Considering authoritarianism in the light of the basic tenets of Dianetics one rapidly discovers that one is dealing, in Group Dianetics, with the manifestation of group engrams. The parallel, in Individual Dianetics, would be the command power, in terms of pain and word content, of an engram.

The tenets of Individual Dianetics show us that thought and force-theta and MEST-become enturbulated in the person and manifest themselves as irrationality. The reactive mind is only the composite of all moments in a lifetime when thought and MEST were entangled chaotically. Out of this chaos thought, when conquered and driven by MEST, commands the individual without recourse to his reason as represented by his analytical mind. MEST force, impinging on the analytical mind, cuts off reasoning power and ability.

Reason could be said to be the orderly handling of MEST by theta. This postulates that the entirety of reason depends upon a harmony of conquest of MEST. Theta could be said to be complete reason; MEST could be said to be complete force.

As we notice in aberrated individuals, the more MEST they have enturbulated with theta, the less rational they are, and the less life and vitality they have. As the individual is processed, his reason rises in direct proportion to the amount of theta which is rescued from his engrams. And while our observations and conclusions of theta and MEST are far from complete — and may not be complete until theta itself is isolated as theta — empirical observation of the subject seems to make it evident that individuals, as far as their reason or unreason is concerned, might be plotted on a gradient scale between theta as pure reason and MEST as entire unreason. The amount of MEST enturbulated in the individual might be said to measure his position on such a scale:

Wholly Theta.................... Wholly MEST

The conquest of MEST by theta seems to depend upon the theta’s increased understanding of the laws of MEST and then an orderly use of the laws of MEST against MEST itself. By the discovery of some new natural law of MEST more MEST can be conquered. The conquest of theta by MEST seems to require the entrance of chaotic MEST into theta and the consequent driving out of theta by Force. The complete conquest of a body by MEST is death, wherein all the theta has been made to withdraw consequent to continued enturbulation. Rebirth and growth of new organisms has been the theta answer to this problem until Dianetics, when theta, in one lifetime, can be rescued from MEST enturbulation by direct processing. Exactly how far theta can go in doing this has not been entirely determined, nor how it affects geriatrics. But it is easily observed, even in a partial release, that theta, rescued from the enturbulence, is far more able to conquer MEST.

Postulates are as good as they predict new data which, when looked for, is found to exist. on a Group Dianetic level, the release of theta from enturbulation compares to the release of or reduction of an engram. Release of theta from MEST, then, restores reason and removes Force from the situation. A group engram seems to be any area from which Force is emanating without reason, but such Force, not being obeyed, will administer physical pain. Hiring and firing threats, physical punishment as in some military organizations, jailing (reduction of the space and time controlled by the individual) are all MEST actions. The engram, unless obeyed, inflicts physical pain on the individual; it cannot be reasoned with and it lowers the self-determinism of the individual. The last sentence applies at once to an individual’s engrams or to a group’s engrams.

Apparently there is a law to the effect that theta and MEST, to survive, must interact. And that enturbulated theta and MEST war to drive out the theta on one hand and restore the MEST to chaotic action on the other. The theta gets free to come back for a harmonious conquest of MEST. The MEST gets free to continue its own combinations and recombinations, apparently, to a chaotic state of being MEST or, possibly, to attack or resist theta more ably. The latter postulated action of MEST seems to predict the more data, for MEST apparently attacks theta when enturbulated with it and surrenders to the reasonable organization of theta only after the most brilliant effort on the part of theta. But it seems that if theta is to attack MEST at all, then the attack begins by creating a turbulence, withdrawing from the turbulence with now some understanding of the MEST, and attacking again. All interactions of theta and MEST seem to begin with a turbulence which is then resolved by theta’s withdrawing and assaulting again with a reasonable attack. MEST apparently wins, as in killing a person. But theta, by having organized a biological line, has a new carrier for the new attack. It is very curious, but if past lives are true data, theta would seem to have worked out a level in theta for a new attack as well as in life (lambda). Thus we get genetic lines. And, if there is any truth in past lives, we would have theta lines, just as individuated theta or the human soul.

