In light of the further concerns about this threads intention and the potential for giving dangerous ideas to unstable individuals I wanted to make some additional comments and explain more carefully what kind of ideas I’m looking for.
To start with, again I’m not looking for new and creative ways of killing people. You see, there are already expert killers who have done that research and they have published their unclassified findings and made them available to the public. An example of this is the U.S. Special Forces Unconventional Demolitions Manual (sometimes called the “Black Book”) that shows step-by-step methods of using common household chemicals and materials found in any local hardware store, to do everything from leveling skyscrapers with people still inside them to blowing up subways. This type of dangerous knowledge can even be found in your local college libraries and some public libraries and on the Internet. The cat is well out of the bag for anyone who is determined to go on a murderous killing spree, as we have seen already in America with even school kids making explosives and murdering dozens of people.
In no way do I want to see anything like this happening to Witnesses or anyone else in this country or others. I’m even against capital punishment. You won’t see me posting instructions on here of how to make high explosives from toothpaste and motor oil, or converting insecticide into nerve gas. In fact, my hope is that any unstable individual gets immediate professional counseling to deal with the wounds created by exiting the Society.
So, what then am I fishing for, and why am I fishing for this in the first place?
For the last several days, I have been developing a theory about the evolutionary development of belief systems and specifically how some higher order belief structures turn pathological and virulent to kill their hosts. I have discovered a disturbing pattern of some memes (think of memes as being the biological counterpart of DNA) transforming themselves into dangerous pathogens when the right elements fall into place. I’m trying to discover if there are plausible scenarios in whereby the belief ideology of Jehovah’s Witnesses can switch from being mildly pathogenic (after all this is a known fact considering the number of people who have died from refusing blood transfusions or committed suicide) to massively pathogenic. No, I’m not talking about a Watchtower coming out that encourages everyone to start drinking cyanide laced Kool-Aid or to leap off a cliff. This is not in line with the conceptual idealization patterns found in the leadership of the JW’s. Just what do I expect to happen? I’m asking you this!
Think like the GB. How does their collective mind work? If my guess is correct, these guys follow three basic principles in formulating their ideology. The first is: look for patterns. They look for patterns in the timing (remember all their predictions for the end of this system of things?) and patterns in ancient examples (…just as in the days of Noah, so it will be when You Know arrives.) The second memetic structure they follow is the rear view model of history. This is simply taking modern events and overlaying them upon old prophecies and trying to force fit them. Third, they have the belief that all parts of the Bible, even the nonsense in it, has some special meaning otherwise their God would not have bothered to see it preserved.
Considering this, along with other stuff I probably not have thought through, what do you come up with if you play the same game? I’m not speculating in the least as to if your game model will be right, I think the Bible is little more than political propaganda designed to create an identity for a group of expatriate Canaanites to become a new nation with heavy overtones of mythological thinking. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if your idea is right, what is important is your idea believable to the Witness population. For example, if a disaster happened at WTS headquarters and it was the result of an horrible accident, like a fire that got out of control, and explosion that killed many people, an earthquake in New York that caused major structural collapse and killed some of the people there…how would this potentially change their doctrine? Do you think they would feel they were being punished for bad leadership? Would it be interpreted as a “test” like that of Job (not the Apple computer guy)?
If the hypothetical disaster was a result of terrorism, say of some mentally disturbed dub or ex-dub, how do you think this would play out? Would they say blame ex-JW’s as being the Antichrist? What social fallout do you think would happen if an ex-JW were to blame? Do you think they would become like antiabortion protestors and start picketing ex-JW’s homes or worse?
Of course, let us not forget the famous dub standby Armageddon is happening. What is it that you expect dubs to do if they really surely thought Armageddon had started? Would they run naked in the streets? Would they quit their jobs? Would they pack up all their stuff and head to a National Forest or remote campground? Would they say make desperate attempts to kidnap their children who had left the “truth” and try to reprogram them to get saved at the last minute? What would you have done when you were a dub and you thought the big day was here?
Some comments now on a few posts…
Proplog2 suggested that a nuclear attack might happen from terrorism or otherwise but I have to agree with Abaddon that if the Taliban had these at their disposal, they would have used them by now and it would more likely be in Washington DC. Abaddon did raise an interesting idea about a coup in the Witness leadership. That would certainly make the dice roll unpredictably but my guess is that anyone not of the “anointed” isn’t allowed in the “theocratic pow-wow” and if they were invited, it would be someone they knew for a long time that followed the party line to a T. Avengers brought up the point that some Kingdom halls have indeed been bombed and burned. This demonstrates that the terrorism scenario is not that remote. I don’t know if any Witnesses have been injured or killed in such acts of violence but I don’t think that would be a deterrent if someone had lost their mind and wanted payback.
Wendy brought up the good point about the fear factor. If something really nasty happened, would the mainstream dub be too frightened to leave or would the Kingdom Halls be deserted? If something happened to the USA headquarters, would the other branches take over? It would seem to me that the UK branch would be the logical choice in that case. Skeptic says they will be more convinced they have the truth...would this increase their membership roles?
Okay, a few more ideas for you: what about rampant mental illness between the JW’s? It happened after 1975 you know. Can you think of any scriptural examples of something akin to terrorism happening to the JW’s? Do you think the dubs would switch from their preaching work to going around and telling everyone…your going to get it now sucker?
Skipper
