Scientology and its front organizations (like Narconon and CCHR) live in a world disconnected from reality. They seem oblivious to the absurdity of things they say and positions they take.
Narconon is now beginning to sound like prohibitionists, targeting county music for “romanticizing alcohol.”
Unfortunately, while contemporary country music stars continue to produce great music year after year, there are increasing incidences of romanticizing alcohol in country music lyrics, romanticizing it, glamorizing it, or even construing alcohol with happy times, carefree adventures, and the ‘good life.’
Given the harm and danger that can come from consuming alcohol, fans of country music should be mindful of the increasing prevalence of alcohol in their favorite genre. And if the alcohol side of enjoying country music begins to take over, they need to seek help as soon as possible.
For some unknown reason (maybe to fill space?) after this they go into details about the size and scope of country music in Nashville?
-
- The city’s music industry generates $15.9 billion per year within the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
- About $5.5 billion of Nashville’s music industry has a direct, local impact on the Davidson County economy.
- Nashville has 190 recording studios, 130 music publishers, and 80 record labels.
- There are 60,000 music industry jobs in the Nashville area, representing 15% of the city’s private sector workforce.
- There are four times the music-related employment options in Nashville than in any other city in the U.S., when measured on a per capita basis.
- Proportionally, there are more music jobs in Nashville than in Los Angeles, New York City, and Austin combined.
They then list — as if to prove some correlation between lyrics in country music: “435 people were killed in impaired driving accidents in Tennessee, 4,604 were injured, all from 7,272 impaired crashes. These numbers are on the rise from 2017, 2018, and 2019, in which 348, 380, and 379 Tennesseans died in impaired driving accidents.” Which proves absolutely nothing. They didnt even bother trying to get statistics for Nashville. Just the whole state.
I would guess these figures are not better or worse than any other state. But, of course, they provide no comparisons. I did a fast google search and came upon this site Drunk Driving Statistics
The first paragraph completely trashes the country music theory of alcohol addiction:
For more than two decades the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility has been leading the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking. During this time drunk driving fatalities have declined 34% and among those under 21 the number of fatalities has decreased 66%. Underage drinking among the nation’s youth has continued to decline with fewer reporting drinking each year – past month consumption decreasing 54% since 1991 – while the number of conversations among parents and kids has increased.
They also have a convenient map — Tennessee isn’t anywhere close to the worst state:
Oh well, so much for that theory.
Narconon also cite some lyrics — which is about as far down the rabbit hole as you can go. These lyrics drive people to alcoholism?????
And just for some context, here are a few snippets of famous country music songs that put a fair amount of emphasis on alcohol:
You’re as smooth as Tennessee whiskey
You’re as sweet as strawberry wine
You’re as warm as a glass of brandy
– Tennessee Whiskey: Chris Stapleton
Blame the whiskey on the beer
Blame the beer on the whiskey
Blame the mornin’ on the night
– It Ain’t My Fault: Brothers Osborne
As lame as all of this is, it is made even more laughable when you know that Narconon relies on the Purification Rundown as the method of dealing with alcohol addiction. The Purification Rundown supposedly removes “drug residues stored in the fatty tissue.”
Alcohol is extremely volatile. There is no evidence that drug residues are stored in fat tissue, but there is even less evidence of alcohol “residue.”
In fact, there is exactly the same volume of evidence that Narconon is effective for treating alcoholism as there is that listening to country music will turn you into an alcoholic.
Maybe the person who wrote this was drunk?
In the 1970’s you were not supposed to drink alcohol 24 hours before getting audited or being on course. If you were off for the weekend it was quite okay to party and back then a lot of scns were party animals and there were many fun parties in the Hollywood Hills. Current scns are probably more reserved and serious and missing out on the fun. Lots of “hooking up” oçurred at them there parties.
Chris Stapleton isn’t the original singer of Tennessee Whiskey and while we are on this route why don’t we blame Rock and rap for drug abuse? Or reggae for weed smokers? I’d say it’s the person not the music and it’s been proven that people who are depressed tend to lend on something to ease the pain, a lot of blue collar jobs are shit work and you don’t get paid a lot like an office job. I’d recommend a psychology book on American drug and alcohol abuse but I know you half tards don’t believe in science you believe that a fiction authors books are real.
I guess the Narconon idiots were never at a Bonun’s party where Hubbard made sure there was endless alcohol and music of all sorts for all (including teens).
Given who the artist is, this one is best listened to on Clearwater Beach in the height of Summer.