This postulates that all theta is actually in now save as it has been swept away in the time stream. But there is something curious about time and it would seem that time is native to both MEST and theta and appears halted when viewed by one from the other. Theta might look active to timeless MEST, MEST might look active to timeless theta. One is standing still compared to the other. Thus evolution might be viewed as a now existing thing for theta where lower forms sweep out into greater complexity, all in now, until, with Man, analytical theta, or pure theta, can at last begin to manifest with a reasonable conquest of MEST. Hence theta is uniting with MEST as enturbulation until it can extricate itself, with knowledge from and of MEST, to re- attack MEST, not through rebirth but in frontal onslaught. Possibly Man begins here his evolution into his highest level of reasonableness or his theta self. However this may be, for these are here but random postulates, we have highly valid examples of the similarity between the group engram and the individual engram.

MEST enturbulated in a group’s theta is highly dangerous to that theta. MEST, in a group, could be likened to material possessions, and money (which can be a theta or a MEST thing depending on its use for the giving of charity or the purchase of power). The group which owns and fights mainly for the group control of matter, energy, space and time as owned things possessed by force, defended by force and the ownership perpetuated as long as possible by force, does not own. Here MEST would be seeking the ownership of MEST which is for theta a species of death. The group which harmoniously conquers MEST by reason will continue to have the use of that MEST.

As an example, Christianity owned the minds of men for two thousand years, while the saber of Genghis Khan cowed men and territory for less than eighty years. Christianity failed only when MEST, entering in, caused Christian to fight Christian and won again only when its basic ethic and ideal were restored. When all sides in World War I were conquering in the name of God so much MEST entered in that the hot flame of Christianity died down so low that in many countries a new idea, Communism, completely supplanted it despite the fact that Communism is probably much less theta than early Christianity.

A harmonious control of MEST makes a control by force unnecessary. Just as the theta in a body must have harmonious (non-enturbulated) control of that body, so must those things which a group uses be possessed by harmonious control. The only trouble Dianetics really can have is from any group which holds by Force the things which Dianetics, by theta, flows over.

Example: Psychotics and prisoners which are the MEST of psychiatrists and the police. Dianetics, being much purer theta than psychiatrists or the police, will inevitably win, and without any slightest use of force.

The theta of a group would be its ideas, ideals, rationale and ethic. This is an actual force. If one does not think a group has its own theta, independent of but existing via its individual members, consider exactly how far a society would go without its culture — each individual would, without that culture, be reduced to his bare hands and complete non-communication of ideas. The culture is an accumulated soul which flows over and through a number of individuals and persists after the death of those individuals via other individuals or even other groups. A complete enturbulation with MEST means the death of a group — which is to say, a society without its culture ceases to exist. The culture is theta.

We have discussed enturbulated MEST and enturbulated theta. These are the components of any engram of the individual or the society. We had better assign to these special names: enMEST and entheta, combining their parts with the change of action in those parts. EnMEST could be considered MEST with a somehow reversed polarity. It is fighting to get free from theta. Entheta could be considered to be theta with a reversed polarity which is fighting to get free from MEST. As soon as polarity is reversed by the enturbulation, possibly by something not unlike the heat of fusion caused by the pain of irrational collision, the entrapped enMEST seeks to fight away from anything which even closely resembles entheta and so attacks all theta. The entrapped entheta, seeking to fight away from anything like enMEST, will fight or repel all MEST.

Entheta and enMEST will combine and stay combined until MEST separates them, as by death, and theta separates them as with Dianetics.

MEST, it would seem on some examination, has a natural attraction to theta. Theta has a natural attraction to MEST. They combine harmoniously as witnessed by life (lambda). Show MEST and some theta will move over it. Show theta and some MEST will move under it. The action is almost automatic.

However, evidently, show entheta some MEST and the MEST will repel. Show enMEST some theta and the theta will repel. The only times when these, possibly, will not repel, is when there is a chance for the MEST to recover pure MEST from it (a postulate for which we have no momentary example) or when the theta has a chance to recover some theta, which we see happening daily in Dianetics.

When an estate is to be given into the trust of someone, the donor looks about for an idealistic, reasonable, honest man. When an idealistic man, such as an artist, looks about for a place to be, he turns from the embattled city and seeks a quiet countryside.

Note, however, that when pure MEST collides with pure theta there is usually a turbulence. Note further that a turbulence is evidently necessary for the theta to learn enough about the MEST with which it became enturbulated to back off and conquer a new area of MEST.

Example: Enterprises of any age generally begin with ideas and ideals being thrown over MEST. A turbulence occurs, even if a slight one, and from it the theta learns enough of MEST to conquer it smoothly. One has to learn that a cliff will cave in before he can buttress it against stopping a stream.

The goal might seem to be maximal unison of theta with MEST, with the creation of minimal enMEST and entheta.

