Hubbard & Philosophy: for Caroline

[fisherman]

Caroline,

Thanks for your past help on this subject! I could not have written this 'cross-post from ESMB without your input.

fisherman

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LRH's Reading Habits and Sources:

Did anyone see LRH spend hours with a book? Find Marcus Aurelius in the bathroom? Shakespeare on the night-table? I can't find any references to LRH's reading habits in 'expose's' like "Madman or Messiah".

It doesn't appear LRH was the avid reader he claimed to be. Based on his personal history and his writing, it's more likely that he 'cobbled' together the culturally fashionable ideas of his time.

According to Sara Hubbard, LRH was impatient with scholarship and not a successful student:

[Don Carlo]

Exactly. Will Durant was a brilliant popularizer who followed the "great man" theory of history - that one tremendous man (and rare woman) after another "creates" history. He wrote books with wit and clarity, as easy to read as a novel. Made confident by enormous research and intelligence, Durant spoke as the final word on a topic. Will and Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization was an eleven-volume beefy set of books, starting with Our Oriental Heritage, that was heavily promoted by the Book of the Month club and appeared on many, many bookshelves in the mid-20th Century. Reading even one of them could give a non-college-educated person like Hubbard a veneer of ideas and facts on Buddha, Socrates, Mohammed, etc. that would impress the typical American who had forgotten his high school history.

Today this theory has to compete with others - for example Barbara Tuchman dug deep into letters and archives to find the voices of the times, and found middle-level people deeply influenced events (e.g. The Zimmerman Telegram. To her, history LIVES in the archives. James Burke, in Connections and The Day the Universe Changed promoted another historical theory - that seemingly minor inventions and obscure, often inelegant thinkers made connections that change the world. Radical leftists see history as the struggle of the oppressed. Larry Gonick, author of Cartoon History of the World, presents historic figures as comical blunderers, opportunists and only occasionally heroes. Typical scene - after Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain expelled the Jews and grabbed their assets, Isabella said to Columbus,

[fisherman]

Don Carlo,

Thanks for your excellent post! That's the best brief exposition on historical method I have ever read! Really well done!

I agree with everything you wrote, although I tend to think of "great man" history as more a 'narrative style' than an articulated "theory". Back when us 'cave men' gathered by the fire, after a dinner of roast 'wildebeast', we poured a snort of 'dingleberry claret' and told tales about the heroes of the tribe. Eventually, Herodotus, Livy and Plutarch started writing it all down and we said, "Who's going to publish that?"

You're right about the many approaches to history today. I've read works that encompass voices at every level of society while managing to relate philosophic backgrounds, politics, and anthropological details, as well. It's brilliant when done well!

I certainly share your admiration for Will and Ariel Durant. Both were tremendous scholars and superb narrative writers. When I was growing up, "The Story of Civilization" was on the shelves of many of our neighbors.

I recall 'the tenor of that time' as striving for systemization and convenience. We had 'Reader's Digest Condensed Books', 'concentrated orange juice', 'instant coffee', 'Book of the Month', 'Longines Symphonette Society', 'tract housing' 'dixie cups', TV dinners'...

Religion and Self Help in condensed versions were equally popular, Billy Graham on TV, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's "Power of Positive Thinking", Napoleon Hill, Earle Nightingale, Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends and Influence People"...

"Dianetics" is a product of that 'climate of the time', 'do it yourself' psychology in one easy volume. While LRH's output grew to massive proportion, each work seems to carry the same promise, 'enlightenment' in a few easy steps.

Of course, Americans, bustling along and striving for 'the next horizon' have always had a penchant for practical answers and convenient solutions. Alexis de Tocqueville, the French historian, noted this in 1835. It's no surprise that America's first 'self help' book was written in 1839, by Samuel Smiles and titled -- "Self Help". That native enthusiam for 'packaged solutions' may have reached its zenith in the 'post-war' America.

LRH was both a creation of and a contributor to that 'zeitgeist'. It's logical and not surprising that he would turn to Will and Ariel Durant's works as 'source material'. On that score, I think your comment about LRH turning to the Durant's "The Story of Civilization" is 'right on the money'

[caroline]

[fisherman]

Caroline,

Thanks for your kind words and as always, your 'clipping service'

LRH's "BASICS OF ETHICS" illustrates my point exactly! The first two paragraphs are the kind of thing a high school student might cull from Will Durant's introduction to to 'the Greeks'. From the third paragraph on (aside from the dates) Hubbard is 'winging it'. The generalities he writes could apply to ANY philosopher who ever lived. Hubbard's words are logically framed, but they don't say anything specific about Greek Philosophy. I'm sorry, but this isn't even 'C' grade work at a high school level.

[BTs2Free]

Just to add info about the LRH personal library and what books Hubbard might have read:

[caroline]

[fisherman]

BTs2Free,

"EDIT" My mistake BT2Free, I thought you had visited LRH's library. Your post is an exciting clue, nontheless!

