I remember the religion in the late 1980s. Even though it was already becoming stagnant, I can remember the occasional gatherings for recreation. The boasting sessions back then had a few different things--a little variety. Sometimes you would have someone actually play the piano. Comments that used illustrations not supplied by the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebuger were allowed. You go out in field circus, and you could actually defend the viewpoint. True, it was impossible to recruit someone that was an expert on the Bible, but at least you could stand your ground.
Then, along came the 1990s. They started banning gatherings of the whole congregation for recreation on the grounds of isolated fornication, drink driving, and drug use. Doctrine changed, becoming that much harder to at least stand your ground. Comments became more restricted to the words of the paragraph or using the illustration supplied by the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger without modification. Slide shows were done away with. And field circus is much wimpier--you could knock down the witlesses' faith with a feather duster these days.
As if this weren't bad enough, they folded the stand-alone book study. Comments are now restricted, goodie nights are a thing of the past, and now the witlesses' lives are a little narrower. Family Waste the Evening night replaced that, and they want you to waste the full 4 hours each week. Then they got a new songbook--135 songs that, if you could believe it, are even worse than the 225 Kingdumb maladies were. "Rise before gray hairs"--how is that going to hit with teenagers?
Yes, it was bad then. Yes, it was already on its way down then. But, the witless religion has gotten even worse. Sing the same rubbish, listen to the same 10-12 or so themes of talks, read crap in the rags (including out-of-context information about cultures in some obscure land, always in the context of how the witlesses are doing there), place the same 5 or 6 articles with the verbiage printed in the Kingdumb Misery, pious-sneer, a$$emblies, reject Jesus--how is that a robust lifestyle?