Lecture: The Success of Dianetics (1952)

We have another project going, and we’re ready to cut loose on this project  just as soon as we can. Los Angeles is probably going to hit Arizona in an atom bombing. The Southwest is probably a part of the country to which many people will drift (after an atom bombing). There’s no reason why Arizona should suddenly have to roll up its sleeves and start working to support everybody who drifts in on Arizona.

H. G. Wells in Things to Come solved this problem merely by shooting all these wayfarers who came down the highway. (audience laughter) But we can make it more or less   pointless if we could do something like this – we have this   already in the mills – we have some very key personnel in civil defense alerted on this and very, very interested.

Organize an organization called “The Samaritans, Incorporated.” And we issue them a card. We sell them, if you please, food, clothing and shelter on their arrival in this area, and we try to make it possible for – after a short period of time – for there to be some kind of work or activity here which could keep them eating in the event of an atom bombing. Fairly sensible solution to this.

By the way, I’m not terribly foreign to this, because I’m a graduate of the Princeton military school of government on civil affairs, which is the naval version of civil defense.¹ It was highly specialized. And it’s going to be a big problem. We’d just be inundated by people in Arizona if they aren’t very much on the ball about doing something about it.

Well, what happens is we can sell this. We can sell a card that says, “This entitles you to food, clothing and shelter, and it’s got your thumbprint on it. All you have to bring is your thumb. And you report in on this area …”   Particularly between here and Los Angeles you can put in some gasoline and water stations. And you start making a storage – that is to say, a dump, actually, of supplies. This card isn’t cheap. But it’s going to take a lot of people to get this organization – keep it rolling, and work with it and stay with it.

And it’s not too far out of line with Dianetic goals. One of the main reasons I thought about this is auditors in this area. We need things to do, we need something that produces income, and I’ve been trying to solve this problem any way I could. I, for some reason or other, feel responsible on it.²; ³

Notes