Lack of education does not = stupid.

by bluecanary 37 Replies latest jw experiences

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  bluecanary

  In Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steve Hassan writes:

  In principle, I am against banning cults from college campuses unless they expressly violate rules of conduct that every student organization is expected to follow. I believe that these groups have the right to exist, and I would not like to see legislation banning them. However, I would like to see programs sponsored by colleges to teach people about the specifics about mind control and the recruitment techniques commonly used by destructive cults.

  I would love to see every high school and college teach its students about mind control and destructive cults. The course needn’t mention any particular group by name; it should discuss the psychological principles of mind control and teach students to be suspicious of any environment that discourages them from asking critical questions.

  Numerous times on this board, I have seen people attack the witnesses as being stupid or gullible. While this may be true on a group level, it is not on an individual level. Most of us here at one time chose to be a member of that organization, not because of stupidity, but because of lack of awareness of cult indoctrination and mind control techniques.

  If you had received an education about this in school, do you think it would have prevented you from becoming a witness (or facilitated your leaving it, if you already were one)?

  I, for one, agree with Steve Hassan. I do not want the government to step in and ban any group. The government doesn’t do anything by half measures. If they step in, it will be with a big stick and more will be destroyed than we want.

  But if individuals are educated, they can have the tools to make wise decisions about what groups to be a part of.
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  snowbird

  If you had received an education about this in school, do you think it would have prevented you from becoming a witness (or facilitated your leaving it, if you already were one)?

  I believe it would have enabled me to examine the JW teachings more critically.

  I remember asking a lot of questions that, looking back, were answered too smoothly.

  Sylvia
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  bluecanary

  Same here, Sylvia. I remember thinking "I agree with their conclusion, but not with how they arrived at it." What I didn't question was why on earth I agreed with their conclusion!
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  insearchoftruth

  They are so well trained to get one to accept a conclusion without really thinking about the reasoning and steps to the conclusion. One of the techniques employed when one asks a tough question is to just wait and that question will be answered later in your study.....if one can build trust in little things up front, it often stops one from questioning major things later.

  JWs are not stupid by any means, they are misled by a very finely tuned machine to stop them from thinking for themselves....
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  caliber

  One of the techniques employed when one asks a tough question is to just wait and that question will be answered later in your study

  For sure the whole study system is ..answer the pre-assigned questions in the book ...stay on their one train of thought !

  Postpone doubts until later, later you're on a new thought ...don't ask additional question.. the cycle goes on and on

  until your passive trust is won over... blissful hope never needs to ask questions !

  PS... you are told to ask these questions after the study, after the study all is forgot.. it's social time !
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  JeffT

  I don't know. I was late in my junior year of college when I was first contacted by a witness friend. I studied through most of my senior year. WSU has a library with something like two and a half million volumes. I never once went there and looked up JW's. I think they have enough pat answers to get around a lot of objections, on the other hand, education on the matter won't hurt anybody.
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  steve2

  When I went to college, some of my peers who belonged to fundamentalist Christian groups bombarded me with anti-JW literature. I took it home and read it and I found it ill-informed and inflammatory. It made me more convinced that JWs had the truth. Leave well alone, I say. Sometimes attempts to "educate" people backfire badly.

  I also agree with Hassan: Banning cults is counter-productive, but beyond that, how dare these self-appointed de-programming groups try to tell me what not to believe and to use the very methods they decry (i.e., force)! Talk about paradoxical.
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  Farkel

  :Lack of education does not = stupid.

  Of course not, but there is more to it than that. As a general rule, well-educated people are not likely to become Jehovah's Witnesses, while lesser educated people are.

  The WTS discourages a higher education for a reason not specifically related to an objection to one's learning more, but to one's ability to learn to THINK more after become educated.

  There are many gung-ho JWs who KNOW a lot about a lot of things. There aren't many gung-ho JW who actually know how to THINK critically.

  I would assert that it is easier to thwart critical thought in someone who has never learned it than it is to do so in someone who has learned it.

  Independent THOUGHT is the main enemy of the WTS. More so than Satan, who is just a Watchtower Stage Prop, anyway.

  Farkel
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  parakeet

  Numerous times on this board, I have seen people attack the witnesses as being stupid...."

  I think the term "stupid" is used loosely. Many threads begin with "How could I have been so stupid ...?" I don't think anyone here believes dubs are innately stupid; rather, that dubs willfully close their minds to logical thinking; hence the term "braindead."

  Most of us here at one time chose to be a member of that organization.....

  Many of us were dragged in as children or at birth.

  If you had received an education about this in school, do you think it would have prevented you from becoming a witness (or facilitated your leaving it, if you already were one)?

  If by "school," you mean college-level, then yes. Although most here, including me, left by reasoning it out on their own.
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  flipper

  BLUE CANARY - Good thread ! One thing Steve Hassan mentions in both of his books is that intelligent and not so intelligent peoplw can BOTH be easily duped by cult mind control. Hassan mentioned that being sucked in by mind ontrol isn't so much an intelligence thing or lack thereof- but the fact that the cult makes people feel like they are specially chosen by God and are approved more than anybody else. And that the cult promises these people grandiose things , ie, pradise, live forever , kings and priests with Jesus, no more sickness, no death. They suck these people in through FALSE PROMISES in which the cult will never be able to deliver.

  So cults appeal to humans basic instincts of feeling important, needed , and that no other group on the planet has any answers - only the cult. And believe it or not - some people are just ripe for the picking because they wantor need to know their future, they just can't let the future come on it's own. They have to choreograph their future