The Power of the Watchtower Society's literature

by The wanderer 27 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  OnTheWayOut

  Q- If you are an individual that still attends meetings, how
  do you keep yourself insulated from the Watchtower's
  propaganda?

  I attend many meetings, still. I listen with a different attitude. I am able to find fault with
  what I hear, what they left out. I read literature, but don't really study it anymore, just skim it
  to know what's up, occasionally reading it with the same new attitude that I have at meetings.
  The article on Ebla, I read the other day because of a thread here. I looked at why the WTS
  might write it, speculated, examined the left-out data.

  Mind control from the propaganda seems to work only on the unaware. Granted, cults are
  dangerous, and innocent victims (especially kids) need to beware of WTS, but those using their
  brains really can be on guard from such a load of nonsense. Lurking doubters probably do more
  eye-opening here on JWD than any meetings or magazines can undo. IMO, the propaganda is
  ineffective on those who truly know what it is. I imagine it is rare that people go back to JW's because of
  meetings and doctrines, once they hear the "Real Truth." Those that go back probably have not allowed
  Real Truth to penetrate their wall of defense for WTS doctrine.
• 

  jgnat

  If you are an individual that still attends meetings, how do you keep yourself insulated from the Watchtower's propaganda?

  As OnTheWayOut says so well, once the cat is out of the bag, there's no going back. Nowadays I take a blank notebook, tune out the talk to white noise, and write short stories and cartoons. I cannot listen to the drivel very long any more. My mind screams for creativity and independence. So I let it.
• 

  Sunspot

  Arthur said;

  How does a JW view a Catholic who abides by the same principles when it comes to their church? How does a JW view a Catholic who refused to harbor the "seeds of doubt" toward the Vatican? How does a JW view a Catholic who refused to have a "fault-finding attitude" toward the Papacy; or who wished to "wait on God" to straighten out the Catholic priest pedophile problem? Such ones are viwed as close-minded, mislead, and giving undue allegiance to a human institution instead of toward truth.

  This very bizarre double-standard, has of course been inculcated into the average JW through the WTS publications. It was this double standard that made me feel hypocritical. How was I supposed to go door-to-door asking people to question their religion and teachings while I was totally unwilling to even question my own?

  The WTS writers are adept at leading their reader's minds in exactly the direction they wish them to go. They are master manipulators in this! Arthur said that he was unwilling to "question his own religion".....but you SEE....

  the more than clever WTS writers have covered that aspect quite nicely! They print a "study article" that every JW is expected....no, actually mandated......to read each week......

  ....and included after each paragraph (TA-DAH!!!!) ARE QUESTIONS...making the reader think he is actually getting these "questions" answered! Of course....NOW we realize that ths is ALL mental manipulation and that the "questions" are all geared to the WTS teachings and points of view as being "undeniably correct".
• 

  purplesofa

  I did not mind the Awakes....but the WT, I found impossible to deal with.

  They would be talking about one thing and then something else that I found no relation to each other at all. I was like, what are they trying to say here? I did not see the correlation. What has this got to do with that?

  I got frustrated and disappointed. I always thought I did not have the right heart condition and would pray that I would understand. I hated the entire format of the WT lessons. I felt like it insulted intelligence all the time. I never was one of those people that got my mags and could not wait to read them.

  I think it does have appeal, The covers are colorful and catchy.

  jgnat and blondie, arthurs comments are very good.

  purps
• 

  Finally-Free

  I don't have to eat shit 3 times a week just so I'll remember that it tastes bad. Neither do I wish to acquire a taste for it.

  W
• 

  Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit

  I found the literature hard to swallow even while I was pioneering, and I was raised a Hoho from age four. I was trained to accept it, ignore my doubts and my feelings that the men who wrote it are completely distanced from the reality that we were living out here in reality, as has been noted by others.

  Question to those who currently attend meetings at the KH: May I ask respectfully, How and why do you sit through it and do you mingle afterwards?

  Catfish
• 

  Abandoned

  ...they do like to add new reasonings without first declaring "new light" .

  Yep! Right on! I remember getting those giddy feelings in my stomach as I read a new watchtower article or listened to an assembly program. I was so alert to any small change in doctrine. Since reality doesn't really match the horror story told by the boys in brooklyn the whole thing becomes hypnotic. Any "new light", no matter how small, introduced change and was thus VERY POWERFUL!
• 

  blondie

  purplesofa and others,

  I am not ever going to say that anything I write in regard to the WTS is going to convince anyone. I was a JW for over 40 years...obviously it takes much to see the hypocrisy.

  I find it is what the WTS and its representatives do that counts more or is more enlightening to the dangers and untruthfulness of the WTS. It opens the door to the mind.

  The tactics of the WTS are not unique to them. Other individuals and groups use them. Are you going to be susceptible to their tactics? I don't know, perhaps.

  There are so many reasons why people cling blindly to the WTS, the same reasons people stay with abusive people, or alcoholic people.

  I wish I had the power to change people's minds and hearts; but I have said many times on JWD, that comes from within you, you have to see or you will go back to the abuse.

  Blondie (who left 2 times and went back, the third time seems to be the charm)
• 

  XBEHERE

  If you are an individual that still attends meetings, how do you keep yourself insulated from the Watchtower's propaganda? I day dream during the talks and WT study ,and dont comment besides the occasional "Jesus was a fine example that all christians should strive to imitate". When out in service I pretend to ring the doorbell and never do RV's on anyone. I dont allow my mind to get sucked in and quite frankly its like watching a bad movie every week... just sit thru it and thats it.
• 

  Terry

  If I were working in, say, the food service industry and I discovered a slow poison was added to the food and sold to the public at large; what sort of person would it make me if I:

  1.Continued to work there and participated in the poisoning?

  2.Didn't immediately "go public" even if I thought I'd be ignored?

  3.Simply convinced myself I was lucky not to eat the food myself and considered it other people's responsibility to end the poisoning?

  This is a dramatic (but not unreasonable) analogy between staying in the Kingdom Hall and going out in service and working for a company that slowly poisons people who think their food is nutrious and delicious!

  Personal responsibility is a matter of ethics and moral reasoning coupled with integrity and intellectual honesty.

  What do we VALUE more? Is it staying comfortable and out of harm's way even at the cost of others?

  That is the actual real-life decision each Jehovah's Witness is facing (whether they admit it or not) when they discover their "food at the proper time" is destroying the chance for a real life.

  Time spent reading false information which spreads false hope about a fictitious refuge and safe harbor is time better spent on actual fact and a better life choice.

  Eating wax fruit is bad enough. It looks like real fruit, but, it isn't. Giving others waxed fruit and calling it a balanced diet is just sadistic.

  You'd never pretend to be a doctor and give phoney medicine to a sick person would you? That would be criminal negligence. Why? Because a REAL DOCTOR could do some actual good.

  Why would you continue to go door to door giving false information that replaces a better choice?

  Why continue sitting on your facts in a Kingdom Hall smiling duplicitously?

  The Poles kept silent as their neighbor Jews were taken away for "relocation". They smelled the smoke and saw the flakes of incinerated human flesh falling from the heavens like a hideous snow. But, they kept silent and patted themselves on the back that it wasn't their problem.