by metatron 122 Replies latest jw friends
There will always be a watchtower mentality or one kind or another somewhere on earth because there will always be desperately "lost" people searching for unknowable certainty who will willingly put their brain cells on ice in the service of being soothed about the unknowable future.
It's about escaping the responsibility of thinking for oneself and is one of numberless ways adults act like children.
Steve2.... I totally agree with you! This is exactly what I've seen in my own family.
metatron. I enjoy your posts. Was what you wrote just a well educated guess or do you have any connections. just curious.
This excellent thread reminds me of a book called Kitchen Confidential. The author went on to star in a Food Network TV show. In one section of the book, he writes about restaurants that fail and describes how you can tell when one is in trouble. One of the signs is that the restaurant departs from what it was originally about. An upscale restaurant, for example, suddenly launches "family night" with spaghetti dinners for $9.95. A steak house adds comfort food to its menu. A Chinese restaurant advertises hamburgers. And so on. That's the beginning of the end; that restaurant is in trouble and will soon be closing.
The WT Society is like a restaurant that attracted patrons with a limited and specific menu. In recent years, they've dropped a number of popular items from the menu and in so doing have changed the nature of their business. One of two things is bound to happen; they'll close their doors, or they'll dramatically rebrand the enterprise and attract a new generation of customers. Things will never be the same.
Clearly the WTS is in dire straits financially. One poster wrote that the magazine arrangement is changing because publishers have thousands of magazines rat-holed in their homes and never placed. That was true 35 years ago when I started attending meetings, and has been true ever since. Why all of a sudden is there such concern? The answer must be that they needed bragging rights (big circulation numbers) more than they needed the cost of all that surplus garbage. Now, however, cash flow takes precedence. This is a sign of a business in trouble.
Clearly the WTS is in dire straits financially. One poster wrote that the magazine arrangement is changing because publishers have thousands of magazines rat-holed in their homes and never placed. That was true 35 years ago when I started attending meetings, and has been true ever since. Why all of a sudden is there such concern?
Prior to the complete donation arrangement for literature, it didn't matter where the literature went. They did not take a loss on literature sales. Each piece was purchased at the Kingdom Hall.
Plus, there is currently a worldwide economic recession.
Those are the two reasons for concern.
Changes in Government requirements continue to create financial liability and shifting within the WTS structure.
In the end..... this is not a sect that was ever suppose to see the 21st century!
Great post Willyloman! I think it's spot on.
Great post, Willy.
And I agree with Ynot;
In the end..... this is not a sect that was ever suppose to see the 21st century!
Let me add two other factors that seriously disadvantage the Watchtower Empire:
1) the burden of maintaining personal faith and technical competence.
2) the burden of insisting on a "persecuted" status.
As to the first, the Watchtower has grown across the decades by exploiting simple, unskilled labor but that is growing ineffective. It's gotten so bad in recent years that they have considered letting commercial printers take over from their Bethelite "volunteers". And the preaching work? Are you kidding? It's degenerated into a door knocking, slow walking ritual.
Even in an anti-intellectual cult, somebody better be smart and competent! Not everyone can be a fantasy-directed idiot. You MUST have a competent legal staff, solid accountants and, today, competent IT/security people. If you don't, you are in a world of trouble. However, the Watchtower must labor with an additional burden here, as these must also be faithful and 'volunteers' at the same time!
They have some very good people in these departments. However, that doesn't mean that they always will. In this era of internet exposure, we have already seen how a single unguarded afternoon alone at the computer can evaporate years of Watchtower slavery. And if 'apostasy' doesn't do it, internet porn might! Increasingly, they will 'have to pay their own way' as to services .... and risk sudden "de-conversion" with the rest.
The more they layoff, the greater the critical burden on the remainder. Trim your "margin for error" down to razor thin and ask any engineer what's bound to happen next....
Secondly, they have always loved to revel in their "persecuted" status while in fact much of the so'called "persecution" is their own fault in being unreasonable or obnoxious. This generates a situation that at least some 'higher ups' are aware of, namely, the endless cultivation of determined enemies who eagerly hope for the crushing defeat of Watchtower, Inc. ( ahem!) While there are some people who are pi$$ed off by the Catholic Church or the Mormons, I doubt you will ever find a similar intensity as that which opposes the Watchtower Society and with good reason.
And what is the real cost of this continuing dismissal of Witness dissidents, angering them endlessly by the organization's self righteous and unapologetic attitude?
We will never completely know..... but I can give you a big hint. As one long term (and discouraged) Bethelite told me, " They are always watching us, always looking for a mistake, something they can catch us on". Exactly so. Every lie. Every deception. Every legal possibility to strike back at this sick enterprize.
And that's not going to change - if anything, it's going to intensify, all the while they blame 'Satan the Devil' for woes they themselves generated, everytime they puff out their inflated chests with "Enemies of God Will Not Prevail" ( get a clue, the "Enemies" are prevailing!).
Ultimately, as a heavily centralized organization, they cannot win a protracted "guerrilla war", as the internet particularily provides.
metatron
it is incredibly asymmetric in our favor
cost of providing a website = a few dollars a month
website viewers = maybe a few hundred thousand a month
now tell me what infrastructure the WTS needs to maintain, motivate, support and report on, all to contact a few hundred people a month?
DUH.
however - when you truly believe you are God's expression on earth then choosing between WTS Inc and JW religion may not be as black and white as it appears to us.....
