Scientology Was Inevitable: The Lesson of Lawrence Wright's Book, "Going Clear"

THE GUARDIAN
By Hadley Freeman

Scientology is a neat reflection of the worst aspects of American culture with its repulsive veneration of celebrity; its weird attitudes towards women, sex, healthcare and contraception; its promise of equality among its followers but actual crushing inequality (one of the more memorable claims in Wright's book is how Scientology promises its followers access to the celebrity world yet is hierarchical to such an extent that when it was discovered Cruise and his then wife Nicole Kidman had a "fantasy of running through a field of wildflowers together", Scientology followers were instructed to "plant a section of the desert".) Its history is at least in part the history of US counterculture: when Scientology officially began in 1950 with the publication of Dianetics, it emerged in an America fascinated with tales about outer space and increasingly concerned about psychiatry, which was going through a period of brutal experimentation. But it was also the perfect product of its time and place, and continues to be so. [link]