by Englishman 35 Replies latest jw friends
Juddging by the emails that I have received, there are other reasons that I have not mentioned as to why some must remain anonymous. Some are virtually under cover as they strive to deprogramme family members without scaring them witless. The point that I was trying to make was that there has to be a limit as to how long one can remain anonymous without emotionally damaging oneself.
Englishman.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be....
My name is Sherry, and I am a recovering Jehovah's Witness.
Englishman:
What you have said is quite true, and I'm on the cusp of this situation myself.
Anonyminity has it's uses for a time. When you are making the first breaks from the WT, gathering information and starting to interact with "apostates", remaining anonymous provides safety. It allows you to arm yourself, as it were, build up your defenses for the inevitable onslaught of family-fronted cult pressure.
But I've found that once this part of the withdrawal process is complete, remaining anonymous becomes a negative thing, preventing further progress in withdrawal from the cult.
I've decided, recent shenanigans with pictures being posted notwithstanding, that as soon as I've figured out how to use my damn digital camera and software, that I'll be posting my real picture and name in my profile. I'll still go by the posting name Expatbrit though.
This may well result in unpleasantness with family. But that is something I've come to realise is inescapable in the process.
I do however apologise to those who will be disappointed and upset in finding out that I am not, after all, an Orangutan.
Expatbrit
WHO ARE YOU - Naeblis
I woke up in a Soho doorway
The policeman knew my name
He said, "You can go sleep at home tonight
If you can get up and walk away"
I staggered back to the underground
The breeze blew back my hair
I remembered throwing punches around
And preachin' from my chair
Who are you
Hu hu hu hu
Who are you
Hu hu hu hu
I took the tube back out of town
Home to the rolling pin
I felt a little like a dying clown
But with a streak of Rin Tin Tin
I stretched back and I hiccupped
Looked back on my busy day
Eleven hours in the tin pan
God there's got to be another way
Who are you
Hu hu hu hu
Who are you
Hu hu hu hu
There's a place where I know you walked
The love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees
I spill out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone new
After such a love as this
Who are you
Hu hu hu hu
Who are you
Hu hu hu hu
If someone lurking from the Service Department will simply read my 162 posts to this forum, taking careful note of geographical locations, time-frame, "privileges of service", et al., they will be able to identify this evil apostate.
TMS, or is it TeeEmEs?
YOu'll never catch me!!!! mauahahahahahahaha!
*disappears into the shadows*
But I would rather that than not be free to be me, not to have my freedom of thought and action. Isn't freedom of belief even a part of the American Constitution?
How am I not free to be me? I live my life as I wish. Even if I weren't concerned about JW family, even if I had never been a JW, I would always be anonymous online. Too many employers doing Net searches on prospective employee names. I'd rather my name not show up anywhere (not just here), and that will never change.
How does this affect my freedom of thought? How does this affect my freedom of belief? I believe and think what I want. And I choose anonymity for many reasons, only some of them related to JWdom.
There are many good reasons for maintaining anonymity on the net, not the least being that there are nutters out there both within and outside the JW community and there is no knowing what they may do if they view themselves as God's avenging angel.
And being new to this forum I have not had much to say both because my observations would not have been constructive and because, as an unrepentant associate of JW I doubt that I really know where many contributors are coming from. But on this forum I've found humanity in all its hues and have had to confront issues unlikely to arise at the book study.
Richard Putman, Cambridge
Dear Respectable Englishman Dude,
I appreciate your insight on a lot of your postings but I take some difference with you on this one.
The case for not going public…
Let me tell you good folks about a close call of Fred Hall a few years ago. Yes, Fred Hall has been around that long and even though you may not believe it from his posting style now (which is admittedly aberrant) Fred Hall had even less social graces than he does now and was even more irritating to anywhere he graced his online presence.
Fred’s favorite watering hole was H20 but when the site was down and Freddie was feeling like a clown he would travel the web in search of other ex-dub sites to make life miserable there for everyone. Eventually, he found his way to a site I happened to enjoy, that at the time was a rather mellow and interesting ex-jw discussion forum.
You might be able to imagine Fred’s joy when he quickly discovered he could create havoc, ill feelings, a lot of name calling and profanity and the like on this then rather un-moderated site (the owner would only remove porno pics, etc.) So, faced with the mounds of defecation from this then obnoxious troll, several people got angry, really angry. I was one of them. Anyway, through ISP searches, I discovered the four different accounts (or maybe it was three) that Fred was using and his home city. I then asked a friend to hack into one of these ISP’s and get Fred’s personal data, his real name, address, and the given phone number. Armed with this, I was going to do a background search on Fred to discover any dirt on him, and learn everything there was to know about him from his grade school averages to his credit report. What I could have done with this information was really shocking. I could have dumped his SSN and vital stats into one of the numerous hacker sites around at the time, and presto, Fred’s credit record would be toast (assuming he had one to start with). I could have used his email account (had the password) to send out rather naughty and incriminating e-mail’s to a number of people, hmm…maybe to the Watch Tower Society accusing them of apostasy (at the time Fred claimed to be a loyal dub bent on defending the faith) or much much worse. Essentially, I could have made Fred’s life a living hell, have his postal mail sent to Mexico, turned off all his utilities, ran up debts, and ruined his reputation by out-“Fredding” Fred.
I’m glad I didn’t do anything like that now. Thanks to divine intervention (I’m sure) H20 came back up and Fred went back to being his miserable self over there and left us alone. Yes, Fred could have struck back if a load of shit dropped on him, but he wouldn’t have known whom it was that destroyed his life, not without spending a huge wad for some serious investigating anyway.
Strangely, Fred no longer bothers me at all. In fact I occasionally enjoy reading his posts as they are good for a laugh and I shudder to think that I could have changed the course of his evolution so that he didn’t mature into the Fred he is today!
My point dear friends is this…if you live in a glass house, you can’t throw any stones, not big ones anyway. You really can’t afford to let it all out at someone if you are having a really shitty day because there are many people out there who might really get pissed off and lose it and do something to pay you back. Not only is anonymity important for these reasons, it is just a smart move for personal safety. If you make a lot of enemies and think your life is private, you are living in a dream world and there might be people who might want to use you and abuse you. Not to instill a lot of paranoia here but just encouraging you to think things through and realize there is always consequences of our choices.
Skipper
There have been some marvellous points made in this thread - thanks Eman.
I shall drop the anonymity when I am able, but can't for now, as many know. Personally my details are all over the web, anyway, however I can understand some level of paranoia when there are nuts out there.
Never bothered me too much, though.
LT
