There is much more to the article at Secular News DailyIn Memoriam: Two Con Men, Herbert W. Armstrong and L. Ron Hubbard
Twenty-five years ago this week, the two greatest con men of the 20th century both died, within the space of eight days of each other. The creativity and sheer chutzpah of Herbert W. Armstrong and L. Ron Hubbard are worth remembering, and in some ways even treasuring as a species of human achievement, with the same sort of awe one reserves for the destructive power of a tsunami. Though both men were failures in the business world, when they turned to religion they discovered a sucker market of breathtaking scope.Armstrong and Hubbard
Herbert W. Armstrong, born in 1892, worked at several jobs in the world of commercial advertising, failing at each. In the 1920s, he decided that religion was an easier racket, and fought to take control of a small congregation in Oregon. He failed at that, too, but on his way out the door managed to take the mailing list with him.
In 1935 Armstrong launched Plain Truth magazine, initially in mimeographed form; at about the same time he began regular radio broadcasts. To distinguish himself from the evangelical pack, Armstrong specialized in prophecy. He got lucky when an early prophecy, that Mussolini would conquer Ethiopia, actually came to pass. That a mechanized army would defeat spear-carrying tribesmen may seem to be not going too far out on a limb, but Armstrong hyped it into something special.
More prophecies followed, as Armstrong discovered that his audiences ate them up: Italy would conquer Palestine; then Russia would attack Palestine; then Britain would fall to the Germans; then German armies would appear on American shores. The accuracy rate began to deteriorate, but in wartime America where censorship kept the news bland and upbeat, Armstrong’s juicy predictions built his following.
The end of the German threat in 1945 would have dealt a lesser man a serious blow. Armstrong responded by assuring his readers and listeners – for decades on end – that Hitler was still alive, and ready to strike again any minute now.
One interesting tidbit I learned recently was that L Ron Hubbard was a distant relative of Elbert Hubbard who HWA idolized as a great thinker.
Interesting huh?
ReplyDeleteBut I had no idea they came into account so close to one another.
Michael
TTDOCF
What was not mentioned is that in 1986, they died within a week of each other in January -- just a few miles from each other in Pasadena.
ReplyDeleteI now consider the Armstrongist coGs little more that Sabbath keeping Scientologists. What can we say? Both cults insist on a science fiction alternative earth history which never happened.
Much more can be learned about L. Ron Hubbard and cults in general over at The Orange Papers.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to actually recover from Armstrongism, you would do well to acquire Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias. You may read a review here. You can read Chapter 5: Characteristics of a Cult Leader here.
ReplyDeleteTake Back Your Life will be the basis of the recovery section of DNArefutesBI.com coming this June.
The whole back-story that powers Scientology is probably the worst sci-fi that Hubbard ever wrote. It wouldn't even make a plausible pulp fiction story.
ReplyDeleteHe did much better work in the Del Rey bullpen, making 3 cents a word.
I left this info in a comment here a couple weeks ago. If you read some of EH you will see where HWA got his anti medical and holistic organic diet views. Which I really don't disagree with in it's entirety. Common sense is a good guide. EH probably had one of the largest vocabulary of any man, so he claimed. No ego problems there.
ReplyDeleteBut HWA got a lot of what he wove into his brand of religion directly from EH, but I can say that I have followed much of the whole foods idea and am an organic gardener and have had exceptional health.
RLH went off with his diabetics, healing of a different sort.
Both HWA and RLH had their own patented scams that made them both rich men.
So credit where credit is due on the good food = good health part.
Michael
"What was not mentioned is that in 1986, they died within a week of each other in January -- just a few miles from each other in Pasadena."
ReplyDeleteDouglas that is fascinating.
And then the celebration of two scoundrels passing was concluded with the biggest fire works display of our time...Challenger...too bad about the flight crew though.
Remember where you were, I do for both.
Michael
Pasadena has been the home base formation headquarters for several cults. Armstrongism, Scientology, the Flat Earth Society,Satanism/Jack Parsons who help start JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and who was an acolyte of Alistar Crowley.
ReplyDelete"Much of present-day American occultism can be traced back to the formation of Parson’s Pasadena chapter of the OTO during World War Two. In March 1946, Parsons was to try to call down the biblical Whore of Babylon into the womb of a living woman by a combination of strenuous copulation and incantation for three days. The female was a member of Ordo Templi Orientis. Keeping detailed records of Parsons unsuccessful black magic rite was friend and scribe Lafayette Ron Hubbard. Four years later Hubbard lay the foundations for his own religious cult, Scientology which, in turn, spawned the DeGrimstons, a British couple who were to establish the overtly satanic Process Church of the Final Judgement that took root in the counter-culture of the early 1960s. Founded by Robert Moore and Mary Anne MacLean, who were later to rename themselves the DeGrimstons, according to their literature, they worshipped a trinity of Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan."
http://www.holygrail-church.fsnet.co.uk/Satanism.htm
No2, I went to that site and read some until I just had all I could take, but that is some serious research material for a book.
ReplyDeleteYou quoted this part I found interesting, and a little bit humorous in a perverse way,
"they worshipped a trinity of Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan."
Is that like hedging your bets?
The link at bottom of page, "Secular Daily" is defunct. Perhaps it exists on Web Archive?
ReplyDelete