Dianetics, as a group, is trying to attack a thing which normally repels both theta and MEST — entheta and enMEST. This can be done in the ratio that entheta is returned into theta so more theta can attack more entheta and enMEST. Thus a clearing service. Theta can attack entheta and enMEST only when the theta is very high. And MEST is necessary to accomplish it (buildings and money). The highest theta is the highest reason which means the highest ideal, rationale and ethic. If the ideal falters the theta is also faltering and so the attack is unsuccessful. Hence the Auditor’s Code. If enMEST is strong in the group either as individuals or as actual perversion of ethic, then the group falters and fails to succeed. In Dianetics, the group must have, by these mechanics, an enormously high ideal, a high ability to think and a strong group ethic in order to succeed.

It has been remarked that the ideals of any group are never higher than at the moment of their initial formation. This was before one knew anything about clearing groups. MEST can be controlled by a group, even a Dianetics group, so long as the control is not of enturbulated MEST, property in question, perverted mores of people, unreasonable prices, war with psychiatry, etc. etc. EnMEST comes about from a turbulent collision of theta and MEST.

Now we suppose that an effort to conquer enMEST with theta will succeed only when the group engaged in the conquest has continually restored to it its theta which was caught up in the collision. In this way the group can go on controlling more and more MEST and control it permanently. But if the turbulences remain uncleared, the theta of the Group will dwindle. Its ideal will fall low; its rationale will decrease.

Any group starting up in an established culture finds itself at once confronted with already existing enMEST both in the individuals (as engrams) and in the culture itself (as in group engrams). In fact, in an aberrated culture most of the MEST present is being attacked by entheta and enMEST, and most of the theta present is being attacked by enMEST. Such a group must be particularly careful to avoid patent enMEST in its acquisitions and obvious entheta in its dealings unless it recognizes the enMEST and entheta character of many of the things in its environ and drives against the enMEST to release it and the entheta to release it. In this way it can be certain to acquire more theta and more MEST in a harmonious control.

For example, the unclear title to a property must be swiftly cleared if the group wants to use it or the property must be abandoned. Land, no matter how small or how large, which is held by entheta is, of course, enMESTed; and enMESTed land, when theta seeks to control it, will make theta into entheta (lower the ideals and rationale of the group).

A new group has little choice but to handle enMEST and entheta or to associate with it. It has only two possible courses of action as a group if it wishes to survive. It must attack both enMEST and entheta, turn them as soon as possible into MEST and theta, or it must avoid enMEST and entheta and retreat from an action field and, monk- like, simply preserve the theta it has. Thus a dianetic group can either attack enMEST or entheta with punitive reason and keep itself carefully cleared meanwhile or it can find some true MEST, such as a valley or a desert, and become wholly self-supportive even unto issuing its own script, raising its own food and surviving serenely without spreading. Thus any new idea becomes a complete revolution, willy-nilly, unable to stop short of conquering a country or the planet by knocking out entheta regimes and knocking out land titles and entheta such as an atom bomb, or the idea becomes a cult wherein the “world” is abandoned for the sake of harmony.

The question of creation and destruction, for such a group, is answered by the equation of the optimum solution of dianetic theory. Entheta and enMEST are, however, reversed vectors. They must be separated and converted into theta and MEST or they must be nullified. No creation can be accomplished without some destruction. The equation of how much destruction and how much creation is answered by survival in how much time. As the time shortens, the amount of destruction necessary to the solution rises in proportion to the amount of creation which must be done or the amount of destruction which must be nullified in order to make creation possible. Any destruction tends to place in the group theta some entheta. The group, if it keeps itself cleared (keeps its end in view and its authoritarianism to a minimum), can deal with some destruction. That destruction must be held to a minimum for the solution of the problem and the enMEST and entheta must be swept out of the group as swiftly as possible.

Alexander, for instance, began with a high ethic and rationale in his troops but the destruction accomplished burdened the theta with enMEST in the form of loot (enturbulated MEST) and lessened the ethic and rationale by introducing entheta. Alexander made his troops destroy their baggage several times. But this authoritarian action — a force action against force actions — further enturbulated the theta and MEST present. Alexander was forced to turn back short of his goal because his troops had lost their impetus and were to a large degree now operating under entheta reactions. Further he sought to conquer Man, not MEST.