Turn up the volume high enough so that they can hear it inside the Ft. Harrison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL9O0B0gzZE
Handles two “birds” with one stone.
[Verse 1]
I don’t care that you done me wrong
‘Cause I’ve already moved on
I don’t care what his name is
Girl, it is what it is
I won’t waste a dime
Or the bartender’s time
Trying to catch a buzz
Over the thought of us
[Chorus]
But I’ll drink to a country song
To another long work week gone
And I’ll raise my glass to a long lost buddy I ain’t seen
I might stay for one more round
Or I might close this place down
But don’t think for a second I’m out to drown your memory
Baby, you ain’t worth the whiskey
[Verse 2]
It don’t matter what your friends say
They never liked me anyway
So if they see me drunk in this bar
It ain’t over a broken heart
[Chorus]
Cause I’m drinking to a country song
To another long work week gone
And I’m raising my glass to a long lost buddy I ain’t seen
I might stay for one more round
Or I might close this place down
But don’t think for a second I’m out to drown your memory
Baby, you ain’t worth the whiskey
Why go after Chris? Tennessee Whiskey is an old song… maybe they are worried David Allan Coe will knock them off their chairs?
Hey, any SO survivors out there have any info on JD Shearer? He’s still in…
“See what the boys in the backroom will have
And tell them I’m having the same.
Go see what the boys in the back room will have
And give them the poison they name.
And when I die, don’t spend my money
On flowers and my picture in a frame.
Just see what the boys in the backroom will have,
And tell them I sighed,
And tell them I cried,
And tell them I died of the same.”
That was a very popular song in 1939 from the film, “Destry Rides Again”.
Ms. Marlene Dietrich sang it…rather boozily.
Quite the celebration of alcohol, I’d say.
I mean – I, for one, think she was glamorizing alcohol here.
Yo Narconon!
Please add this song to your danger list.
No Scientologist should listen to this song.
Nor should any Scientologist in good standing watch this film.
It glamorizes alcohol.
Much love,
Aqua
PS: For good measure you just might want to ban ALL of Marlene Dietrich’s movies! Just to be safe. Maybe run her thru the 12 Characteristics. She sounds suppressive to me.
“Its quarter to three
There’s no one in the place
Except you and me
So set’em up, Joe
I got a little story
I think you should know
We’re drinking my friend
To the end of a brief episode
So make it one for my baby
And one more for the road.”
Good heavens, what musical genre HASN’T “glamorized” alcohol? Country, bluegrass, rockabilly; big band, jazz, dixieland jazz; hard rock, soft rock, 50s rock, Motown; and then RAP for crying out loud, and thenthere’s Irish and English music hall music, and German beer hall music – glamorizing alcohol consumption? So long, Irving Berlin! So long, Cole Porter and countless others!
Seriously, Narconon – get a grip!
Or should I say, “Come up to present time”?
Nuts. Totally nuts.
Right! If anything, Country described the boozers as low-life losers, just a dead dawg away from a C & W song.
Earlier, Rock & roll was gonna do SOMEthing horrible to us youth, I forget exactly what. I half expect to hear some day that Mozart’s music was going to lead to the downfall of 18th century Youth, and Beethoven or Bach before that.
Oh, right! Rock and Roll was corrupting the moral fiber of innocent American youth! And the King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley – bedroom eyed, mumble-mouthed, swivel hipped – Elvis was THE Devil, back in the day! Satan Incarnate 🙂
And, generations before that in the 1920s during Prohibition it was JAZZ that spelled the end of America’s morals. Jazz and liquor – America would never survive 🙂
OT: It doesn’t say anything about alcohol, but I admit my favorite C&W song title is “I got tears in my ears from lyin’ on my back in bed and cryin’ over you.” 😂
Sung by a woman, that’d be a definite no-no piece. Would she be pining for her *man* to come tuck her in or something? Definitely as immoral as it gets.
There’s a tear in my beer, Hank Williams, 1950
Let’s go get stoned, Ray Charles, 1965
Oakee from Muskogee, Merle Haggard, 1969
Why don’t we get drunk and screw, Jimmy Buffet, 1973
Oh no, there are drinking references in C&W songs, Scientology Propaganda, 2021
The “tech”, as usual, “right on time!”
For a “spirited” discussion of elron’s drug and alcohol use, see https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/OTIII/bts-or-dts.txt Of course, this is just one random reference; there are many others (some of which are referenced in this piece). Suffice it to say, elron was quite the drinker and drugger! By his own admissions. Now add to that the harrowing war time experiences he claimed, all the horrific things he was exposed to and the devastating toll those took on his body and mind.
