I suppose this proposition may be true, but the extent to which it can be addressed is a subject of tiresome debate. It is true that we can supply plenty of evidence to indicate that the WTS leadership, or at least the writers of their publications, have been forced to react to pressure from the outside, especially from us 'postates.
At least one example can be supplied off my mind, and that concerns the use of Johannes Greber. Evidently a mentor of Freddy Franz when we consider the high esteem Franz accorded Greber, and the various occasions that the Greber NT was quoted with apparent approval in WT publications, this bestowal of "divine" sanction, had to be reversed after increasing pressure from sources outside the Society became apparent. It was only when forums such as this revealed the demonic influence that clearly under-girded the Greber NT, and when this exposure was having a telling effect on the R&F, that the WT leadership backed away from their position. Couching their retrenchment in suitably ambiguous phrases, of course.
And this may extend to various WT articles that are suffering under the glare of circumstances. The regular increase in Memorial partakers over time, has obviously forced those who are the Keepers of the Flame, at WT headquarters, to drop their otherwise absurd 1935 timing on the intake of the "anointed"
Having said that, however, it needs to be taken into consideration that books released at Dist Conventions can take several years to craft. Much of the prose has to possess a certain level of ambiguity which may tax the creativity of any one writer. It takes a skill, honed over many years of duplicity, to articulate WT theology to the condition that makes it conventional. Every editorial equivocation, every enigmatic prevarication, every degree of incertitude has to be utilized so as to make the text say what the leadership wants it to say. Generalization must be clothed in dogmatism, and vagueness given substance.
What can be termed Standard Literary Procedures must be observed. For instance, since 1995, with the dropping of the 1914 generation teaching, the expressions "1914" and "generation" must never be placed in congruency, theological or grammatical. Despite the fact that every English dictionary of the last few years will give "Heaven" as the first meaning for "paradise" [See Websters, for Americans, Collins for British English] it is Standard Literary Procedure in all WT publications to always modify the word "paradise" with the additional noun "earth" lest the R&F get heavenly pretensions.
Then there are the legal parameters. The men with the slide rules and the legal imperatives have virtually hijacked the WT ability to express itself. The polite fiction that the increasingly decrepit "anointed" are crafting WT material is maintained only in the dark recesses of what passes for humour in WT circles.
All this means that the pre publication stage of a Dist Convention release may have to go through several hands, and various modifications. The present publication may have first been given a substantive identity before any Forum suggestions had been provided.
I rather think it is a circular, stereotyped mechanization that reveals why certain publications are eventually released. What goes around, comes around. Obviously some high pressure meeting established that a book on Christ had not been published for a while. So Presto! Out it comes. The same considerations are being applied to next years publication, and the year after that and the year after that......ad infinitum.
I am almost certain the publication for next year's Assembly has already been written, in answer to some need, legal or otherwise.
Having been written in 1985, and revised in '89 I feel that the "[Human] Reasoning" book is fast approaching its use by date. It just isn't ambiguous enough. It just doesn't say the different things it needs to simultaneously say that current publication do. Look out for a replacement soon.
Cheers
