?
I’m writing this blog post because the staggeringly talented and accomplished Elizabeth Moss, of Mad Men, US, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Invisible Man is currently promoting her latest project, a miniseries adaptation of the novel The Shining Girls.
Because Moss is one of the most famous Scientologists in the world some of the questions she has received this time around involve asking her why she belongs to a celebrity fame slave cult like Scientology.
It’s an impossible question. So Moss gives the only answer that she can, and the only answer Scientologists have been able to give to that most important of questions for decades.
If I might paraphrase here, Moss says that Scientology is most assuredly NOT a celebrity slave cult but rather an unambiguous force for good in the universe that’s all about freedom and helping humanity realize its true potential and helping get kids off drugs.
It’s bullshit. It’s utter, utter bullshit. It’s always been bullshit but it’s also the only answer Scientologists can give without being excommunicated.
I’m not sure why I expected Moss to have a better answer to “You seem like a smart, decent person. Why are you part of an evil cult like Scientology?” than all of the big name Scientologists before her.
I’m more disappointed in Moss than I am with most Scientologists because she continues to be a very public proponent of Scientology even after its very public fall from grace.
There never will be a good answer to “Why do you belong to an evil cult?” yet it’s a question that demands to be asked.
The only way people will stop asking that question is if Scientology is a thing of the past, which is tantalizingly possible at this point, despite what true believers like Moss might like to believe.
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