Was the Watchtower taken off guard by the internet and XJW forums

by JH 48 Replies latest jw friends

aniron

I think that they under estimated the effect of the Internet. Or they under estimated the explosion in internet use. (I think many did)
They didn't realised that it would create a worldwide family of ex-JW's. That the knowledge, experiences of ex-JW's would have any effect.
Anti-Watchtower websites appeared. forums came about. People discussed and learnt more about the WT than at anytime previously.
Also now the possiblity is that if a person is called on by JW's. That person may decide to check them out on the internet. Unlike when I became a JW you were lucky to find a couple of books about them in the library. Now they are laid open to all by the press of a button.
Many have put their testimonies on websites or on forums like JWD and Freeminds, and other similar places.
What the WT has done to people. How its teachings have changed through the years. How it controls people.
Has become virtual common knowledge.
The WT has also made it difficult for themselves by "demonising" the internet. Warning its members to stay away from "apostate" sites, forums and the like. So that very few will venture to make a stand for the WT. Where a JW has actually made up a website/forum they make it so only JW's can post. Thus not allowing debate and defence of their beliefs possible. It just becomes a self-appreciation forum.
Will the WT fight back in the future via the internet? From what I have gathered they seem to more intent in battening the hatches down. Tellings its members at meetings, assemblies, conventions not to go near the "evil" internet. I've heard that when a JW starts to raise questions the Elders will ask where they got the information, what did they read and where did they read it. Almost as of looking for an excuse that the JW will admit to looking at some "apostate" website. Which could included any site that deals with Christians beliefs.
Will they begin to make such an admission a grounds for disfellowshipping?
Who knows with the Watchtower organisation, they can be very devious when they need be.
FlipThis

Who knows with the Watchtower organisation, they can be very devious when they need be.
My exact point. Whatever it takes is what they'll do; and there's enough stupid people in this world to continue to buy into it.
Not even that; it's not really a matter of stupidity as it is vulnerability.
And that trick has always been in their hat.
Terry

Any more specific ideas on what the WTS might do, Terry? Like I said, they will not get involved in open debate on any of these issues, because they will always lose.

Witness apologists that come on these sites either leave VERY quickly, or they switch sides!
There is an old saying.
The wheels of the gods grind exceedingly slow, but; they grind exceedingly fine.
Meaning?
Watch out! Don't screw with the gods or you'll be smithereens. They will grind you down.
My former "best friend", Johnny, is and always has been a member JW in good standing. He is very smart and much more adept than his fellows at the Kingdom Hall. His intellect is wasted. There are tens of thousands just like Johnny. Why does he stay?
He is a big fish in a little pond and he has mastered "the game". He knows where the bodies are buried and he has history under his belt. He has "gravitas". He knows what up n' commers do not know: to be an elder is to fail! To succeed you only have to fly just below the radar. He is expert at doing this.
When he moved back to Texas he'd come see me and we'd lunch at least once a week and have open discussion in public. That was about 5 years ago.
Then, the boa-constrictor of the Brooklyn herpetarium headquarters began to awaken to the fact there was Danger!
Just as Johnny and I were "discussing" religious matters and poking holes in the curtain of divine appointment, so too were thousands of others.
The "enemy" was disfellowshipped friends and family members who were coming back to TALK about startling revelations (available for the first time on the Internet) and scraping the scabs off old wounds.
Photo copies of ACTUAL MAGAZINE ARTICLES could be printed easily. It was a crisis of mammoth proportions!
What happened in those 5 years?
The screws began to turn. The crackdown commenced. The stakes were upped on being "marked". Warnings were issued. Alerts were sounded. The ENEMY was identified clearly and precisely and penalties were described with dramatic clarity.
The INQUISITIONS were coming!
If you were outted as consorting with an Apostate the "game" was over for you. Your gravitas was erased. You became persona non grata: a nothing.
The average JW only has their fantasy life inside the Kingdom Hall and the imaginary "ark" of the "Truth". If they are threatened with extinction and destruction it means something to them.
Why?
They can see and hear from their conversations with ex-JW's that THERE IS NO PLACE ELSE TO GO!
Face it; Apostates have nowhere to jump that offers anything like the comraderie and security of the Kingdom Hall and the New System promises of everlasting happiness!
Going to a church? Out of the question! Those doctrines are debunked! Becoming merely "spiritual"? Silly and unfulfilling and no friends to support you!
It is like having been "somebody" and now becoming "nobody".
Being an Apostate is thankless, depressing and leads to degradations, cynicism, depravity and God Knows What Else! A JW will not risk losing self-respect and having all the answers to everything. There is no GAIN and it is ALL LOSS.
In other words: We (all of us) have shown them NO BETTER PATH than nitpicking insolence and a bad attitude of whining, licked wounds and trash mouth.
THIS IS A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH!
Johnny only contacts me by phone now. About once or twice a year! It is ONLY to discuss a movie he saw that he can't talk about with anybody else. He runs out of time or has to go when a religious subject arises!
His window of opportunity has been shut on his fingers! He can't risk much else.
This will get worse and worse and worse. You can count on it.
Miss 8572

