Fair Game
If you’ve spent any time at all reading anti-Scientology articles or message boards, or if you’ve ever seen a Scientology protest, you may have heard the term “Fair Game”.
“Fair Game” is a policy letter issued by L. Ron Hubbard in 1967 (ref: HCO Policy Letter of 18 October 1967, Issue IV) called “Penalties for Lower Conditions” which states that if someone is found to be an enemy of the CoS, they should be handled like this:
“SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”
Typical Scientology rebuttal: But that policy letter was cancelled AGES ago, in 1968. Fair Game isn’t in use anymore.
Our response: True, the policy letter was indeed cancelled in 1968. In fact, we’ve got the text of the cancellation right here (ref: HCO Policy Letter of 21 October 1968). Read closely, ’cause this one is interesting:
“The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease.
“FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations.
“This P/L [policy letter] does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP.”
So as it turns out, the only thing that was actually cancelled was the use of the words “Fair Game”, not the practice of Fair Game. From the testimonies of Scientology critics who have spoken out against the Church, critics who have been stalked, harassed, slandered, sued, criminally framed and maligned by Scientology, we can see that Fair Game (or whatever they’re calling it now) is very much alive and well.
For more information on Fair Game, go here.