So much for this thread not turning political.
It is ironic that, just like the mind of a Witness completely closes when you say something that is damaging to his world view, the mind of a conservative (or a liberal, or any other political persuasion) will also completely close when presented with facts that contradict one's view of the world. I think most of us see the parallel between the response of the Bush administration to McClellen's book and the way the Watchtower responds to attacks. Yet, Carlos_Helms felt the need to defend the Bush administration. I find that fascinating. It is similar to how liberals defended Clinton throughout the Lewinski affair. Their world view was that Clinton was a savior and could do no wrong. Even though the evidence was abundant that Clinton was not the greatest thing since sliced bread. Similarly, some defend Bush regardless of how obvious his failings are to most of us. As a former Witness who used to defend the Watchtower Society I try to be very careful not to fall into the trap of accepting one world view and believing that all others are wrong. I can see problems with both a liberal and a conservative world view. I don't think one philosophy works in all situations.
I'm sure that both of you, Carlos and Gopher, are very intelligent individuals. But I think sometimes each of you, and myself, and really all of us, we fall back into that trap of defending a world view that we believe to be the truth and we become completely blind to reality (or the possibility that there is another way to look at reality). The fact is the Bush administration did attack the messenger. Which isn't surprising. Every administration gets defensive about their record and tries their best to shape the way history will record their time in office. Defending the administration or questioning the motives of the messenger doesn't change the facts. And that applies whether it is a Republican in office or a Democrat.
Sir82, good topic, I have observed how similar the Bush administration is to the Watchtower Society for quite some time. This is the first administration that has been in office since I started really paying attention to politics. I was still a Witness during the Clinton administration. So I didn't pay that close attention to how he behaved in office. (As a Witness I pretty much assumed that Clinton, like all politicians, was evil.) So it will be interesting for me to observe the next president to see whether the next administration is like the Bush administration and also like the Watchtower Society in the way they try to control the flow of information and how they try to quash dissent and demonize anyone who disagrees with them and how they try to create an "us versus them" mentality. I hope that won't be the case. Otherwise I may have to write off politics as well.
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