"I never thought I would come that close to my retirement in this old system of things"

by Hoffnung 36 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Hoffnung

  Some time ago I was at a family gathering. My father and uncles are all long-time elders in their congregations. When they were discussing they all were 50+ now, one of my uncles said: "I never thought I would come that close to my retirement in this old system of things". The others all agreed and expressed similar feelings. My parents and uncles and aunts all became witnesses in the hype before 75. This uncle of mine was actually very good in school, but broke off his college studies because Armageddon was so near. Since then he worked as a carpenter for another "brother" who just paid a little more than the minimum wage. He never saved anything, never bought a home. And of course their kids were told when reaching 6, they would never finish primary school, and when finishing that, they would never start working. All of them are working for more than 10 years now. But the end is so near!

  Can't they see it? The promised paradise is not going to come in their life time, and not in mine either! It is all a bait to keep them on the edge and stop thinking. All these families have waisted their lives in slaving for a reward that's never going to come, and they expect of us to do the same. They could have used it better to build up something for themselves so they would have the means to have a very enjoyable old age.

  The end will be poor and filled with desillusion, as so many have experienced before them. So sad..., but I can't help them. They would not listen.
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  sizemik

  It's a sad situation Hoffnung . . . but each must come to their own conclusions. Being believers for a long period, including your best years, becomes like an "investment". . . a lifetime investment. The mind just cannot even "go there" to admit it's all been a waste.

  We all suspect before exiting the cult that the decision is going to "tough" . . . giving up on a long held hope, not to mention the "fallout" (shunning etc). Some just prefer the lazy way out . . . to hold on to the delusion rather than take the tough choice and leave. For most of those ones nothing will make them listen . . . as Paul Simon wrote . . . "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest"

  It doesn't mean we should give up . . . but we do need to be realistic in our expectations
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  prophecor

  The clock has bout run out

  

  No one told you when to run

  You've missed the starting gun....

  Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
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  DesirousOfChange

  I commented in another post that a (faithful) elder I know who is 40 year old, recently shared his early retirement plans with me whereby he will be able to retire at 57 years old. I said it's remarkable that you are planning for 17 years from now IN THIS SYSTEM..... Well, [now backpedaling] he doesn't really expect that it could go on that long, BUT................................

  Most JWs no longer really believe the end is near.

  Older ones expect to die in this system.

  Middle aged ones as shoring up for retirement to avoid the situation now faced by the old ones who did not do so.

  Younger ones ARE going to college and starting families.
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  moshe

  I sent a retirement postcard last winter with the Florida sun to a JW elder up in the snowbelt who tried to get me to partner with him in his concrete construction business back in 1976- (I had told him I would stick with my union job.) I mentioned that I hoped he was doing OK on caesar's Social Security, while he was waiting for Armageddon.- me- I was doing great on my pensions, since I left the KH ( he knew when), since I had actually planned for a retirement.

  I did it, just so he knew I wasn't one of those apostates whom the WT predicted would have a terrible life outside of the KH.
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  Ding

  It's no wonder JWs believed that.

  It's what the FDS told them...
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  ProdigalSon

  I never thought I would finish college, let alone have a son that would finish college. That happened yesterday. I have no doubt that not only will I retire, but so will he. Welcome to reality!
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  OnTheWayOut

  Statistics will come and either verify or debunk this, but I really believe JW's have met their peak at 7 million or so. THey might slightly climb for a few more years, but they are straining and changing their own rules on how to "count time" in order to keep "active publishers" to climb tiny fractions each year in growth. A huge part of that is as DesirousOfChange says above:

  Most JWs no longer really believe the end is near.

  Older ones expect to die in this system.

  Middle aged ones as shoring up for retirement to avoid the situation now faced by the old ones who did not do so.

  Younger ones ARE going to college and starting families.

  In most areas of the world, people have some chance to better the lives of their children with a good education. Also, dubs know they are working hard because they didn't go to college and they are losing sight of paradise around the next corner. WTS can only cry "Wolf!" for so long.

  My retired mother won't talk about it now, but she has clearly lost sight of having the Great Tribulation/Armageddon in her lifetime. They still retain most older ones because their cult training has them embedded in thinking they can still instantly wake up in Watchtower's "paradise" rather than never wake up again. It's really just Pascal's Wager. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager)

  With the average JW's mindset, I can picture them thinking they will wake up in Paradise and say, "When did Armageddon finally come?" They expect the answer they receive will be shortly before or after their own retirement or death. They keep their cognitive dissonance high because they have so much invested in it. NOT SO FOR THE YOUNG ONES THOUGH.
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  garyneal

  Yet, I hear being a realist is like being a pessimist.
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  WTWizard

  Realistically, I could have invested a little. Instead of cutting back on work hours and wasting money on Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund donations and theocraptic items, I could have put some in the stock market during the 1990s. Even a wussy investment, getting in around 1989 at Dow 2500 and pulling out at Dow 10,000 would have quadrupled my money. At which point, buying silver at $5 per ounce (which would have made me another 8 times on my money, so far) could have resulted in a decent amount of safe investment. Just $1,000 invested like that would have yielded $32,000 today--which is roughly 3 times as much as I currently have in silver. And, adding little amounts like $10 a week could have sharply added to this--I figure I would have somewhere near $200,000 in inflation-proof wealth instead of merely roughly $10,000.

  But, all the talk is that you are not going to retire. Those under 40 are not supposed to have to worry about growing old in this system--you might die of "time and unforseen circumstances", but not grow old. Those in their 40s and early 50s and not disabled or having a chronic medical condition are also told not to worry about retirement. Those 55 and up are told to trust in Jehovah--who always welshes on his end of every deal. And, even if you do retire because of disability or you get too old, things are supposed to get so bad that your assets will all be worthless. They bash both paper assets and hard physical assets--I never saw a crash in both at the same time where both paper and physical assets entered long term bear markets. And I never saw gold and silver become worthless--like the Washtowel claims will happen.