The Truman Show

by slimboyfat 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  slimboyfat

  I know this has been discussed before, and it's the inspiration for Mickey mouse's avatar...

  I watched the Truman Show last night, and the parallels with life as a JW struck me. Truman thinks his world is real, but it's an illusion, part of an elaborate hoax. The clues are all around him that things are not quite right: his distant wife; running into his dead father in the street; the strange messages he picks up on his car radio talking about him and watching his movements. But if he knows deep down it's all wrong, then why doesn't he leave right away? The creator of Truman's world believes he knows the answer. Even though Truman has doubts about the world he's living in, it provides him security, and he won't have the courage to leave and give up that security. Truman proves him wrong in the end.

  But the part that really struck me was where Truman was talking with his old school friend on a bridge on a starry night, just as Truman's doubts about the reality of the world around him are driving him to a crisis point. It can't all be fake, his friend reassured him. He was Truman's oldest friend, they had been through everything together, since they were little kids. "If everything is fake Truman, that means I am fake, and you know that isn't true." As he speaks the words, you realise Truman's 'friend' is being fed lines through an earpiece from the creator-cum-director of the Truman Show at the control centre. Truman's friend is fake, everything is fake. But these calming words from his old 'friend' appear to set back Truman's full realisation, however briefly.

  I think of the times that Witnesses I know have made remarks implying total trust in the Witness world: talking about how near the end is; how the Society knows what's best; the things they've given up because we know we have the truth. Although I never add to the sentiments, I don't make my disagreement known either. They could easily take my friendliness as confirmation that I share their belief in the reality of the fake world the Witnesses inhabit. I know my (increasingly infrequent) presence at meetings, and times I meet up with Witnesses at home or in town, on their own, are not keeping anyone in the Watchtower organisation. But it all adds up. Each person who fails express their disbelief in the worldview expounded in the Watchtower helps to create the impression of a flock of people who all buy into the 'reality' of the Witness world.

  When I was first having doubts, I remember standing at a convention, looking at all the thousands of people around me, and thinking the most irrational thought: how could all these people be wrong? Look at them, they really believe it! But did they? How could I tell for sure? The millions of people outside the meeting who didn't believe in the Witness world somehow didn't matter so much. Here right next to me were thousands of people who looked like they knew what they were doing and what they believed in.

  Are those of us who now realise the Witness world is fake but don't stand up and say so like Truman's false friend? Are we delaying the exit of others by implicitly, through our actions, and what we (fail to) say, helping to keep the Watchtower illusion alive?

  Maybe to be an apostate is to be a true man. To be an under-the-radar semi-apostate is to be a false friend.
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  ThomasCovenant

  ''Each person who fails to express their disbelief in the worldview expounded in the Watchtower helps to create the impression of a flock of people who all buy into the 'reality' of the Witness world.''

  I couldn't agree more.

  Once when I was being 'counselled' the brother said that I had to be careful not to be haughty thinking I knew better than 7 million other Witlesses. Duh, what about the 7 billion non Witlesses
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  Heartbreaker

  That movie was such a huge thing for me. At the time I related it to the fact that my entire family operated in a way that no one spoke about the fact we grew up around and enduring molestation, it was just never spoken about. I drew the parallels there....but now, it's impossible to see that the true parallel is to the organization, and because of their rules and guidelines, my families past as well. I absolutely LOVE that movie.

  I was watching the previews for the last season of LOST and was thinking it too is a lot like the Org in that groups of people believe that they must do specific things for the benefit of themselves and others, for their own salvation. Everyone has a varying degree of needing to do something, or protect something, or their own angle, and it's all for not. Like puppets on a string in my opinion. I find it facinating, and also validating that THIS, THIS RIGHT HERE, is how we were all duped, or snowed to believe. It held an importance, or we were born in an were fed the lines and the guilt...all of it. It's just so easy to see now that I'm out.
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  Mickey mouse

  Good questions slimboyfat. It's something I ponder regularly.
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  moshe

  The first big summer assembly is what sucked my wife and I in - look at all these thousands of intelligent people who really believe this is the truth. So you just ride the wave with them and ignore any niggling doubts that pop up. I love that Truman movie, too.
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  jdhf

  Slimboyfat...

  Your remarks are an inspiration... when recently I really decided I had to leave and I would no longer look through rose coloured glasses I thought....'what about all of those poor people who are ignorant of the fact that this has all been and will continue to be a lie?'.... it really bothered me. I wanted to go to the hall and take the mike and tell them in no uncertain terms about all of the things I have learned about the precious society. I know that although I have the same 'zeal' to anti-witness, on an individual level, it is a decision that affects everyone differently. the consequences will be different for all as I have no family in the hall...but so many I know do have. the best that I can do, so not to be a false friend is to subtly and slowly put thoughts and ideas in their minds that hopefully will open their minds to independent thinking. I recently reached out to a really good friend who just moved out of Bethel in NY, and sowed seeds of what hopefully will be doubt. time will tell. Indoctrination is a terrible but formidable thing to combat. Even though I had doubts about certain things, it took a good friend to help me come to this realisation. Best of luck ...:)
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  truman

  As you can see from my screen name, The Truman Show is a very meaningful piece of art for me. I certainly understand your point about those who see clearly the WTS's false reality but keep assenting to the illusion being seen as contributing to its perpetuation. I hesitate though to be too harsh because each person has to deal with a unique situation and the heroic renunciation may not be what they are able to carry out.

  One thing I do see about the situation with Truman in the movie: There everyone except Truman was 'in' on the illusion. Only Truman was a victim of the manipulation. Only he was subject to the implanted fears and the deliberate psychological manipulation, the lies. Such is not the case with the JWs. In Watchtower world, the so-called apostate, closeted or open, is the one who has broken the illusion, while those around him or her are still spellbound.

  For the one whose eyes are opened to the false reality they have lived in, there is a powerful parallel between The Truman Show and waking up from the WT dream. It is a journey of self-discovery and self-actualization. That is what struck me so deeply when I viewed the movie. Truman's desire to grow overcomes the power of the dream, one far more pleasantly constructed than the one that JWs live in. For me, leaving the WTS was a matter of 'grow or die'.

  As for the other residents of Truman's artificial world, his exit meant little more for them than the need to find a new job. This is where the big difference comes in. For those left behind in the Kingdom Hall, the investment is much deeper. Much more than a job is at stake. Whole ego structures and families' lives are entangled with WT thinking.

  My observation is that it is the rare case in which mental captives can be freed by others pointing out their chains. If someone stood up at a JW convention and shouted out that the whole thing is a lie, even if twenty or thirty people did it, what would happen? I think some 'apostates' have tried in the past. The JWs have strategies in place to neutralize such actions, both on a physical level (burly 'brothers' who usher the shouter out of the building) and on a psychological one. Mostly the reaction to such declarations seems to be defensiveness and clinging tighter to the belief system, congratulating themselves on escaping Satan's treachery.

  In the film, Truman had to gather the inner strength to ask the forbidden questions, to transcend his fears, to confront the unknown outside the swaddling world he lived in. I am not saying that 'awakened' JWs cannot help captive ones to escape; they can, and many have. But I do think there must be something inside a person demanding freedom before it can be effectively embraced. That desire is a seed in all humans, but the growth rate varies.