by Inquisitor 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I wonder why.
We used to hurry to beat the rush for new releases...waiting in long lines if need be. Why? Before the generation change came along, publishers would hope there was something new in the new release that would give them something to get excited about. Even though many of us knew that any new light would come through the Watchtower....we still hoped something was new to read about.
Ol' Freddie mighta been a dreamer.....but he made it interesting.
Gumby
Prior to asking this question I had thought that someone in here might have some reliable insights on what is currently happening in Brooklyn HQ. I was expecting an answer similar to what mkr32208 had suggested: that there is a vaccum in the think tank at the very top of the witness hierachy.
No I wasn't asking why truth needed watering down. But you've raised a good question, forgleg. What I had challenged was the suggestion that the WTS dumbs its literature to ensnare the foolish. I made the point that literature had been "better researched" in the past, so that can't be the answer.
However, as described in your post, it is noteworthy that contemporary culture has indeed changed from those days when publications contained brow-raising prophecies and fiery condemnations. Not as many people cling to organized religion as they once had. Less people bother to read books on theology. etc. And so WTS is possibly changing tactics.
I liked Lady Lee's point about the possible focus on people 3rd World countries. The West is conquered (more like fatigued) by the witness preaching work, so books with simple English might help hasten non-english speaking migrants to their conversion (?)
To summarise - a list of possibilities:
1) Someone in Brooklyn has croaked and there is no writing "talent" left
2) Cultural trends demand books with less dogma, simpler words and more pictures. A MacHappy Deal!
3) Migrants are the new target
Anyone care to add to this list?
INQ
Inquisitor,
I understand your question now; however, I would wager a bet that most of the lack of pizazz has more to do with Inquisitor's changes rather than the WTS. I suspect that since you've been out and about, your taste for literature has broadened and your understanding of reality has increased so that the pizazz has lost its shine. Please do not misunderstand me, I am not trying to tell you how you feel or what you think, but I know what my own interest of comic books is today and what I used to think of them. I wonder if someone who has recently "discovered" the WTS literature would see it as lacking pizazz?
But that leads to another point. I can remember an incident about 10 years ago (when I was still a smiling JW) and I was talking to a pioneer sister who had recently returned from Pioneer School. I was curious as to what they could teach in a pioneer school, I mean, what did they do, show you how to knock louder? And she began to iterate a short list of the subjects and aspects of the Bible that they had been assigned to research and study, and I remember thinking that if only they would broach subjects like that in the meetings I might actually be able to stay awake! Later on, after some contemplation, I began to see, even more clearly, the application of social stratification within the Borg. In one sense, it seemed completely reasonable, in that what the Pioneers were studying (and the ways it was being studied) would be completely mystifying to the average R&F "publisher", whos main tasks were to sing loud and try not to drool too much. This same sort of stratification is quite obvious and inherent in the world of modern acedemia, with it's instant disdain of deficient pedigree by virtue of not attending a "good" school or proper graduate program etc. Also, the Bible clearly said that to those who had, more would be given, but to those who didn't have, what little they possessed would be given away. (If you've got an MBa from Wharton, you won't be driving a Hyundai.) What may be happeneing at the Borg Palace now is, in essence, the beginning of a walling off of information and "enlightenment" from the R&F by the, shall we say, intellectual elite. I often tried to picture how the "end of the system" would come as far as the Borg was concerned. I mean, would they just get a big megaphone, shout, "Okay, everybody out of the pool!" and the big A starts with the next sunrise? Or would the GB, like the German OKW and Hitler's government did in 1945, kinda bunch up in their bunkers and let the cannon fodder outside fend for themselves? The board member named Terry has insight and understandings that few of us have because of the experiences and applications he made of his faith. Right or wrong, good or bad, he knows thaings that we just can't. Yet. Inquisitor, your physical malady has given you knowledge that I can only imagine, but do not know. Perhaps you have to be a Pioneer before you're allowed to have Pioneer level information? I don't know that either, but I don't think the WTS is blanding (is that a word?) it's writting style because illegal aliens, or people from Ethiopia are dumber than the average American.
When I first was coming into the cult, everything was new. The idea of living forever in a paradise earth was exciting to me, and the thought that Armegeddon was coming soon was both frightening and thrilling too. There was so much to take in and learn. Even really childishly simple brochures and tracts held some things I'd never heard or thought of. Everything was different and amazing to a person who had never been exposed to it before. It all seemed so much more vital and immediate than the Christianity that I'd grown up with.
The thing is, though, that within a year or two, you've learned just about all the WTS has to teach you. They can drone on about "meat" as opposed to "milk", but they don't really have any meat to feed their followers. To disguise the lack of substance, they go on the attack, denigrating and abusing the R & F for everything. Criticism of the Society is from Satan. Independant thought is villified. Education is frowned upon. Only total compliance and obedience is acceptable. After a while, you want to scream from absolute boredom with the constant repetition. You begin to notice that when something is changed, an understanding or a doctrine, it doesn't seem like "new light" from Jehovah, but more like ass-covering from the GB as prophesies reach their shelf-life and have to be discarded.
There is nothing really new; no true growth or increase in spirituality, wisdom and knowledge, just the same dusty rhetoric mixed with the same old examples and the same old exhortations to avoid the same old "evils". The WTS has been stagnant and decaying for some time, but it can be hard to recognize until you've lived within it for a while. Their literature merely reflects the state of the organization.
Excellent points by everyone. I especially enjoyed AK - Jeff's and froglegs posts. But as others have mentioned, even when I was neck deep in the $hit, I would have never discribed a WBTS publication as having pzazz. LOL
I think everyone here has made valid and very likely points.
I really think though that alot of it is to do with their much more rapid progress in the third world markets. Lets face it expansion in the modernized countries is at a standstill or an actual decline. The uneducated and developing countries is where the numbers are at now for the Watchtower society. Their focus is on thoese markets and these people are not going to be easily influenced or interested by long winded speculations that the Society use to thrive on for growth. Their interest is in solutions to their current dilemas and so the information is more tailored in that direction.
Also I think the days of people being overly excited and enthralled by confusing, systematic, dogmatic cronology and wild speculation is over. They have had their fingers snapped too many times by false phrophetic time declarations and false scriptural presumptions. They have become much more cautious and careful in what they publish, much due I expect to the increased publicity of their miscalculations and outright lies by the internet.
I also think Fred Franz was the last one who actually had any autonomy in what they wrote and theorized. No one on the governing body or writing committees has any balls any more, or will stick their neck out to publicize their speculated phrophecy's or interpretations.
I'm afraid they may just continue revamping the same ol' same ol' for as long as possible, while yet trying to maintain a faltering expectation of events to come. An outdated piece of machinery coming to a slow grinding halt.
Ticker