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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