The term "wog" in Heinlein's book
Question answered by HBeer in Scientology
FredricRice asked this question on 9/6/2000:
You asked:
I cannot tell for sure whether Hubbard got the term from
Heinlein. He used to assimilate ideas from all sides, so it is
very possible. How did Heinlein formulate the unabbreviated
term?
Robert Heinlein didn't use the word as an abbreviation. The
domesticated "Black Hats" which were the enemy in the book
"The Number of the Beast" which the heros of the story ran
into on Mars were called "wogs" by the creature's masters.
The "wogs" were marginally intelligent animals that did slave
labor for the people of Mars. They were about as intelligent as
dogs, according to Heinlein.
That was written in 1980 so Hubbard was alive then. His use
of the derogatory term predates Heinlein's use of the term to
describe his bad guys.
HBeer gave this response on 9/6/2000:
Then it was Hubbard's original invention!
"WOG" is an abbreviation for "Worthy Oriental Gentleman".
It's up to you how you want to understand this. I always
visualized a black nubian head with huge earrings and a
serious look to it - somebody who feels terribly important
but has no clue about the actually important things...
which is of course all very relative, as a thetan (spiritual
being) is basically a nothingness, and any values,
character traits, importances and priorities are created
from the void of pure theta, which is a potential rather
than an actuality.
Wogs will quickly cook a missionaire for dinner, even if he
brings them medicine or other important goods of
civilization. But in today's Church of Scientology you can
find quite a similar behaviour. They have totally lost the
original greatness and wide scope of their subject. I would
not hesitate to call them wogs. What an irony!
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