How the Society Portrays Cultural Diversity

compound complex

What's Wrong With This Picture?

The Watch Tower Society claims that its members are united spiritually despite ethnic and cultural diversity; they speak a "pure language." An Anglo-American religion, whose mother tongue is English, Jehovah's Witnesses see paradise - in saturated color - as though already "present." This modern-day "theocracy" is truly a gerontocracy - an organization governed by old men or elders. Take your pick.
The cited article, by Joel Elliott, describes the iconography [pictorial material relating to a particular subject] of the Watchtower Society publications and its intended impact upon the viewer. Does Watchtower publications' art, combined with scriptural references of peace and unity among God's people, realistically portray life among Jehovah's Witnesses?

http://www.unc.edu/~elliott/icon.html [The author expressed that his material should be neither quoted nor reproduced, hence the above is merely my take on what I have read.]

Thank you, Esteemed JWD Colleague, for passing on the torch to me!

Compound-Complex

Arthur

When you think about the future utopian visions of people having nice big houses; eating grapes, and petting tigers, with the teachings about "princes" ruling over the earth under a "Theocratic" order, you have a strange mixture of ideology. It's almost as if someone was able to patch together ayatollah-style authoritarianism, with Marxist-style collectivism.

OUTLAW

In the New System,you`ll be able to pet lions and talk to blueberrys..And..Everyone will be studying the same WBT$ liturature..Then..You`ll get New Light..Or..Have to forget all the information you`ve learned altogether.....It will be sooooo exciting!!..You`ll live forever!..And..Have to live the WBT$ nightmare for eternity..LOL!!...OUTLAW

RichieRich

I love the geography of every picture they show of paradise.

A beautiful field, with a huge pond behind it, and then big, snow covered mountains in the back ground.

Where in the world does that exist? And why in the hell are there tigers / lions there??

Ok, and, my second gripe...

Black people are always pictured as in African garb. But why in the heck won't the black people who live everywhere else in the world except Africa just wear (gag) khakis and dress shirts like the white people? Is the society not planning for black americans and europeans to make it to the new system? Is rap music that bad?

Arthur

But why in the heck won't the black people who live everywhere else in the world except Africa just wear (gag) khakis and dress shirts like the white people? Is the society not planning for black americans and europeans to make it to the new system

LOL - Yes, khakis and dress shirts, the official garb of the New System. I laugh at how the men are portrayed as wearing this attire no matter what they are doing - sitting in a chair, planting tomatoes, or even playing volley ball. The men will probably even have sex with their wives with these clothes on. Does anyone stop to think: if everyone is going to be enjoying the paradise while eating fruit and training parrots to talk; who is going to be working in the factory facilities that will be necessary to manufacture thier khaki pants and dress shirts? Oh, these pesky details!

compound complex

Hey Guys,

There is a major disconnect between publication imagery [visual and written] so cherished by JWs and the actual micro-management of the r&f. Those words and pictures give the illusion of living now in a spiritual paradise - "life everlasting in freedom of the sons of God." The term for "bringing" the future into the here and now is prolepsis.
JWs do not really have freedom to depart from the "theocratic standards" imposed upon them in matters of speech, dress and extracurricular activities. The glowing and promising words of a pseudo-scriptural hope, in combination with unabashedly technocolor imagery, is just a sales pitch. Tugs at the heart. No critical thinking needed [or allowed, for that matter].
Great comments, fellas. Thank you. In the new system, the WT study would be mandatory, OUTLAW. Outlaws will be stoned if they fail to attend!

CoCo

Tatiana

who is going to be working in the factory facilities that will be necessary to manufacture thier khaki pants and dress shirts? Oh, these pesky details!

Don't you know? That will be the demons punishment. Working in sweat shops sewing up JW clothes for all eternity. (or at least until the 1000 year reign has ended.)

Then they'll all be 'nekkid'....running around with perfect bodies, not having sex. I could have sworn I saw that pic in one of the Watchtowers.

Arthur

Then they'll all be 'nekkid'....running around with perfect bodies, not having sex.

I think that I would rather have the Muslim paradise, than this.

"Give me liberty or give me death" - Patrick Henry

"Give me sex or give me death" - Arthur

OUTLAW

"OUTLAW`s will be stoned if they fail to attend the WT Study"..???..So If I don`t go to a WT Study,I get a bottle of scotch and a big fat Doobie???..Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!..LOL!!...OUTLAW

jayhawk1

But why in the heck won't the black people who live everywhere else in the world except Africa just wear (gag) khakis and dress shirts like the white people? Is the society not planning for black americans and europeans to make it to the new system
LOL - Yes, khakis and dress shirts, the official garb of the New System. I laugh at how the men are portrayed as wearing this attire no matter what they are doing - sitting in a chair, planting tomatoes, or even playing volley ball. The men will probably even have sex with their wives with these clothes on. Does anyone stop to think: if everyone is going to be enjoying the paradise while eating fruit and training parrots to talk; who is going to be working in the factory facilities that will be necessary to manufacture thier khaki pants and dress shirts? Oh, these pesky details!

I just want to know who will be in charge of the beach ball factory.

Then they'll all be 'nekkid'....running around with perfect bodies, not having sex. I could have sworn I saw that pic in one of the Watchtowers.

Will the women still be required to shave?

How the Society Portrays Cultural Diversity

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