Fantastic post truthseeker. May the ranks of the conscious class keep swelling by the day.
Hopscotch
The Rise of the Conscious Class
by truthseeker 60 Replies latest jw friends
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WalkTall
Count me in the conscious class. I also look around the hall, especially during WT studies such as this past Sunday and wonder why it is not dawning on anyone else that they are worshipping, professing loyalty to, and submitting to a corporation of men. And, worse yet, a corporation of men that doesn't give two hoots about them as individuals. They just parrot the answers in the paragraph and laud the organization's attributes. I sit there horrifed at how they cannot see what is going on. I agree with JWoods that the constant demand for complete obedience is evidence of the WT's realization that there are people who are waking up to their lies. But rather than addressing the issues that they must know people are learning about them and the Bible itself, they've decided to play hardball. This religion is more a dictatorship than a theocracy. What I hope is that someday their requirements become so absurd that people, especially younger people raised on the internet, will just give up. I see many in my cong. in their 20's and 30's who are lackluster Witnesses. I don't know how much they really know, but my feeling is they are only there because it is all they've ever known and their families are Witnesses. So we of the conscious class and all you who are already out must keep up the good fight in the hopes that it is this group of people that we can somehow reach and help them to see there is a better way, there is a better life.
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metatron
I don't know, I'm inclined to be skeptical about this. Witnesses will never admit to any flaw in the cult in my experience. OTOH, I suspect that the middle management types are more likely to be discreetly critical - these include C.O.'s, Bethelites, and well connected elders.
Given that they are dumping Bethelites and maybe C.O.'s too, I have to wonder about the structure that would remain. A collective leadership that increasingly demands worship from a class of ignorant, half burned out cultists who won't open their wallets. They deserve each other.
You can't run a thinly stretched organization like this with just cheapskate morons and religious numbskulls. If they think otherwise, they are kidding themselves.
metatron
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Mad Sweeney
I think that's why progress has to be measured not by whether the WTS is somehow destroyed or shut down but by their struggles to maintain the status quo they wish to maintain.
Any change forced on them by a lack of donations is a victory.
Any change they feel compelled to make due to legal defeats is a victory.
Any change they make in response to perceived disgruntlement of the rank and file is a victory.
Any additional member of the conscious class, whether known or in secret, is another victory.
As long as there are countries with extreme religious freedom the WTS will have a niche in this world's society. But as long as there are continued victories, however small, there remains hope for ourselves and for our loved ones still ensnared.
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Cadellin
Count me in--I heartily echo the sentiments already expressed--I'm so grateful to Simon for starting this place up and for all of you fellow CC members for contributing. Yes, I would as well feel slighly loony (well, er, more than I normally do, anyway) if I wasn't able to read all of the Coming-To-Consciousness experiences here, all of the amazing and scholarly research and all of the ongoing analyses of what this crazy organization is up to.
Cadellin the (finally) Conscious
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independent_tre
Sometimes things come along right when you need them. And I really needed to read this tonight. Thank you so much for posting this.
I work around numerous dubs and most of my close family is in; Tonight I felt like ripping the bandaid off and getting the DA over with; some days I don't know how much more I can take. Around me there is not a single person that I can talk to about my frustrations. Even my spouse doesn't understand "why I can't just get over it" since I haven't been to a meeting in almost 2 years. He doesn't understand the indoctrination of being raised in a cult, nor the risks in walking away. At times, I feel no one understands except those in the 'conscious class'. I'm forever grateful for this forum and forever indebted to numerous posters here, who really understand and can relate to this struggle.
Thank you and excellent post
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inbetween
count me in as well, actually depending on the definition of conscious class, maybe I was a member already years ago, before looking at this excellent webside.
I just didnt know, and thought, its me, who got things wrong...now I know, its not me, its the ORG.
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palmtree67
Excellent post, well-thought-out take on things.
palm
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WTWizard
One thing I have noticed is that information about the witlesses is very common--including some that is not yet released, or that is out of date. The "generation" change(s) have appeared here before they appeared in your local Kingdumb Hell. I was there for the 1995 "generation". But I heard the 2008 "generation" here, months before the witlesses even knew it. And this latest "generation", they won't even know about it until April. It is January, and already I have heard about "a generation" being altered in its early stages in December 2009! Therefore, I will not be taken off guard.
The Kingdumb Maladies is another example. I first heard about that last May. And, some of the reviews of the new Kingdumb Maladies were pretty pathetic--ranging from being dumbed down, to being more controling. All you are going to hear at the Kingdumb Hell is "With such beautiful new music, why on Earth would anyone even want to listen to worldly music?". Yet, I have heard people honestly reporting how stupid and controling the new Kingdumb Maladies, and some of the remakes of old ones, actually are.
Other things I appreciate being able to see discussions about include how "zealous" others were in field circus (or observed others being), how they felt when a boasting session got snowed out, the hassles of going to the a$$emblies, and all the pledge forms getting shoved in people's faces. There are rules that apply in one region or congregation, or even to one person in the same congregation, that do not apply elsewhere. And, with all the whoppers I have seen, it makes me sick to think I used to support the religion. Protecting pedophies is the biggest one. The blood issue, killing children and babies because of the blood, is another I would be afraid to discuss rationally at the Kingdumb Hell. The UN scandal is another. And, yes there are the few (which will become more numerous if they start recruiting from prisons and mental wards to inflate the numbers) that kill and eat babies or kidnap children and use them as sex slaves.
Not to mention how they come up with their inflated numbers. Most of the growth is in the Third World, or is a result of fake time slips and forcing children to turn in field circus times. That I could not discuss at the Kingdumb Hell--especially the fake time slips and forcing chldren to do field circus.