Terry said: I know that the military deliberately breaks down recruits' sense of privacy as a tool for dominating their consciousness and gaining the ability to control them with immediate positive response to command without "thinking" about it as a personal decision. Are you saying this is a conscious tactic on the part of the Watchtower Corporation? Or, is it just a kind of eventual status that a JW is worn into through constant counsel?
I'd have to say they use both tactics and it is very much like the army. The army wants soldiers to blindly obey orders from their superiors without question. Questioning or disobeying these order can result in severe punishment no matter how trivial the infraction. The Organization is not much different. They want the R&F to blindly accept orders and 'suggestions' from their superiors without question. To disobey anything that the 'Slave' class says can result in severe punishment no matter how trivial the infraction. And to make sure they keep you under their thumb, their counsel is provided repeatedly through several meetings per week, through their literature which you are expected to read the second you get it, through ASSemblies, through 'private study', through 'family studies', recreationally, and through going out in Field Serve-Us on a regular basis. When you factor in the fact that most Witnesses are not well educated, have a long habit of taking orders and are are strongly discouraged from any sort of 'independent thinking', then the simplest things (such as what sort of movie you should watch or if you are into oral sex with your husband/wife) all becomes public property (through either official punishment or sheer gossip Wednesday mornings with all the sisters out in Service).
You're right Terry---there is no privacy in this cult, other than perhaps what brand of mascara you want to buy. Me? I'm partial to Loreal myself.