Combat, as such, then, can be seen to have its uses and indeed, is often necessary according to an investigation of history. It is not the combat or the violence or the destruction which is important, it is the amount of entheta and enMEST which remains in the group, unseparated and unconverted, which destroys the group. But combat, once its immediate goal is attained — and that goal must be one of reason, not owning, or else it is not a theta goal — must be repaired by clearing out the theta and MEST of entheta and enMEST. An attack upon a community which is ruled by entheta and which is an enMEST community should first be attempted by reason and should succeed with ARC — which is to say, the action of theta. If, however, the community is an immediate threat to group and the time, for various reasons, is too short, or if the community is so solidly entheta and enMEST that it itself will not only not yield but prevents other communities from being cleared, the group has no choice but to attack with the most expeditious means available which, by minimal creation of enMEST (damage to property) and entheta (hate, etc.), keeps the task of clearing that community to the absolute minimum. The group, upon conquest, must then not attempt to own that community. It must give the community back to itself as soon as the entheta and enMEST are banished from it. Such service is worth the wages of the group but these must be contributed wages, not commanded ones. And in the line of combat, the group is, of course, forced to use the most effective and least destructive weapons it has if it is to use weapons at all. And its plan must be, for its attack, the most reasonable possible plan.

Now as this applies to the group action against the community, so it would seem to apply to the auditor’s action against the entheta and enMEST of and around his preclear. And so it does. If a man’s wife is invalidating him and hammering him into insanity faster than the auditor can free entheta and restore sanity, then the auditor must, to the necessary degree, interfere with the self-determinism of the wife or the family (group) of the preclear to either remove the preclear from the environ or nullify the wife or remove her from the environ. For the auditor must not be confused to the point where he mistakes entheta and enMEST action as self-determinism. It is not. Likewise the group has a problem when entheta and enMEST are present in an individual or a section of that group. The group can either convert the entheta and enMEST of the individual into theta and MEST or it can remove the individual from the group if that individual’s presence is continually destructive to a point where he is making the group more psychotic than it can be cleared. However, there is a third consideration in this problem.

EnMEST and entheta are effective on a group in the ratio that they are given altitude by a group. Hence, the aberrations of the leader of a group may be reflected all through the group. The aberrations of a least member of the group will have no effect at all upon the group.

This stems from the axiom that the effect of an individual on a group rises in proportion to his altitude in the group. A man with a great deal of theta and a small amount of entheta and with a solid concept of the ideals, rationale and ethic of the group naturally rises to his own position in the group. If the group is a true group, which is to say, if its ideals, rationale and ethic are held solidly by all and if self-determinism exists in the group individual to individual and if the group goals are in fair view, then all the individuals of the group will more or less fall or rise into their natural positions in the group under their laws regulating such things.

But all groups and all life seem to have begun with impact and collision. Authoritarian (arbitrary) actions are necessary to begin groups. If the group remains rational or is cleared, the authoritarian action is undone in the natural evolution of the group. Otherwise its ideals and rationale and ethic will suffer and the group will dwindle.

Examining these various postulates and examples one begins to have some concept of authoritarianism. An action which is unreasonable, produces nothing creative and remains unexplained and is backed by threatened force, such as deprivation of some or much MEST, is the ultimate in authoritarian actions. As these factors drop away, the action is less authoritarian. Thus authoritarianism is a graded scale, not an absolute.

Good reason (suppressor to group — Theta order. existing). Explained.

This is a crude scale. The actual scale is more complicated. But this serves to point out that enMEST and entheta are active in a group when authoritarianism is present.

What does enMEST do when it seeks to drive out theta, its primary mission or, at least, action? This is evidently the simple problem of how one knocks out theta. One, when he knocks out theta, has only to sever communication, affinity and reality, or reverse their polarity into enforced communication, hate and lies and one drops the theta potential of the individual or the group. One drops his theta potential if one works on an individual by severing his ARC internally — by creating engrams in him or by charging up his engrams. One breaks the ARC of a group by stepping across its communication lines and either severing them or distorting them (reversing their polarity).

EnMEST and entheta will assault the theta and MEST of a group by breaking or reversing the triangle of ARC or by taking the space, universe energy, matter and time away from the group or by damaging or perverting them.

The authoritarianist seems definitely to be driven mainly by enMEST and entheta even when some theta and MEST are present in him. The highest level of authoritarianist is one who is almost but not quite insane and who yet can attach himself to ideals, rationale and ethic convincingly. He may convince even himself but he can be easily singled out in any group, for he has a tendency to own as MEST certain individuals and, depressing them, yet dangles MEST before them enough to form a clique. The authoritarianist is always for a clique, not for the whole group. Further, the authoritarianist can be spotted by the number of orders he issues which have small reason behind them, are backed by force or threatened force, and which he will not explain. He can be further located by the suppression he places on self-determinism of the various members of the group and on the self-determinism of the group itself as a group. Further, for the ideals and rationale of the group he supplants his own entheta.

