Tom Cruise: Human or Not?

From http://voices.washingtonpost.com :

We all know Scientology has made Tom Cruise a little weird (couch jumping, etc.), but who'd have thought that his crazy-eyed devotion to the belief system founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard could lead to deep psychosis? According to some sources, the group's techniques include activities that increasingly cut adherents off from reality. This could be Tom's biggest role ever.

The author lists a series of wild behaviors on the part of different celebrities, but attributes Tom Cruise's excesses to Scientology. What about the other celebrities it reports about? And what proof does he have that it is linked to Scientology at all other than possibly being just a celebrity symptom? Not even that, it could be questioned whether jumping on a couch out of enthusiasm for having found one's true love is that crazy after all.

On top of this, the author also has to bring in the myth of Scientology creating psychosis.

Fail is fail, and bad journalism is what it is - but then it also is the reflection of a popular opinion artificially promoted by critics in guise of Scientology "criticism".

Note that in a typical double bind, the fact that Cruise is now acting "normal" and even apologizing for his past excess and for trying to push Scientology on to the public, is also, ironically, the sign of the evil of the CoS according to some critics.

Indeed, in this article, Jean-Luc Barbier writes (in French):

Pour un scientologue dire qu'il a eu tort ne signifie rien. C'est une technique pour que l'autre au final accepte votre point de vue de scientologue.

In other words, he claims that Cruise's apology is only an evil Scientology technique of the ever evil Church of Scientology to manipulate people.

It not only is a double bind, as in the case I reported here already, it also is a denial of right. Indeed, Jean-Luc Barbier does not simply say that he personally feels that Cruise apologies are not sincere, he is saying litterally "For a Scientologist, to say that he was wrong does not mean anything".

Scientology is made SO evil that the mere fact of belonging to such a group removes any right "normal" people enjoy.

This reminds me of the argument of Ted Patrick, saying that since cult members are "brainwashed", for them to claim that they joined voluntarily, and for them to protest being abducted and forcibly deprogrammed, does not mean anything. It is not a human right violation, since being brainwashed has removed his humanity and have made of him a robot.

In effect, Jean-Luc Barbier does the same thing. He denies the possibility of Cruise being just a human being like you and me, who maybe does make mistake sometimes.

Jumping on a couch or apologizing has little to do with Scientology at all, but more simply with being a human being.