The difference between old school dubs and modern dubs - and the GB 2.0

by TheListener 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  TheListener

  The newer and younger members of the organization really believe that many of us that used to be witnesses make a lot of stuff up about the older rules or that their area is somehow different from where we were witnesses. They can't grasp that the rules really were different and many things that seem acceptable now were definitely looked down upon.

  I remember asking someone to turn a radio station off because it was playing a christian song. The song wasn't even offensive to my dub beliefs but because it was worldly and religious I knew that listening to it wasn't something that would make Jehovah happy.

  I do think that mainstreaming will have consequences. I think some of the odder more restrictive rules and regulations will have to disappear. I think things like thanksgiving, mothers and fathers day and birthdays will slowly become acceptable but not promoted. They want the new ones to remain dubs but the new ones also want to feel connected to the world around them. I guess we could blame it on the internet and mobile technology.
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  Vidiot

  Don't make the mistake of thinking the WTS is mainstreaming, Listener.

  Authentic mainstreaming involves significant internal change; policy and financial transparency, fair use of the diplomatic process, acknowledging the discoveries of history and science regardless of the implications, fostering positive and engaging community activism... i.e. progressive reform.

  What the WTS is doing right now is solely to project the appearance of modernizing whilst deflecting attention away from its true nature (particularly in the face of its current troubles).

  Internally, they have double-downed and reiterated (via internal correspondence) virtually all of their most draconian stances.
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  TheListener

  Vidiot I've thought about your post and think you are correct. They are giving the appearance of freedom to the outside world and allowing a small token amount of self expression while actually remaining as controlling and restrictive as ever.

  Sort of like when I was a dub I would tell anyone who said I was in a cult that they were completely wrong. One of the reasons I used was that I could read any material or watch any program I chose too. I reasoned that people in cults have restrictions on those things. But at the same time I would never have read or watched anything that wasn't approved by the society! I was fooling myself and looked foolish doing it.
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  Half banana

  The GB is very aware that the social pressures to conform to their sectarian view are a powerful element of being a JW. Shunning would not work half as well if the socialising was not practised.

  Social gatherings strongly help persuade the newbies to realise that the famed oddballs called Jehovah’s Witnesses are just ordinary people. Secondly, social gatherings are hardly ever religious in content so ordinary human interactions are possible.

  Today with the new and glossy public relations makeover, JW zombies are being distracted from the perpetual doctrinal problems and are happy about belonging to an apparently progressive religion.

  The end result is still total mind control and misinformation which upholds the GB’s sole aim to keep the money flowing in and the cult strong...but I do hope their new dalliance with public media will unwittingly expose their nasty cultic practises.
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  Blackfalcon98

  I'm one of the younger members here. (Early twenties) I do remember the older rules, I've also read of them before even lurking here. Don't be so dim on the youth.......they may be baptizing them at nine; but many will wake up later!
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  Vidiot

  TheListener - "...when was a dub I would tell anyone who said I was in a cult that they were completely wrong. One of the reasons I used was that I could read any material or watch any program I chose too. I reasoned that people in cults have restrictions on those things. But at the same time I would never have read or watched anything that wasn't approved by the society..."

  I'll say this for the WTS; they've absolutely perfected the art of getting their membership to self-censor and think it was their decision to do so...

  I used to defend the WTS and myself the same way... but the older I got, the more it felt like lying (because, in retrospect, it was).

  IMO, the phenomenon reinforces my theory that the GB know it's actually wrong but believe it's "True" at the same time...

  ...they're just way better at it than the rest of us, because (I suspect) authoritarian leaders - unlike regular people - don't experience cognitive dissonance and/or are more easily able to compartmentalize.
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  TheListener

  Blackfalcon98 you give me hope for my own family members.