The authoritarianist often would rather take enMEST than MEST, thus, in possessing something, makes an enMEST thing out of it. There are neuroses, for instance, wherein a man would rather have stolen money than earned money. The authoritarianist will cloud any MEST with bad titles or disputes.

Acting in subordinate roles, the authoritarianist is recognizable for his action on communication lines. He cuts them, often out of a plea for censorship as a need for security. Security is only necessary in negotiations concerning enMEST, and while even theta dealing with enMEST must sometimes drop a curtain of security in an action, the authoritarianist’s enMEST demands that all curtains be dropped. Reason, so caged, inevitably perishes and the entheta wins and the enMEST wins by driving out theta and MEST.

A theta man, acting in too short a space of time, may issue authority and orders without explanation. But he clarifies them and abolishes them as soon as the emergency is passed. An enMEST man issues orders and authority without emergencies and then hides any cause he might have had and exposes others.

In subordinate roles the enMEST man, in severing the ARC of theta, will halt any and all communications he can which are actually ARC communications. He will let pass all reversed polarity communications. Or he will reverse the polarity of communications he is supposed to pass along. He apparently believes that he must protect himself and his friends with whatever theta he has in him whereas he actually destroys them and the basic intent was simply to destroy.

The enMEST man, the authoritarianist, accumulates Force greedily and all things which mean Force. He prefers them to be enMEST items and entheta Force.

Authoritarianism — or authority — exists in ratio to the amount a curtain is lowered across ARC lines. An authoritarianist responds to this law by bringing authority to himself by lowering curtains across these lines. Authoritarianism also exists in ratio to the amount of theta which can be given a reversed polarity. Thus the authoritarianist perverts affinity by pretended affection, or by “examples” of how much hate there is that either enforces him or he is “holding back”. He perverts reality by altering situations into greater desperateness than they contain or by reversing a desperate situation into something he declares to be calm or of no importance. He additionally perverts reality by interjecting data about disagreements where no disagreement exists. This is how authority is accumulated and held. But it is a perilous holding since it creates, by contagion, more enMEST and entheta and ordinarily ends in the death of the authoritarianist or other destruction to him.

Through these factors one can read the glimmering of an axiom that truth and theta are close to the same thing and that affinity, reality and communication are solid in direct ratio to the amount of truth in them.

The theta man, regardless of his past, will use truth to the full extent that he sees it and feels it. He will drop a curtain between himself and his target or the group and his target or change polarity of ARC only when he is attacking enMEST or entheta and will raise that curtain as swiftly as possible when the target is attained. Further, he uses such a device so sparingly that only the greatest emergency will cause him to employ it. In handling personnel he will never exaggerate or diminish his reasons for his treatment of them or his feelings toward them.

We live in a society here in America where the ARC is very curtained or perverted, for the whole group ethic rationale and ideal burns very low. Our salvation lies in the fact that there is abundant free theta in the majority of people and that authoritarianism has become so solid in some quarters that their nullification springs into view enormous theta reserves.

We must ably understand what authoritarianism is, first so that it cannot be effective in our midst and second so that we can attack it, for it is a source of MEST and theta once we free them.

Obedience and effectiveness are not, however, to be thrown out just because authoritarianism might exist. During emergency the clearest group must act spontaneously and under exactly timed orders. One should, in times of lull, make very certain, however, that orders proceed from theta men, not enMEST men, so that when an emergency arrives one can be certain that, by exact obedience, the group may be forwarded toward its goals. And one should make certain afterwards that every order given had behind it true reason and that the reason was true.

In conclusion it should be pointed out that all things good evolve from reason. Reason, for our purposes, includes not only the thinking but the doing.

We have an interesting summation of this in the definition:

The potential value of any group member must be weighed in terms of his actual potential value to himself and to the group and to Mankind. He will, if he is examined, demonstrate both intellectual value and dynamic value potentially. His ability to think brightly and to execute his assigns well may be potentially high. And then one must examine worth to himself and worth to the group or Mankind.

This paper contains some actions which are symptomatic of the authoritarianist. They may all be summed by the fact that the authoritarianist does what enMEST and entheta will do since he is mainly these — he will interrupt or pervert affinity, communication and reality and he will make enMEST of MEST. By establishing, through past record, how mu