Hubbard set up the Church of Scientology in Hollywood in 1954 for a reason. He understood that celebrity was increasingly a feature of American public life, and celebrities themselves were going to be worshiped as minor deities were in the ancient world. The idea was: if you could get them, think how many people would follow.
Interpretation
The quote discusses how celebrities are viewed in society and the power they hold over the public.
Lawrence Wright's quote highlights the understanding of L. Ron Hubbard that celebrities possess significant influence and control over public perception. By establishing the Church of Scientology in Hollywood, he aimed to harness this power of celebrity, suggesting that just as ancient societies revered their deities, modern society tends to idolize famous individuals. This reflects on the dynamics of fame and belief in contemporary culture.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of celebrities in shaping culture, this quote can be used to illustrate the historical context of fame.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S. and coalition partners stands as one of the greatest blunders in American history. The Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, rose out of the the chaos, throwing the region into turmoil that hasn't been equaled since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
When I was trained as a journalist, as a race-relations reporter in Nashville covering the end of the civil-rights movement, we were strictly forbidden to use the first-person pronoun. There was kind of an electric charge around it. To come out from hiding and use the word 'I' carried a lot of fright for me.
The world in which we live today-reflecting in so many way the opposite of our sweetness and love-reminds us how desperately important it is to break the spell that's been cast on the human race and retrieve our shining self.
If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak.
Opinions are formed in a process of open discussion and public debate, and where no opportunity for the forming of opinions exists, there may be moods -moods of the masses and moods of individuals, the latter no less fickle and unreliable than the former -but no opinion.
And I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time.
Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed.
If 'god' is a metaphysical term, then it cannot be even probable that a god exists. For to say that 'God exists' is to make a metaphysical utterance which cannot be either true or false. And by the same criterion, no sentence which purports to describe the nature of a transcendent god can possess any literal significance.
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