Interesting comments and viewpoints.
Let me try to clear up my views on this.
First, the point of my parody was that the Society has put into place a mindset that allows JWs to be easily led to almost any kind of action. This says nothing whatsoever about the probability that JW leaders would actually lead JWs to any particular action.
Second, I think that the possibility that JW leaders would actually issue a "call to action" to "kill apostates" is remote. This says nothing whatsoever about the 'blind follower' mindset that they've instilled in JWs for decades.
In other words, the 'blind follower' mindset has nothing to do with whether JW leaders would use it to get JWs to "kill apostates".
In my parody I could just as easily have chosen any number of wierd activities, like the Society calling for JWs to go around with their left pinkies stuck up their noses as a sign of solidarity with the Governing Body. The point is the mindset, not the particular actions that illustrate it.
It's easy enough to demonstrate the mindset of JWs even with an action as odious as killing members of one's family who are 'apostates'. I know -- I've tried it. Ask a typical JW if he or she would kill an apostate if the Society instructed them to. Most would answer No. But if you pursue the line of argument to its logical end, you'll find that many JWs will either admit that they would kill, or they'll simply run away from you. What you've done is put them between a rock and a hard place, and they won't know how to get out of it. If the JW answers No, ask them if they believe that the Governing Body speaks for "the faithful slave" and if this "slave" truly speaks in God's name. If the JW answers No, then you can point out that, according to these leaders, they are an apostate because according to JW teaching they've repudiated "God's chosen" and "Christ's brothers". Such a person is a lousy JW. Most JWs will not answer No, since they know this and think of themselves as loyal to "Jehovah's organization". So if the JW answers Yes, you ask them how they could believe that the GB speaks for God, and yet they would refuse to obey "God's spokesmen", even in such a horrendous situation. A JW will then realize internally that they've been caught in an untenable situation: Either they don't really believe in this "faithful slave" teaching, or they would indeed kill on command. Either way the ethical JW is screwed.
As for Watchtower leaders, I have absolutely no doubt that a few would issue a command to "kill apostates" if they were forced into a "them or us" situation. Most, however, would not. And they would fight against any in their midst who tried to issue such a command. The situation developing right now with respect to child molestation issues could easily precipitate such a crisis among JW leaders.
It's easy to prove that most JWs will go along with unscriptural or death-dealing commands issued by their leaders. The organ transplant ban of 1967 is a clear case. JWs accepted that, as a whole, even though it carried the potential that some would die rather than get a transplant, and some would take positive action to allow a loved one to die rather than get a transplant. When the WTS rescinded the ban in 1980, JWs dumbly accepted that too.
The issue of alternative military service is another good example of how willingly JWs will go along with a horrible policy. During WWII the Society decided that volunteering for alternative service was a violation of "Christian neutrality" because it was logically the same as volunteering for the military. Obviously the "logic" in that is bullshit, but that's what JWs lived by. Quite a few young men were disfellowshipped over this issue, even though the Bible says nothing about it, and even the Society now admits that the old policy was unscriptural. Many of my contemporaries in the 1960s in the U.S. were sentenced to several years working in hospitals and such for almost no wages. A few years ago the WTS changed its policy, and JWs who once believed and taught that volunteering for alternative military service was a betrayal of Jehovah God now believe and teach the opposite -- all because of words written in a single Watchtower article.
Another illustration of the cult mindset is how JWs react when a loved one is disfellowshipped. In most cultures, the family is sacrosanct. In JW culture, the JW community is sacrosanct, and if someone is DF'd, the requirement of the JW community is to kill normal family relationships. They've produced a culture where mother against daughter, brother against brother, child against parent, is not only tolerated but is required. They even require that the Bible notion of "headship" is violated, because if a father is DF'd, according to JW 'law' he is no longer the head of the household.
The best illustration of the JW cult mindset today is the blood transfusion issue. JWs will die and allow their children to die based on nothing more than the Governing Body's unscriptural interpretations of a few Bible passages. And just as JWs will now generally get needed organ transplants, when the WTS changes its policy on blood, JWs will generally get needed transfusions.
With demonstrations of the JW cult mindset as illustrated above, where JWs have demonstrably violated biblical principles, ethical norms and common sense, it's easy to see how they could go just a bit farther, if prodded properly, even to the point of killing people. Any who claim that JWs do not have such a cult mindset ought to perform an experiment like I outlined above. It will convince them that a large fraction of JWs are capable of almost any nasty conduct, as long as they're prodded properly.
AlanF