This makes it puzzling why he never availed himself of his own revolutionary, entirely unprecedented purif “tech.” For that matter, why he never went “clear” or at least “exterior”, let alone “oatee” himself.
Many a researcher who actually did research (which is redundant except for when discussing hubbard) whom elron would have considered far inferior and less consequential than himself tried their discovery on themselves. So why didn’t he? After all the “pinks and greys and rum”, surely he owed himself and his clientele at least that much. What could have been the harm in popping a bunch of Niacin and placing his fat ass in a sauna for a few hours? And why did he insist instead on keeping all of these toxins present in even the youngest of bodies in his own ample fatty tissues?
It’s interesting that scn is fearful about what C&W lyrics about enthusiastic alcohol consumption may do to the listener. Yet they never seem to wonder what intensely applying oatee “tech” developed under the influence of heavy drink and drugs by a person not all that mentally stable to begin with may do to the victimized party!
It’s not like C&W hasn’t long glamorized and normalized booze, unless I’m mistaken. I think that they’re just demonstrating that they’ve lived under a rock, don’t understand what they’re criticizing – and are themselves acting as ‘the sky is falling’ chicken little ‘merchants of chaos’ they like to deride.
p.s. for further hypocrisy, let’s not forget that bottle-a-day Hubbard himself extolled the virtues of “rum, pinks and grays’, and how ‘benzedrine [an amphetamine similar to meth] makes a case run’ – which he included in the original ‘guk bomb’.
Favorite country ETOH song: Merle Haggard: “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink.” Funny, but true. that was me a few decades ago (sober since 1981). AA, group therapy, and a short stay in a very well-run half-way house in San Francisco did it for me.
Sorry to hear about the glorification of guzzling in recent country music, which I don’t follow. When I think about Scientology, it’s absolutely staggering to think about how much evil it has perpretrated in this world, way beyond its numbers. Narconon is one of its many evils, exploiting sick people and their loved ones, taking them to the cleaners financially, and peddling fake “cures.”
Having walked to walk myself, I can see that, in addition to emptying people’s pockets, they have absolutely no understanding of how addiction works, with their harmful “puification’ rundown and massive doses of niacin. One should NEVER put recently “clean” or sober addicts in charge of running things. It only invites relapse, sexual exploitation and more, but the powers that be in the organization don’t understand this at all.
I’m done.
Bix, we’re ALL done. scientology was a lie and trap; the front groups like narCONon all the worse for hiding their true colors.
I am a reformed alcoholic for more than fifty years. I watched as people that simply start drinking become alcoholics and soon die. My 23 year old neighbor is the latest example. It did not matter what was in his head in the long run. The only way to stop it is to join my new-prohibitionist movement. Destroy all of the booze factories and eliminate the marketing and distribution.
That is admirable, George M. White!
I haven’t had a drop of alcohol for 21 years. Alcohol is a beast and can cripple you. It ruins lives. Removing alcohol from our environment will bring about happier days, happier lives and far less grief.
yes
Removing free choice doesn’t seem very American. Or what used to pass for American democracy, the Bill of Rights, et al.
The US government already tried that during our Prohibition years. Many people were jailed, but the real unfortunates were those who were blinded after drinking methyl alcohol, a dangerous form of alcohol.
‘Rum runners’ violated laws to became millionaires. Some of them created wealthy dynastic families. The Bronfman family, whose rum running created the Seagrams liquour fortune, were once called the Rothschilds of the New World. Most recently, the millions of two Bronfman heirs supported Keith Raniere and NXVIM to the tune of tens, perhaps scores of millions. Their total worth was somewhere around $700 million, money their own father hated to see used to cause so much cultish abuse. One sister is currently serving about five years in Federal prison; the other is in Portugal, where she is outside the jurisdiction of US courts.
Compare the liquour industry wealth to the tobacco industry wealth. Tobacco once lost a huge class-action lawsuit, but the injured parties gained not one cent. The money paid by Big Tobacco went into various State treasuries and the pockets of a few lawyers who were paid so much that they never needed to work again, if they so chose. A small amount was used to publish ads and pamphlets about the dangers of tobacco. Today big tobacco is as profitable as ever, concentrating on selling their addictive products to third world countries, and continuing to inject ammonia and other chemicals into their tobacco products to give an instant high that keeps users addicted, despite the high lasting only minutes or even seconds. With the way Big Tobacco suffered not one bit from their losing lawsuit, and Prohibition having failed, I don’t see any changes in the way our society addresses the use of alcohol and tobacco in any foreseable future.
