Wow…

That’s…

Er…

Enlightened.

By Vinny on Dec 24, 2007

Ok megalomania comes to mind. Will Smith should try to keep his psuedo intellectual chatter minimal at best.

By veronica on Dec 24, 2007

Back in the ’70s the Scientologists had people who would troll the streets of large cities looking for victims, er, ‘converts’.

I was walking near the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., lost, when this guy just appeared out of nowhere, sidled up next to me, and fell into step with my pace.

He very smoothly struck up a conversation. Before long, he had his arm on my shoulder and the next thing I knew he was guiding me into the local Scientology ‘hive’. I went with him only out of curiosity.

As soon as he got me in the door, and deposited my corpus at the front desk to be ‘processed’, he turned around without a fare-thee-well and went back out onto the street to find more potential zombies.

Like scam artists everywhere, they look for vulnerable people.

And as L. Ron Hubbard (I wouldn’t trust anybody with a name like that) said, religion is where the money is.

By Vince Williams on Dec 24, 2007

I know what you mean.

If it wasn’t for my Mafia connections, Tom Cruise would have had me rubbed out a long time ago.;-)

By Vince Williams on Dec 24, 2007

Are you questioning the wisdom or the word choice?

Setting Scientology aside, as well we should, the wisdom seems self-evident: a sociopath certainly may be trying to improve the world. He’s just using a strange set of standards. My maxim: Even crazy people have [their own] logic. You just have to figure out what it is.

If, early on, somebody had *really* figured out his crazy version of logic and *really* worked within it, who knows? Maybe he could have been “programmed” (although I’d prefer the word “raised”) with a saner set of standards.

But I agree that the word choice is flawed. If Will’s using “reprogram” as a catch-all, meaning “to change someone’s mind”, I get it. But, it also means “after the fact”, and that’s where I take exception. Once somebody has constructed a solid set of standards, crazy or not, they’re pretty hard to knock down. I suspect most people feel that way, which is why I’m giving Mr. Smith the benefit of the doubt.

If he’s using it casually, because it’s been in front of him a lot in his reading (however ill-advised), well, I forgive the lazy choice.

If he’s seriously using it with some sort of Scientologist’s intent, we shouldn’t even be listening. It’s stupid. (What’s wrong with people? All they have to do is Google the stories of Scientology escapees–there are plenty–and they’d run screaming in the other direction.)

Of course, at the moment, I happen to be coming from my “if 80% gets the point across, don’t nit-pick the other 20%–nobody’s perfect” POV.

On the other hand, I also have a well-developed “nit-picking is fun!” POV, complete with an impenetrable passive-aggressive “What? He’s the one who said it!” defense.

And if that’s where you’re coming from today, just forget I ever happened.

By Karen on Dec 24, 2007

Hmmm… Yes, but not as cool as you.

Maybe it’s that I couldn’t figure out what *you* were saying. Or, figured it out wrong, in any case.

I was saying:

1. Unless you’re just having fun being snarky (which is okay, too), give the guy a break. He’s right; he just shouldn’t have used the word “reprogrammed” for about a dozen reasons.

2. People who haven’t Googled the Scientology escapees horror stories are idiots.

Now, if I’d been smart enough to just slam it out like that in the first place…

Does the first one make sense in that context?

I’ll keep trying

By Karen on Dec 24, 2007

I know exactly what Karen’s saying, it makes sense until the last three paragraphs.

Try driving on the autobahn in Germany, and commit an infraction of the rules.

Then wait until you get a notice from the authorities, because someone reported it (it won’t be long).

THAT’S how the Nazis did it.

By Vince Williams on Dec 24, 2007

Same to you Loren, bro.

By Vince Williams on Dec 24, 2007

Yikes.

By Karen on Dec 24, 2007

And… basically everyone just missed the fact that this guy just called Will Smith a Lawn Jockey, one of the most beloved racist terms used by the KKK. Make of that what you will.

By GK on Dec 25, 2007