“Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” Gracie Allen
This forum is an excellent domain for the expression of subjective and relative truths. Some people defend their subjective truths tooth and nail as though they were the only truth. What is the reason for this and how can we better understand each other in our evolutionary journey beyond the Watchtower?
The mythological Solomon was said to be the wisest man on earth, if we examine the story of the women who fought over the same child, we find he had the ability to have multiple perceptual views. This is the pattern of wisdom, to be able to look at an issue or conflict from several viewpoints or paradigms, to develop greater insight and flexibility.
First position is the view we take from self. Through this lens we are seeing through a kaleidoscope of our beliefs, values, and attitudes programmed into us through our past experience. This is going to gives us a skewed perception that is generalized, deleted, and distorted based on our filters. If we attempt to make sense out of our JW experience only through this lens, we may stay stuck feeling as victims of the Tower.
Second position is the ability to step outside of our selves and look back at our selves through the eyes of our enemies. Once we do this, we get a sense of how our actions are affecting our enemies and how we are forcing them to take certain actions against us. We find examples of this in all great leaders and master teachers. Gandhi could single handedly defeat the British army by knowing them better than they knew themselves. Paul and Jesus could answer their accusers by mentally projecting themselves into their enemies and understanding their motivations. If we view ourselves through the eyes of JWs we can easily understand how JWs are victims themselves unable to freely and objectively treat us any other way other than what the Tower has mandated to them. One example of this is Viktor Frankel, he felt he had greater freedom than his Nazi captors because he was free to think for himself and find whatever meaning he chose to his hellish experience.
Third position is the ability to step into a neutral perceptual view of a person who has never been a JW and observe both our JW enemies and ourselves. From this space this person is able to see how us former JWs and current JWs are two sides of the same coin different but having the same motivations. This was the position Solomon used to resolve the conflict that allowed him to identify the real mother of the child in question. From this position we are able to transcend from victims and victimizers to a more objective view of rescuer even if that means rescuing ourselves and not staying stuck as victims of JWs. I am sure many JWs view themselves as victims of apostates, which is an indicator that they are stuck in first position view.
Fourth position allows us to view all the positions. This could be the view of God; he/she/it may be amused by the conflicts created and perpetuated by a small group of geriatric senile WASP men from New York. This position allows us to see all other religious beliefs and see the good, the beautiful, the bad, and the ugly.
If there is a moral to this post it is this, truth is relative to the perceptual view the person is taking in espousing the “truth”.
“Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” William James