by nvrgnbk 24 Replies latest jw friends
One more thing, something I read once in a WT, it really pissed me off, the WT was relating things that were getting worst, democracy, human rights and women equality were given a bad revue, I could not believe what I was reading!
Exactly A-C! I remember when they were horrified when a Hindu woman, horror of horrors , was appointed to head the UN. Freakin' WASPs!
Nvr
I am incline to agree with BroApostate
For example motor cars and lorries have brought many benefits to the quality of life. At the same time millions of people live next to busy roads with all the noise and pollution that goes with heavy traffic. Many towns in the UK are blighted by traffic.
We have road deaths and injuries and an altogether less relaxed way of life as the problems caused by growing traffic lead to tension. Added to this is the reality of people who are a lot less fit that they would be if motorised transport was not so readily available.
Airplanes have bought similar benefits and problems.
Television and computer monitors have enhanced young lives but left many young people without time of inclination to enjoy the joy of reading, listening to radio plays, developing the art of conversation or just enjoying silence and reflection.
It seems that these inventions initialy enhance the live of the people who are wealthy enought to be among the first to have them. Once the majoritiy of people in a nation have them, perhaps they start to work against us?
trev
On a different note - It does seem that people who have been part of a negative doom and gloom cult that expects the our world system to collapse into a great tribulation and final death for most people on earth, are prone to have a subconscious expectation that things will eventually go wrong.
They will tend to take notice of warnings that the stock market or world monetary system will collapse. Crime and violence will spiral out of control. Nuclear destruction is likely and so on.
Long after I left the Jehovah’s Witnesses I unknowingly carried this cloud with me causing me to make poor financial decisions and be negative about people and expect other peoples relationships to fail. It was not until I read about this scenario that I recognized the pattern in myself and corrected it.
trev
It does seem that people who have been part of a negative doom and gloom cult that expects the our world system to collapse into a great tribulation and final death for most people on earth, are prone to have a subconscious expectation that things will eventually go wrong.They will tend to take notice of warnings that the stock market or world monetary system will collapse. Crime and violence will spiral out of control. Nuclear destruction is likely and so on.
Yes, and the exact opposite is equally true. Formers members of a "doom and gloom cult" can turn very easily into militant social/political optimists (againstthe "doom and gloom" part) and apostles of normalcy (againstthe "cult" part). Just as it is easier for teenagers to act the opposite of their parents until they can really come to terms with who they are -- neither the same nor opposite, both similar and different.
Navigator,
Our treatment of the American Indians was nothing less than genocide on a grand scale.
History is against the genocide on a "grand scale" view. When Europeans first settled in North America, they were greeted by both peaceful tribes and warring tribes. This was true in the very beginning with the settlements in Massachusettes and Rhode Island land grants, and was still going on at the French and Indian wars against the Brittish. Some tribes made alliances with the European settlers to get support to fight other tribes. The Spanish, under Cortez, ended up fighting the Aztecs in Mexico, then eventually Spanish settlers intermarried with Indians. It was a complex web of triangles. Eventually, relations simmered down between the European settlers.
However, as American settlers moved across the midwest and west of the Mississippi, two major tribes starting wars, the Souix and the Commanche. Essentially, white settlers would take up residence and builtd a house and do some farming. The Commanche, for example, allowed this and said nothing. Then, one day, they decided it was a threat. Instead of askign the white settlers to leave, they just simply came in and butchered them, men, women, and children. Or at times they would take the women and girl children. The US Army was dispatched to put a stop to the terrorism, and thus commenced the later western wars with Indians.
The one big tribe in the east (Georgia) that decided to stop fighting, and use the courts, was the Cherokee. They won their arguments all the way up to the Supreme Court. It was President Andrew Jackson (the face on the $20 bill) who gave the Supreme COurt the finger and used the US Army to force the Cherokee to march on what is known as the "Trail of Tears" all the way west of the Mississippi River. Many died on the trail ... and it was as bad as the Batan death march the Japanese did in WWII against the Phillipinos and Americans and others.
Many tribes have died out, and no longer exist, such as the Illini (Ill - li' - ni') namesake of Illinois. But others still exist. Other than events like what happened to the Cherokee, there was no massive genocide. That give a wrong context. Indians were able to fight, and use modern weapons of the day. They even got their hands on cannons. But, over time, they lost. Other tribes enjoyed long and excellent relationships with the US, such as the Nez Perce up around Idaho, and eastern Washington and Oregon. In fact some Indian tribes in the west enjoy privileged status, such as the Yakima, who can fish anywhere, anytime, catch any amount, and not even respect the spawning streams ... which is causing the endangerment of the Coho and Chanuk salmon. But that is another issue.
Our school systems simply do not teach accurate history. They used to teach against the indians, and today they makje it out as though the European settlers moved in and butchered a bunch of peaceful bead-making indians who on sit by the campfire and smoke peace pipes. Indians were tough warriors ... the Klingon Empire of their day ... and they are to be highly respected. This is why we use to honor them on coins and paper money, as well as naming sports teams after them ... but sadly, today, the supercillious self-righteous historical morons claims that such is not an honor, but an insult ... but they ignore our treaties which is what the Indians, like the Cherokee, still want honored. The Cherokee want Jackson removed from the $20 bill ... and I agree with them on that one.
Jim Whitney
