If the WATCHTOWER SOCIETY announced it will be closing in five months.....

by journey-on 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  journey-on

  I think the witnesses would react just like us JWDers have reacted with Simon's announcement.

  They would cuss and discuss and speculate, then many would splinter off quickly in a hurried effort to join another group and choose a name like "Watchtower Lite" or "JW II" or "The New and Improved JWs" where they would debate the whys and wherefores of the WTS and what went wrong. There would be weeks of discussion about the various leaders of the old organization where some would openly criticize and condemn their leadership and motives. Some would join the group where their trusted elders went. Some would hold fast for the five months then just drift away into oblivion. Some would probably leave immediately and never look back...just focus on living life day to day. Some would probably have a psychological meltdown and flounder back and forth in an effort to recapture what had been before then upon realizing you can never rebuild something exactly as it was, sadly settle into acceptance of what is.

  Great fodder for a paper on cyber sociology, imo. It's been interesting to watch the various personalities, don't you think?
• 

  Hope4Others

  For some this would be a devastating blow, like the older ones who have put their whole
  
  life into it, and then their hope ripped away from them...
  
  I think like complete breakdowns for some die hard jw's would occur....
  
  
  
  
• 

  Quirky1

  For the Ex Jw's it would be totally bliss!!

  I hope it is announced soon!!
• 

  sweetstuff

  I'd be jumping for joy, my parents would be floundering around, completely lost because they have invested their entire lives into the WTS. I could see a large amount of depression looming for displaced jws. I don't see that happening with a forum, however, because we can all turn off the computer and walk away. For jw's it isn't a segment of their lives, it IS their lives. I don't think the two are really comparable. IMO
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  slimboyfat

  They seem to be doing that - only a bit at a time!
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  journey-on

  H4O: For some this would be a devastating blow, like the older ones who have put their whole
  
  life into it,

  This made me think of some of the long-time posters of a scholarly nature on this board that have devoted hours and hours

  to their research and placed it here for JWD users. It was and is a part of their life's work. Sure, they can start the same

  effort elsewhere, but will it be the same? I think of Leolia's post right after the announcement by Simon and how worried she

  seemed that all her efforts would be lost. I sensed a deep concern coming from her and a deep relief upon hearing all would

  be archived.

  Sweetstuff: I could see a large amount of depression looming for displaced jws. I don't see that happening with a forum, however, because we can all turn off the computer and walk away. For jw's it isn't a segment of their lives, it IS their lives.

  I have to disagree to some extent. From what I have been reading and observing among some posters is that this board is very addictive for them and they have a great deal of

  difficulty just turning the computer off and walking away. I do think for some of the posters here that this IS their life...or at the very least, a major part of it. I can see

  some exhibiting verbal anxiety and depression over its closing. Maybe I'm reading between the lines too much, but there are more than a few that seem very disturbed over its closing.
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  THE GLADIATOR

  Journey-on

  Your opening post was both thoughtful and revealing. The comparison between this forum and the WT set up is startling.

  'You can check out but you can never leave' comes to mind. People take their personalities, hang-ups, anger, obsessive disorders and history with them, wherever they go.

  If it barks and wags it's tail it is always a whiner and will always be after the next bone of contention. It will sniff out any group, on or off line, that can feed it's need to belong and at the same time bite the hand that feeds it.

  The gladiator - more penetrating than a sword.
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  journey-on

  Your opening post was both thoughtful and revealing. The comparison between this forum and the WT set up is startling.

  Thanks, THE GLADIATOR. That was the underlying thing I was getting at....not the "what if" scenario of the WT closing.

  I was looking for a discussion of the sociological perspective and I think you hit on it very well. Thank you.
• 

  WTWizard

  At least this board is not initiating force, threats of force, or fraud to get people to join and/or keep them. As such, this board is not a threat.

  The same cannot be said about the Washtowel Slaveholdery. They defraud and threaten to bring people in, and then threaten and coerce to keep them in. Whatever they can do to reclaim their "property", they will do.
• 

  iloowy

  The only scenario that I would even consider about their closing down the WT society would be something like the shake up the WT's quirky twin that is Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God went through when the leadership just couldn't keep the charade going on any further.

  But really... There is another option... without the central HQ at WT printing mags and study books, i.e. without Mom, the now independent congregations would look to the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses for guidance. In other words the Service Department just got rid of the Writing Department and the Printeries for good. They'd bring back the CO and DO and keep on having assemblies and conventions.

  -ILOOWY