Let's see. 7.1 million time slips counted. 7.1 million members reported. 7.1 million--up from 6.95 million last year. Seems that the organization isn't dead quite yet, from these numbers.
However, I will readily call a foul with those numbers. Out of 7.1 million, I wonder how many of them are fake slips. A "publisher" does no field circus (and rarely goes to a boasting session), yet counts 7 or 8 hours of field circus for that month because they do not want Brother Hounder to go after them. Or, they will put in one hour of token field circus just so they can have proof that they were out, so they do not get hounded. Or, they put in no slip and the hounder puts in a fake slip to appease the hounder-hounder. All these fake slips get counted toward that total, and are included among the 7.1 million counted.
Another, even worse problem is how many small children get time reported on their behalf. Granted, most of these are between 8 and 14 (they should not even be reporting time). Or, they are going out and reporting field circus time because they are dragged by their parents or have to in order to be allowed to stay with them (which they are set up to need, with this no-college rule and all). All too many of them (one is too many) are actually so small that their parents have to fill out the field circus slip on their behalf. These children are out because they have no choice. Yet, they are counted among that 7.1 million. And I wonder how much of it is children that have no opportunity to not go out in field circus and turn in a slip.
Also, "mistakes" in counting are possible. In fact, it is probable that they make "typos" in tabulating the numbers. Double counted slips are very probable, and likely on purpose. (Yet, each time the slip is double counted, that counts as two toward that 7.1 million). They also have the liberty of hitting the "9" key instead of the "8", so they would get 96 instead of 86. Those ten members that are created by this "mistake" also count toward that 7.1 million. Notice that they are very careful not to undercount--if they hit "7" instead of "8", it would be corrected while a "9" typo would not be. Mathematical "errors" are also likely, and "errors" that inflate the count will never be corrected while "errors" that would undercount it would be fixed.
As if that wasn't bad enough, I wonder how many of that 7.1 million are going out in field circus just to please the hounders. They know something is wrong with the organization, or they are not happy there. But they are stuck going in field circus. One reason is they are dependent on others for rides to and from the boasting session, and fading would not be possible. Another reason is they don't believe it or are not happy there, but they have no skills outside the cancer. Or, they are dependent on others to do their thinking because they were trained that way. Leaving the cancer would create a major hardship, sometimes spelling loss of job or housing for them. Those people are not free to leave, yet their numbers count toward that 7.1 million.
Something needs to be done to expose their numbers as a scam. There is no way in hell that they have 7.1 million people truly and sincerely believing the organization (even with a few issues that are part of the deal) to the extent that they wish to continue participating. You do not have 7.1 million people that are really happy being witlesses. You do not have 7.1 million people that get up every chance they can to go out in field circus, excited about the prospect of field circus, and wishing to stay out as late as possible every day. You do not have 7.1 million people that look forward to each and every boasting session, eagerly attending and hating when they are finished. You do not have 7.1 million people looking forward to the Grand Boasting Session, eagerly attending each and every session (and feeling bad if they are forced to miss even a minute of it), and wishing the hour prayer at the end would last another hour. In fact, if only those people were counted (which would be a better indication, since people that are happy in the organization despite knowing its faults are more likely to stay in than those who are disgruntled or that do not know the faults), it would probably be closer to 2 million.