Having never been a JW and looking into it from the outside, it would not be hard to throw stones, but I live in a glass house when it comes to the mind control aspect of things.
The JWs do an amazing job of getting the folks to trust in the F&DS, without them realizing what the slave really is. To my wife I think they sensed I knew a lot about the past, so they got her to see how wonderful it is that the spirit directed organization is willing to change, when many other faiths have held on to incorrect doctrine and practices (though never giving any examples - isn't this called a red herring).
I have asked my wife if she knew what happened in 1975 and of course she doesn't, and when I try to ask her about it she all but refuses to listen....did the information come from the official site......I need to get her to get a WTS CD, cause then she could find some of the information on it herself, even though the Awake part does not go back into the 1960s, where a lot of the really strange stuff about education was stated with respect to so close to the end.
What surprises me is then the generation change came in the mid 1990s, the turn of the century came with no end, then the next change in generation to tie it to the anointed, and now the change in the closing date for the anointed.
The amazing part about this, is they have managed through very poorly used smoke and mirrors completly disassociate the coming of armageddon from 1914......as long as folks can 'become anointed' the end can still be off in the future......I am going to be very interested to see what the anointed ends up being this year, I would venture to guess they WTS already has a number in mind for damage control purposes.....