Your post offered some exciting clues! Personal libraries have long been the historian's richest source of information. ANYTHING we could discover about specific materials in Hubbard's library would be VERY interesting to learn!!!

From what you posted:

1. "The CIA Mind Control" makes sense for the obvious reason of practical application in scientology. But it's also the kind of book Hubbard might reference in writing novels. Fiction writers cull from all kinds of source materials that support their 'genre'. Books about spies, military technology, adventure stories, etc are the kind of thing one would EXPECT to find in Hubbard's library.

2. IMO witchcraft and the Occult are the ONLY subjects Hubbard writes about convincingly. I once wrote that the ONE author Hubbard read thoroughly seems to be Crowley. Every author "write's what he knows" and you can usually pinpoint the subject in the work. With Hubbard that subject is the Occult. I'd expect to see volumes on witchcraft in Hubbard's library.

3. Scientology organization draws heavily on Hubbard's Naval Officer training. It wouldn't be surprising to find military manuals in Hubbard's library. Did you see any?

4. Likewise, Hubbard uses a lot of 'management tech' from the period in which he lived. I wouldn't be surprised to see popular books on finance and business managment in Hubbard's collection. This might include 'personal development texts he could adapt to scientology -- i.e. Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, etc. Did you see 'business books'?

Of course, Hubbard may have owned books and not read them. Many people buy books 'for show'. Still, what a library contains and DOESN'T contains, says a lot about the individual.

It's a wild guess, but I'd expect Hubbard's library to feature survey textbooks in certain subjects, reference guides, handbooks, manuals -- anything easy to access for incorporation into his story writing. Also books of personal interest, maybe navigation, photography, etc. What I'd expect NOT to find is poetry, theology, thick history books in narrow subject areas, classical fiction, plays, belles lettres, and political works.

If you have any more 'clues' they'd be fun to mull over!

Thanks,

fisherman

[caroline]

Here's another source, fisherman. Hubbard really liked Twelve Against the Gods.

[peter]

Soderqvist1: I am reading William Bolitho’s book; ‘Twelve Against the Gods’!
I have read about Alexander the Great, Casanova, and I am now reading about Christopher Columbus and he seems to have a lot in common with L. Ron Hubbard, because Bolitho has said on page 71 that he has been called “a pathological liar”.

Introduction page 4: The first adventurer was a nuisance; he left the tribal barricade open to the risk of the community when he left to find out what made that noise in the night. I am sure he acted against his mother’s, his wife, and the council of old men’s strict orders, when he did it. But it was he that found where the mammoths die and where after a thousand years of use there was still enough ivory to equip the whole tribe with weapons. Such is the ultimate outline of the adventurer: Society’s benefactor as well as pest.

“Page 71: If it is pathological to tell lies in the only way they are convincing, that is, after swallowing them oneself, Columbus had the disease, and not only in this matter of his birth, and family. Page 76: Those who – under the influence of Christopher’s own lies and bluff to be sure – have made him out the solitary captain of his age, the great navigator standing in lonely advance of the science, imagination, and daring of his times have missed his real glory. It is that of all adventurers: to have been the tremendous outsider. Until his last voyage it is very doubtful if he could even use a Quadrant. He knew no more of navigation than any able-bodied seaman. He was incapable by himself of fixing the latitude and longitude of his discoveries. At the time of his first expedition he had no experience of commanding men, and he never learnt it. By his own policy he had cut himself off from any national advantage; if ever a man played a solo hand against the social universe it was Columbus. So his was the triumph of the Unqualified, the stigma of the adventurer that ordered Society hates the worst, the man who pushed his way in and did what others with the right were soberly, competently, conscientiously planning to do; the patron example of the crank and the amateur. In her dealings with him Fate snubbed all the worths, and competencies. Page 79: Christopher’s projected voyage was not without precedent, but nothing in the whole history of exploration resembled his price. Page 80: And Fate’s interest in him ceased to have the air of a fantastic joke. She is being pursued by a great man.
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A simple explanation with few explanation grounds is to prefer, except when you need to hide your flaws! - Peter Soderqvist

[fisherman]

Caroline,

Thank you for the new source! I can see what attracted Hubbard to this work. I'm going to research this book, It may prove revealing.

Peter,

Thanks for quoting those passages. You've whetted my appetite!

fisherman

[caroline]

Everyone who's done the Student Hat will recognize this basic HCOB and piece of "study tech." Hubbard's word example for application is "gargantuan," which every Scientologist learns very early in their religion. Just because Hubbard made a big deal about it, and Scientologists recognize it, Gerry has used the word in all kinds of sentences about Hubbard or Scientology, sometimes just for his own laughs I suppose. Anyway, this a.m. he mentioned Rabelais as Hubbard's source, so I looked him up.

[fisherman]

Thanks Caroline!

[caroline]

[fisherman]

An interesting reference to Mr. Hubbard's reading prefences in 'Barefaced Messiah' p 315