My Grandfather got into booze during prohibition. They used carrier pigeons to notify customers.
George, respectfully, I disagree. Not everyone is tempted by alcohol. I’m not. I have a whole cabinet of booze in my home for anyone who want’s a particular drink. I myself almost never drink. Booze doesn’t tempt me.
I’m no teetotaler. I’ll have a drink every so often.
BUT….!!!!!
Let there be a box of chocolate chip cookies lying around, or be still my heart chocolate mallomars or pinwheels….mint chocolate chip ice cream, coffee chocolate chip ice cream, Russel Stover dark chocolate maple creams…they’re gone. Gone, gone, gone. They’re gone before they’re even gone, George! Mentally, I’ve eaten them while they’re still sitting there. No will power about this stuff at all.
These, I must not buy or have lying around – EVER. No will power – at all. I keep this stuff away from me. But I can’t mandate that it be taken off the market. After all, there ARE people who can simply eat one chocolate chip cookie, one or two dark chocolate maple or rasberry creams 🙂
So we all have our weaknesses, right?
I have been very emotional about alcohol in the past few years. I think that per capita consumption keeps rising and one wonder; one wonders.
George, I understand. Your good intentions communicate strongly to me.
Allow me to evaluate , and if I’m wrong in my hunch feel free to correct me.
But here’s what I think:
You went thru hell ON booze, and BACK thru hell getting off booze.
Quite simply, you don’t want ANYONE to go thru what you did with alcohol.
The idea that others are suffering what you once suffered makes you very unhappy.
You’d like to wipe every ounce of the stuff off the face of the earth to ensure that it never harms anyone, never destroys any more lives.
Am I right?
Whether or not I am, hugs to you 🙂 and MUCH respect, for your strength and willpower in triumphing over an intense and life destroying addiction.
Thanks, You hit the key points.
My father was alcoholic as well. He beat me up, punched me and attacked
me dropping me to the ground. It took four of his buddies to get him off of me. They even saw it. My punches were weak because I was not fully grown. Once he used me for target practice on the golf course. Drew blood on my leg. He did not care. The man had serious issues thinking I destroyed his game.
George – there are no words. That you experienced this – total evil. Alcohol abuse does indeed divest the humanity from some of us; it does make monsters out of some people. And yet, you survived this, you rose above it – somehow.
And stayed…decent. Human and normal and decent. I’m now feeling total pity and horror and at the same time total admiration for you.
There’s some logic for destroying the supply, but as the US found out, there’s always other supplies for products people want. Prohibition failed horribly, “the war on drugs” is following in the same footprints.From Paleolithic times, folks found and used mind-altering substances, be they alcohol, caffeine, Cannibus, peyote, tobacco or even sugar. Others found their “high” in scientology or other new-wave studies. All can/did lead to addiction; the best defense against them is education on the FACTS, not the scare tactics or “just say ‘NO’ “.
Someone should sing a ditty extolling the virtues of Macallan single malt Scotch whisky. Tiny Fists would rain terror down on Narconon if they dared criticise an ode to his choice poison.
The Tiny Tyrant™ MIGHT rain down terror IF he sobers up enough to care. Quite possibly, he’s letting much of his tiny fiefdom run on autopilot lately. Why, he hasn’t had a rope-yanking in AGES! Has he gotten “tired” of causing random acts of mayhem?
Search on ‘how many bars are there in Nashville and you get such wonderful names like: Losers Bar and Grill: Honky Tonk Central; Gerties Whisky Bar; Bootleggers Inn; Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar and the ever popular, Nudies Honky Tonk. I guess this town likes its Honky Tonks.
This town doesn’t have an alcohol problem, it celebrates it. As for the efficacy of the Purif and NarCONon, no freaking way Bubba.
“Tequila makes her Clothes Fall Off”
And the classic essential lyric from David Allen Coe, from “You never even call me by my name”:
And the even more classic Hank Williams Jr:
Songs about honky tonks go all the way back to classics like the “House of the Rising Sun”, though sometimes that is interpreted as being about gambling or prostitution.
People sing about what they care about. Doesn’t mean they are proselytizing, as anyone who pays attention for a second can easily see.
Like writing teachers have said for centuries, “Write what you know.” That just happens to be the society which goes to Honky Tonks and listens (& dances?) to Country. IMO, ya gotta be a bit loaded or low, depressed, (or high) to be in the mood for that stuff. It’s like those movies or TV shows which are insufferable unless accompanied by a drinking game.
