I think it is probably not possible for an outsider to have an informed
opinion about Scientology. Such an opinion is per force based on
hearsay. Furthermore, it is now a worldwide movement, so the experiences
in, say, Clearwater FL, may be totally different from the experiences
in, say, Berlin.

The same would hold true for any large ideological organization. Look at
Catholocism. While some Catholics, including the Vatican, supported, or
at best, ignored the nazis, thereby tacitly cooperating with them, other
Chatholics were risking their lives to protest the T-4 program or save
Jews. And while some priests were engaging in pedofily, elsewhere other
priests and nuns were working 100 hours a week caring for street
children, the sick the elderly, etc.

In any such organization there are going to be good and bad ideas, as
well as good and bad deeds. We cannot judge an entire organization by
its scandals.

The fact is, that the non-scientologists of the world who oppose
psychiatry have failed to organize themselves and become a major
influence. Thomas Szasz, sometimes called "the conscience of psychiatry"
has done his job almost single-handedly. It's a cliché, but united we
stand, divided we fall. The pharmaceutical-psychiatric industry is so
enormously rich and powerful, that unity among its opponents is our only
hope, even if that means, to use another cliché, that the enemies of our
enemies are our friends.

Mira