"Let me clarify this very definitely. This is not an authoritarian organization"
About this Quote
“Let me clarify this very definitely” is the verbal equivalent of pounding a table and insisting you’re calm. Hubbard opens with a preemptive strike: he’s not answering a neutral question, he’s trying to smother one. The adverbs do the heavy lifting. “Clarify” suggests confusion is the audience’s problem, not his. “Very definitely” signals panic dressed up as certainty, a rhetorical move common to leaders who know the perception battle is already slipping.
Then comes the line’s real tell: “This is not an authoritarian organization.” The denial is so specific it reveals the accusation in the room. Nobody volunteers “we’re not authoritarian” unless someone, somewhere, is using that word. Hubbard’s phrasing also dodges the deeper charge. He doesn’t say “we don’t control people” or “we allow dissent” or “you can leave freely.” He disputes the label, not the behavior. It’s branding, not reassurance.
Context matters: Hubbard wasn’t just an “author”; he was a founder building an institutional identity under scrutiny, accused of coercion and manipulation. In that light, the sentence reads like internal PR aimed at two audiences at once: outsiders who might be spooked by cultish optics, and insiders who need permission to keep believing they’re choosing this. The subtext is a plea for legitimacy: authority must look voluntary to be durable.
The irony is that the line performs what it denies. The command tone, the insistence on “definite” clarity, the attempt to control interpretation midstream - it’s the voice of an organization anxious about control because control is central to its project.
Then comes the line’s real tell: “This is not an authoritarian organization.” The denial is so specific it reveals the accusation in the room. Nobody volunteers “we’re not authoritarian” unless someone, somewhere, is using that word. Hubbard’s phrasing also dodges the deeper charge. He doesn’t say “we don’t control people” or “we allow dissent” or “you can leave freely.” He disputes the label, not the behavior. It’s branding, not reassurance.
Context matters: Hubbard wasn’t just an “author”; he was a founder building an institutional identity under scrutiny, accused of coercion and manipulation. In that light, the sentence reads like internal PR aimed at two audiences at once: outsiders who might be spooked by cultish optics, and insiders who need permission to keep believing they’re choosing this. The subtext is a plea for legitimacy: authority must look voluntary to be durable.
The irony is that the line performs what it denies. The command tone, the insistence on “definite” clarity, the attempt to control interpretation midstream - it’s the voice of an organization anxious about control because control is central to its project.
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
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