Good heavens!
I’ve always liked country music and I’m not nor have I ever been a heavy drinker, nor did it ever occur to me to become one when listening to many great C&W tunes.
I like Billie Holiday and in her songs she strongly comes across as a willing victim of abusive men. Does liking how she sings, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” mean that like her I too “swear I won’t call no coppa if I’m beat up by my Poppa”?
I like the Cole Porter song, “Always True To You In My Fashion” but I’m not a faithless gold digger.
I like the Rodger’s & Hart song, “Ten Cents A Dance” the way Ella Fitzgerald sang it, and I’ve never felt the compulsion to be a Roselands taxi dancer.
This is MUSIC. You can just get INTO it, temporarily, if its good, or if it grabs you, somehow.
Doesn’t mean you adapt the lyrics as a LIFESTYLE. You can be crazy about a song or a musical genre without living the lyrics.
Honestly, how weak minded does Narconon think we are?
Never mind, don’t answer that 🙂
Perhaps NarcoFraud should read the lyrics to this poignant 2005 CMA award – winning Double Platinum song by two of Country Music’s most talented artists:
https://youtu.be/1iuxTf3jJOY
As someone who has had a vocation as a country music/Americana performer,recording artist,songwriter I think I can speak with some relevance on the subject. This is one more in your face illustration of the absence of logic within the Scientology ranks. This promotion needs to be passed on to all country music artists. It’s a good way to make sure none of them ever get into Scientology. Call Celebrity Centre Nashville and give them an earful. They are complete nut jobs.
I know, I was wondering about the same thing. How can they expect to attract any artists, even the clean and sober ones, to the Nashville CC with these bizarre idea? Or even any C&W (or other music) fan? Anyone, really?
As far as PR goes, this is a good example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Well, I have a pretty good idea what the right hand is doing but propriety forbids me to dwell on it…
Wait until Macallan Man finds out about this. Heads on a pike!
Todd, yes I imagine that OSA monitoring Mike might feel that maybe that promotion was pretty stupid. Someone’s head will roll
They forgot to mention that Rap causes cocaine addiction, Classical causes brandy addiction, and eighties bubble-gum rock may actually consider you to contemplate suicide.
Listening to heavy metal leads you to wanting to eat, sniff, and mainline steel girders. The downsides are having to steer clear of magnets and scrap metal merchants.
Bingo! Thank you for this!
DM should well understand the situation; does he listen to country music?
Oddly it is actually possible to make a guess at an answer to this question – in the Officer’s Lounge at the Int Base there is a fairly extensive vinyl record collection. Going by my hazy recollections from 20 years ago, I recall no country titles.
The “Flight of the Cosmic Hippo” by Bela Fleck was a popular item, only because the wild bass line really tests your subwoofers. The rest of the album has plenty of Fleck’s banjo expertise but I doubt that many country fans have heard of him.
I recall the iconic Pete Seeger and the Weevers concert at Carnegie Hall in the collection, also not country. Classic folk. Also, Jennifer Warnes singing Leonard Cohen …
Michael Jackson’s famous album that features the sound of breaking glass…
And of course all the Golden Era Productions albums, Mission Earth, Joy of Creating, Hymn of Asia. No sign of Diana’s album or the Power of Source but maybe they were in the back catalog somewhere.
Maybe you can spot the theme – music that makes your super-expensive sound system sound like it actually makes some kind of difference.
There was a large prominently displayed bottle of some kind of booze in the other side of the lounge, near the huge TV. So his devotion to country music is honored mainly in the breech. Of the cork.
I don’t think he personally likes country music, but the big furry gerbil that lives on top of his head to give the impression of a full head of hair does. He has to keep it happy because it took him ages to train it to sit there and not move.
For some reason I believe DM likes the Queen, I haven’t heard of him using country music in the Hole.
That Queen album was a favorite for keeping the crew awake during all-nighters at the Int Base. Just the right combination of sheer nihilism and beautiful melody. The music from the Highlander was also popular.
Somehow nobody actually acted out the lyrics except Dave.
We watch horror movies but somehow don’t become serial killers. Maybe most people can discern the difference between fact and fiction? Is this possible?
Bruce I think it is possible that someone for educational or other reasons is predisposed to it.
DM is the living example of what a nihilist is. He has an impulse to destroy or mistreat others so they and their things are of no value to him and he is absolutely never loyal.
But in the end sociopathic is more appropriate to him.