Well, I hear the trains ran on time

OnTheWayOut

Because of the problem with long posts, I will type this in Notepad and post in pieces.
Don't bother reading this if you are impatient. It takes a bit to get to the point.

This is not a thread about Adolf Hitler, but I wanted to use
history to make a point. Rumors persist that Hitler was
extremely efficient and those that try to look for a silver
lining for his horrible regime say that "...at least the trains
ran on time" in Nazi Germany.

There's even an episode of the original Star Trek where a
Federation representative establishes a Nazi state on a planet
in order to quickly bring what he believed was
"the most efficient system of government ever devised."

In reality, it was Facist Italy that got the trains running on time- sort of.
One of the best ways to gain the support of the people you want to lead is to do
something of benefit to them. Failing that, the next best thing is to convince them
that you have done something of benefit to them, even though you really haven’t. So
it was with Benito Mussolini and the Italian railway system.

Mussolini needed to convince the people of Italy that fascism was indeed a system
that worked to their benefit. Thus was born the myth of fascist efficiency, with the
train as its symbol. The word was spread that Mussolini had turned the dilapidated
Italian railway system into one that was the envy of all Europe, featuring trains that
were both dependable and punctual.

OnTheWayOut

In Mussolini’s Italy, all the trains ran on time. Well, not quite. The Italian railway
system had fallen into a rather sad state during World War I, and it did improve a good
deal during the 1920s, but Mussolini was disingenuous in taking credit for the changes:
much of the repair work had been performed before Mussolini and the fascists came to
power in 1922. More importantly (to the claim at hand), those who actually lived in
Italy during the Mussolini era have borne testimony that the Italian railway’s
legendary adherence to timetables was far more myth than reality.

Regardless of people remembering it being Nazi Germany or Facist Italy (history
remembers it is Italy), the point is that their propoganda campaign was so successful
that the legend grew and people today still proclaim that something good came out of
this terrible chapter in world history. There's even a quote that gives praise for
this singular deed:

‘Mussolini may have done many brutal and tyrannical things; he may have destroyed human
freedom in Italy; he may have murdered and tortured citizens whose only crime was to
oppose Mussolini; but “one had to admit” one thing about the Dictator: he “made the
trains run on time.”’”

I believe the above quote is from THE IGNORANCE OF CERTAINTY [by] Ashley Montagu and
Edward Darling.

OnTheWayOut

NOW TO THE POINT:

Typical of therapists, mine asked me if something good didn't come out of my experience with
the WTS. I also see many common threads on here that say "At least I met my wonderful mate
and have these wonderful children." "At least I got off of drugs." Many more.

Here was my problem with the answer: If I say nothing good came out of it, that is not true.
If I answer as some others have, it's like saying it was okay to be misled by a false prophet
mind-control cult because I have this wonderful wife out of it- it was worth it. If I don't
say it was worth it, it's like saying my reward isn't sufficient for suffering or waste of my
life. It's almost an insult to my wife. Do you get that?

I know good and well that if I never became a JW, I would not be with my current wife. I
might instead be on divorce number 3 by now instead of marriage number 1. Similar for many
of you, you might not have three wonderful children or the current career or whatever. Things
could be better or worse, but they would be completely different if you never were a JW.

I say that any good that came out of the traumatic experience was despite the experience.
Some Italians today and in the past even looked fondly back at Mussolini because he supposedly
gave Italians the awareness of belonging to a great nation. Some ex-JW's say that they got a
real sense of spirituality from their search for truth or look back to how they have a greater
morality than they did before being a JW.

All fine and dandy. Don't give credit to WTS for your own accomplishments or good breaks in
life. Don't credit WTS with putting together you and your mate. I wouldn't wish a
death-dealing disaster upon a city because I met a cute nurse when I took my dying friend to
the emergency room. But that doesn't mean I wasn't thrilled to meet the cute nurse and marry
her.

OnTheWayOut

So was it worth it? NO. Nobody deserves to be misled by WTS. In my opinion, nothing good as
a result justifies the lying and total control of lives, the implanting of fears, the lost lives
to the blood issue, the sacrifice of money and education and careers and the years wasted.

I say all this because it seems necessary to go through this pessimism in order to truly release
it and get to optimism. Life can be good, but it can be unfair. There are others out there
who never got roped into the WTS, but life has been unfair to them. Make the best of it now.
Start living today if you have not started already. Credit yourself with your good qualities
and realize that any break you got, you made it work. Don't give credit to a dangerous mind-
control cult. Thanks for reading.

Done now.

OnTheWayOut

Oh, I even met a Romanian older man that lived through the fall of Communism in Romania in the 1980's. He fondly looked back that people had food and jobs and things were run efficiently. He forgets that people suffered horribly and that he and his family fled by bribing officials to get out of the terrible regime. He just knows that there are problems now that they didn't have under the Soviet-aligned Communist state.

VIII

Well written, well said. Thank you.

This needs to be reiterated:

So was it worth it? NO. Nobody deserves to be misled by WTS. In my opinion, nothing good as

a result justifies the lying and total control of lives, the implanting of fears, the lost lives

to the blood issue, the sacrifice of money and education and careers and the years wasted.

Open mind

Well thought out post Jerry.

I particularly concur with this bit:

it seems necessary to go through this pessimism in order to truly release it and get to optimism

Thanks again,

om

leavingwt

JeffT

When I did my 4th step with my AA sponsor we spent some time on my being an xjw. He likened be an xjw to be a recovering alcoholic. You can't change what you did in the past, so either you learn something from the experience, build on it, and move on; or you wallow in a stinking pile left over from an earlier time. You can also help others learn from what happened to you, and warn those not yet caught up of the dangers.

BabaYaga

OntheWay said:

Oh, I even met a Romanian older man that lived through the fall of Communism in Romania in the 1980's. He fondly looked back that people had food and jobs and things were run efficiently. He forgets that people suffered horribly and that he and his family fled by bribing officials to get out of the terrible regime.

Indeed. As they say, folks tend to "only remember the good". There is something good in nearly everything... at least one must force himself to see the good so as to survive within it.

Survival techiques then become the nostalgia... odd.

Great post, On the Way.

Well, I hear the trains ran on time

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