Is Watchtower Leadership Burnt Out and UnMotivated?

by metatron 26 Replies latest jw friends

  • metatron
    metatron

    There is an expression "phoning it in" and that pretty much sums up the way Watchtower leadership looks to me across the past several

    years. The first clue I got was when they didn't bother to start any witch hunt against obvious 'apostate' problems in the organization. The rants

    of Rutherford or Knorr are long gone and cheap, half-hearted measures are the order of the day. They seem downright lazy in many respects,

    while child-like publishers beg for scraps of information to keep their Kingdom fantasies alive. An internet grapevine of speculative e-mails

    substitutes for anything meaningful or inspiring coming out of WT official-dom ( or is that official-dumb?). Long gone are hardbound books on

    evolution or much of anything else beyond a grade school reading level.

    Witnesses are like the offspring of some half drunk and uncaring parent who eagerly extol the most meager and minimal signs of attention in a

    desperate bid for love. It makes you think of a sort of Skinner-box program of random and infrequent reinforcement to maximize inexpensive

    response.

    The only justice I can discern in this sad mess is that the publishers are so passive-aggressive that some Watchtower overseers must dream

    about dumping them as a deepening burden and drain on their assets. Zeal commonly resembles the Russian saying , "they pretend to pay us

    and we pretend to work". I continue to think that the final chapter if this sick organization may come about from the top losing interest in the

    whole religion than from any rebellion at the bottom.

    metatron

  • truthseeker
    truthseeker

    Met,

    Good points.

    I think not only are they burnt out but they have no vision. They keep changing doctine and policies to save money, neutralize legal threats and keep the publishers dancing for more.

    Occasionally I would hear an elder say "we don't know what Jehovah has in store for the organization" - an ooh ahh moment. It kept me guessing and speculating.

    Most witnesses are theologically lazy. It's too much effort to dig deeply into the publications. As long as they feel the Society is being used by Jehovah, the rank and file keep plodding on.

    Figuratively speaking, the rank and file beg for informational scraps under the rich man's table, desperately hoping for some news regarding the end of this system of things.

    I would go as far as to say that the Society's proclamation "the end is near" is no different from the fake "closing down" sales that some retail stores have. They never close down, it's just an appeal to emotions to make you buy.

    Similarly, the Society appeals to our emotions to make you "buy" into their Armaggedon closing down sale.

    As long as they keep saying the right stuff, there is no need to say any more or print anything new.

  • garybuss
    garybuss

    Now, they're a BIG business. In the 50's they were mean and lean and they could move fast. Now they're reactive and protective. Individual Witnesses in the United States are now the fourth party to the Watch Tower Corporation. That's three levels of bureaucracy to filter everything through before it gets to them. That's if you don't count the Circuit Riders.

    A billion dollar corporation doesn't operate like a start-up.

  • sir82
    sir82
    Witnesses are like the offspring of some half drunk and uncaring parent

    JWs are the unholy love child of JF Rutherford and Fred Franz!

    "The love that dares not speak its name"

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    Truthseeker and Metatron,

    I agree with the comments in these two very good posts.

    What set another light bulb off in my head was back in the 80s-90s when they had those alarmist tracks along with a special talk. I came away feeling like it was much ado over nothing which it was. I wondered to myself why they were jerking everybody around. I saw through this tactic and it made me very angry.

    What really took the cake was when they had some special talk several years back with tickets which I didn't go to. After it happened, I asked somebody what all the fanfare was about. They told me it was nothing much at all and they were disappointed because they hoped it was some special information about 'when the end was coming'. When I heard this I immediately knew what was happening. The religion was simply crying wolf to test the waters to see how many of the gullible would come running.

    This tactic made me angrier than a lot of other wrong things put together. It was because of this that I knew I was right when I made a conscious decision not to attend regularly anymore and to retreat.

    LHG

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    I agree the organization is a pale shadow of what it once was.

  • RedPill2006
    RedPill2006

    Metatron & Truthseeker > to both of you:

    Wow! Your comments are very, very insightful and nail it to the point. I was "raised" in the truth and "served" over a decade as an elder and must say your comments are spot on!

    My observations, too. I see once very fanatical witnesses plodging away and being "theological lazy" is a very exact expression. A friend of mine is a Bethelite and recently he commented to a group of brothers in his home congregation that any National Geographic magazine is more advanced than the current "style of writing" in the literature...

    ...another circuit overseer told me that the literature nowadays is mostly directed towards Third World countries, where even a Bible Teach book is to intelectual........

    The crumbling Tower....

  • RedPill2006
    RedPill2006

    I once posted this comment that i found very interesting:

    Canadian archaelogist Zhichun Jing, writing about the decline of the highly creative Shang dynasty, said "...after a century the Shang vitality slackened. The initial diversity and creativity devolved into a dull sameness. By the end we see that things like their pottery, architecture and artwork had become standardized and simplified." (End of Quote)

    Jing says that this phenomenon in the archaeological record suggests that people had less freedom to express their individuality and became less creative. When a Society/Organization becomes rigid and homogenous, theres greater potential for collapse.

    "Standardized and simplified".....Does that ring a bell? (pun intended...)

  • sir82
    sir82
    another circuit overseer told me that the literature nowadays is mostly directed towards Third World countries,

    Read the 12/1 Watchtower?

    There's an article on "Cleanliness - Why Is It Important"?

    Talks about cleaning your outhouse, not bathing in "small creeks in your neighborhood", and sleeping under a mosquito net. Also a reminder that "washing your clothes helps prevent skin problems and disease".

    The householders outside the 3rd world who accept a magazine placement have to be thinking "who in the fleep is this magazine written for?!?"

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    Good points - yes- possibly. They are getting new blood but they need much more. I would go to a 24 member GB immediately drafting in New blood from Latin AMerica and Asia and Africa

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