The Astounding Self Deception of Jehovah's Witnesses

by metatron 3 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  I recently received a personal letter from a brother who holds a significant position in the organization. I am appalled, shocked and astounded by the depth of his self-deceit.

  You see, Capitalism is dying. It never has worked for very long (never mind that Roman capitalism/trade lasted a thousand years or that cuneiform tablets tell us about bank interest and warehouse sales from the dawn of time)

  His letter follows the usual 'worse and worse' formula that has proven so effective in drawing simple minded people to the "truth". I would like to think that Witnesses typically are phonies and smiling hypocrites - but they have their "true believers" down to this day.

  How can this be? How can people be so deceived? Here are some answers:

  1) Don't read anything other than the gloom and doom published by the Watchtower. This is easy because hardly anybody reads anything. The Internet, alas, has made us greatly superficial. Try reading "The Wealth of Nations" or Plato or Thomas Paine and compare.

  2) Thinking hurts, avoid it. Think I'm kidding? I once observed an attractive young woman who manifested a look of agony when I forced her to answer a technical question. As Barbie once said ( pull the ring in her back) "Math is hard, let's go shopping"

  3) Live a life of discord and emotional wreckage so that you have no opportunity for self reflection - take drugs. Marry obvious losers. Don't save. invest or build a solid career. Depend on Armageddon being soon. Pursue quack medicine. Avoid meditation because demons might get into your brain. Blame all your problems on the Devil or the World. Feel endless guilt because you don't "do enough". Masturbate and never feel "clean " or sinless. Be a secret alcoholic but don't attend any 'worldly' program that might help. Hate your ex-wife or husband and never stop obsessing about it. Make any slanderous accusation that comes to mind. Don't maintain your home or car properly so everything falls apart at a moment that is wildly inconvenient and leaves you cursing, in tears. Believe in a Personal God who doesn't answer the prayers of 'worldly' people ( but strangely, doesn't answer yours, either).

  4) Use extreme comparisons to justify your life Know any 'worldly' people who have happy prosperous lives apart from drug use and jail terms? Know any non-Witnesses with stable marriages? Could it be that your relatives are losers who aren't a fair standard to relate to? That a static, sterile life as a Jehovahs Witness is hardly a worthy goal, regardless of other risks?

  Have I left anything out?

  metatron
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  mindmelda

  I too believe that European type "socialism" is inevitable, as unregulated capitalism merely produces boom and bust economies, cycles of inflation and recession, and people are getting pretty sick of it.

  But, it's not really socialism, don't worry. It's just some regulation and leveling the playing field for the average person a bit. Nothing scary.

  Oh, I know what you're saying. When you only compare yourself to other JWs, it's astounding to you to find out "worldly" people can be pretty happy if they work at it. The WTS would have you believing everyone that's wordly is either an empty materialist, a whore or a drug addict/alcoholic.

  Well, that's not true...most of the alkies I know ARE JWs. And if you count prescription drugs, a lot of the druggies. The rest sell alternative medicine and are afraid of doctors, because they're those evil people who force blood on you.
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  Pistoff

  True blue witnesses live in a manufactured world that actually DOES get worse every day; lack of education and "putting kingdom interests first" put more than a few of my ex friends in the poorhouse, or living check to check.

  I would add one:

  "Believe alternately that religion is on the decline (if only!) or that it will soon be outlawed by the UN; go crazy when the rational side of your brain tells you differently."

  P
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  yadda yadda 2

  Huh? There are presently numerous thousands of intelligent, non-religious people questioning the present laissez-faire capitalist system given its faults which have become painfully apparent by recent events. It's hardly shocking that they would think that capitalism as we have known or allowed it to develop in recent decades has somehow come to an end. http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/18/depression-financial-crisis-capitalism-opinions-columnists_recession_stimulus.html

  But capitalism is hardly dying as this JW claims. That's an extreme position but it's not in the realm of appalling self-deceit to assert it. Lassaiz-faire capitalism has run rampant and unregulated market economics and growth at all costs has almost been treated as an unquestionable law of nature. But now there is a realisation it must be reigned in, better controlled, more regulated.