Watered down literature and "The Mold of Yancy"

by hamsterbait 8 Replies latest jw experiences

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  hamsterbait

  AK remarked how insipid the latest magazines are. This is a very clever mind control campaign along the lines of a Philip K. Dick story called "The Mold of Yancy." In this story an entire society is peacefully and happily under totalitarian control and don't know it. "My friends, " Yancy intoned, "we must learn to be vigilant... if we become divided we will become easy prey for our enemies... to be secure we must be one united people." There was not a single subject on which the propaganda machine did not express an opinion. On important topics, the people had no opinion. They only THOUGHT they had an opinion. They were left with the illusion of consuming a rich and varied intellectual feast. "The ends were tied up too slickly to be mere accident." In the story a father asks his son a whole range of questions. The boy trots out his conditioned answers. Then he is asked a challenging question:

  "This time there was no answer. The boy's smooth face screwed up in a bewildered, struggling frown.

  "No answer?" Sipling inquired icily.

  "Why, uh," the boy faltered. "I mean ..." He glanced up hopefully. "When the time comes won't somebody say?"

  "Sure," Sipling choked. "Somebody will say. Maybe even Mr Yancy."

  Relief flooded the boy's face. "Yes, sir. Mr Yancy will say."

  In this story, the person is left with the illusion of a viewpoint:

  "All aspects of personality have to be controlled; we want the total person. So a specific attitude has to exist for each concrete question."

  When I read Dick's fiction I almost wonder if he advised the WTBTS on mind control!! Was he ever involved with the witlesses?

  HB
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  BrendaCloutier

  Excellent Story, Hammy... I must say I'm mind-numbed right now... having just come from my dad's memorial service. But I'll start another thread on it.

  It was actually a nice memorial - for a JW service. But the DRIVEL. It was everything I could do to not smirk. Kevan contained himself very well... MOST of the time. He almost lost it during the prayer. (He was also shocked to hear we've been married 7 years...)
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  BluesBrother

  There was not a single subject on which the propaganda machine did not express an opinion.

  Absolutely true .. I can even remember that when ever an issue arose in the press, over ethics, medicine or the like, my first response would always be "Have the Society said anything on this?"

  George Orwell had it covered too , but this "Big Brother" has a smiley face and an air of benign watch care over the members - But they are still fooled into thinking that they are thinking.
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  jwfacts

  I think this is very frightening. My parents are very intelligent, so it really upset me when discussing things with them to find they barely had a single opinion that was not from the Watchtower. It would be very easy for the GB to start demanding harmful and unacceptable practices and have the majority of JWs follow without question.
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  Satanus

  Reminds me of when my family was coming into the truth getting sucked in. The jws who studied w us told us that the wt had something on everything, religion, nature, you name it. I asked some trivial question on nature or something. They spent hours going through wt indexes and pubs to find an answer.

  S
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  hamsterbait

  I know somebody who is being sucked into the Borg. I don't discuss my background with anybody these days. She doesn't even know, but every time we meet socially, I see the same recital of WT speak.

  I don't wnat to get sucked into the compulsive babblespeak again, so I keep my mouth shut.

  They have it down to a fine art.

  HB
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  uninformed

  Reminds me of a Voltaire quote:

  "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

  Brant
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  VM44

  Here is the story. --VM44

  THE MOLD OF YANCY

  Philip K Dick, 1955

  http://www.defectiveyeti.com/moy.pdf
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  hamsterbait

  Another striking thing in the story is how cynical the guys designing the propaganda are. They know what they are doing, and persist.

  Very like the WTBTS in its history, deliberately altering plates for books and magazines, an ongoing self-edit, that the Brothel drones MUST realize undermines any claim to divine guidance by its very deceitfulness.

  They still do it. I remember an ex Brothelite telling how he heard an old annointed stalwart in company laughing and saying how when there were problems with chronology, you "just take the date from one shoulder and put it on another."

  They are calculatedly doing everything to deceive and prolong the power trip.

  HB