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned but I think the importance of Terry's analogy is, given that the WTS is represented by Rome: Rome fell. Lets not forget: Absoloute power corrupts absoloutly, and if you give them enough rope they will hang themselves. ...it's coming soon to a kingdom hall near you.
Terry

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned but I think the importance of Terry's analogy is, given that the WTS is represented by Rome: Rome fell.
Rome was TWO things simultaneously! Rome was an Eastern empire and a Western empire. The city of Rome was only half and Constantinople was the other.
What "fell" in 476 A.D. was partial.
As to "why" any of Rome as a nation or a grand idea perished......read on.
Rome had a system which worked as long as the system was followed.
You could earn your way up into a position of security if you performed your function as ordered.
But, more and more, people without loyalty were given positions of importance. The "barbarians" were hired as mercenaries to fight. Then, those mercenaries were granted societal status and citizenship.
The importance of this is that the "enemy" was within eventually. When the "barbarian" at the gate was the same as the barbarian on the payroll the system fell apart.
That is chiefly why positions of supreme importance are given to the OLD MEN in the Watchtower Society. Their loyalty, fealty and mindset is all organization.
As the old men die off what will replace them?
I suspect some very cynical "game players" will take the helm.
The Catholic Church has the same problem with Popes. They need an endless supply of hard-liners to exist.
The era of the hard-nose old timers will go out with a Bang and not a whimper, I can assure you.
Seeker4

Terry,

I agree with that last post. I've seen it as well.

That concept of "where else is there to go," is a genuine stroke of genius. It sets up this idea that you have to be in a "place" - a religion, a group, SOMETHING, DAMMIT! It's another way of saying, "Who else will tell us what to do? Who will tell us how to live if we leave?"

I can still hear the panic in their voices.

That question was always so hard to answer when I was a JW, and even as I was fading. "If the Witnesses are wrong, where else is there to go?" you'd hear asked all the time. "Even if the Witnesses don't have the truth, this is such a good way of life."

For me, a huge turning point was when I simply had enough insight and wisdom to ask, "WHY does there HAVE to be a place to go to? Why would I NEED someone or somthing to tell me how to live? Why can't I just do that for myself?"

The Witnesses and similar groups create and cultivate a culture of helplessness, the inability to decide for yourself what you will do. I saw it all the time as a Witness. The older sister coming to me in a panic because they got a notice for jury duty. A brother facing an operation. Someone offered a new job. "What should I do? What should I do?"

Like your friend staying just below the radar, people unsure about how to live life, and those who need to be a big fish in a small pond, the JWs offer a "safe" haven, at the cost of your right to think and act for yourself. Part of the impact of the Internet is finding people, like many on this board, who will tell you that, who will let you know that it's NOT a bad thing to be able to question and think for yourself.

Coming to the realization that this is YOUR life and you can decide what to do without being in a "place" that gives you all the answers is a huge step. It makes you capable of laughing in the face of the Inquisitors and snapping off their paper chains, walking past the helpless guards right out of the dungeon and into the light.

I may not have all the answers out here, but I sure do love the feel of the sun and wind on my skin.

S4
Miss 8572

Maybe it's just me but I think this analogy has turned into a history lesson instead of a helpful illustration.
choosing life

I remember when many of the young teenagers around here put up websites to preach about the "truth". They were actually called repeatedly, on the phone, and told to remove them. At the time, I wondered why their petty little sites which were for the Witnesses, not against, were important enough to the society to go to such trouble.
Now I realize that there was a perceived threat, the danger of losing control. If anyone could provide information to outsiders, then the society would lose control.
So, yes, the internet is a wonderful tool that the society cannot control. Their only option is to place their official site and then demonize the rest. They have to be cursing the very presence of sites like this. It is all about loss of control. A site that allows current jws, apostates and everything in between to discuss freely must scare the bejeesus out of them.
I expect much stronger statements to be placed in the koolaid version of the Watchtower. With the younger ones growing up using the internet freely, I think they have already lost the war. Not that it will destroy them, just hinder their growth.
Gregor

Frankly, Terry, you seem almost paranoid about what sinister things the WTS is capable of. You are positive they have some grand scheme that all of us apostates and lurkers should be worried about. With all due respect, your Roman empire analogy is overblown horseshit. Seeker addressed your essay in a factual way. I think you should read it again. The only people that are truly impressed with anything the WTS says or does are the drones they have in their hip pocket. I enjoy and respect your posts, but you are way off on this.
neverendingjourney

There is no GAIN and it is ALL LOSS.
I disagree. There is the benefit of knowing that we are now living in a fact-based world anchored in reality as opposed to an imaginary one. That's all the incentive I needed to leave.

Was the Watchtower taken off guard by the internet and XJW forums

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