They can exhaust their supply of dupes and will then
migrate to some other planet to find new victims.
Are They Cynically Shutting Down The Organization?
by metatron 112 Replies latest jw friends
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00DAD
If only, but alas you don't kill the cashcow while it still produces milk and breeds.
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cobaltcupcake
With this new declaration that the GB = FDS it seems to me that they are consolidating power. With family still on the inside my biggest fear is some sort of eventual Jim Jones lunacy and actual Kool Aid.
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NewChapter
Maybe the internet will be integrated into their prophecies about Jesus. Long before they could conceive of something like the internet, they had to address the idea of Jesus's 'presence' or 'return'. Now who will everyone 'see' this. I remember a sister using an illustration on a householder (tm) where she used an orange to illustrate Jesus's return. She asked the HH at what point could the entire earth see Jesus. Of course not. So it is through looking at events as they unfold in the world---the composite sign.
Well now they have the internet! So perhaps they will expand and say, see, all this infor was made available on the world wide net that Jesus has returned and that is another way in which they will all be able to 'see'. Yes, the point of return visible to all could well be the internet.
What I think is more likely, is that they get their growth mostly from reproduction rather than preaching to outsiders. they were very negative toward the internet in the beginning, but they have lost that battle. The internet generation is growing up, and what are they going to do? In a few years, books will be archaic to some.
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frankiespeakin
I do think that at least on a unconscious level or a very low conscious level they are preparing for the inevitable shut down or extreme down sizing due to over a hundred years of failed dates and the more recent world wide internet exposer.
I'm sure this realisation is somewhere in thier psyche and causing them to act, consciously or unconsciously. Denile/Delusion/Cognitive Dissonance has its price to pay.
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Etude
metatron: Your take on this issue tickles my brain, especially the part about replacing a bunch of publishers with racks of servers.
I've long suspected that the WTBTS was on its way towards a major change and a re-assessment of itself in a new direction. I know that a lot of attrition there had to do with the advancement of technology. Today is a long way from ancient Mann and Cotter printing presses.
But what really made me realize that they would inevitably face some major changes was that the increase in their ranks failed to meet their expectations. Every year when I read their Year Book, I failed to see how their "Good News" was delivering, in spite of their glowing accounts of converts.
In addition, the explosive growth of the Mormons and their significant influence in almost every industrial, political, financial facet of life must have made them envious. It stands to reason that, judging by growth alone, God's blessings were going to the Mormons.
It's possible that the new crop of GB members is thinking in another direction. I don't put it past them, now that they are the FDS, the pull some of the tricks that the Mormons have pulled, such as having major "revelations" that turn some of their long-standing positions a complete 180ยบ. Some of these, of course, include the acceptance of blacks into the priesthood and the abolition of polygamy.
I think that the WTBTS (really the Jehovah's Witnesses organization) wants to be more "significant" or "impacting" or "legitimate". I think that's why they decided to become a United Nations NGO. Of course, these changes take time and I don't doubt if they have been cleverly plotted to occur at prescribed instances. I'd watch the bastards carefully in this respect. It may well be that at one point, we will be directing our concerns towards an entirely different animal than the one from whose jaws we once escaped.
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metatron
It's good to read about your realization as to how totally weird this situation is. Sorry if I seem satirical but....
it's a choice between believing that they sincerely run a massively deceptive organization that wrecks families and friendships and offers false predictions and draws in contributions while lying to their thralls...........
or
that they cynically ......................... do exactly the same thing !
Yikes!
OK, thinking about it..... I might be able to see that a completely weasely, cynical governance might be difficult to maintain. Even sociopaths might have their moments while staring into the mirror in the morning ("What the hell am I a part of?")
Yet, I think you guys realize that at some level a few neurons have to be firing to grant them some sense of reality - that this is all bogus and having cash in your bank account is a really good idea, no matter what.
OK too, they aren't going to vanish anytime soon - but that doesn't mean that they couldn't retract in some dramatic fashion, together with a smaller number of supporting zombie/thralls to adulate them.
A Very Wise Observation from the Bible (and rephrased several times): "every way of a man is right in his own eyes". It doesn't matter if your name is Hitler or Stalin or preceded by "Brother .....". Anything can be justified in an individual mind.
metatron
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Etude
metatron: I can't but compare to what the Mormons achieved. There came a point where, instead of being isolationists and a pariah to everyone else, they radically altered their views (without vivisecting their core) and became a force to be reckoned with.
I don't think the JWs want to down-size. I think that in order to remain viable, they know that they have to be more significant, not just in numbers but also in influence and visibility at some level. I think that their present course (slimming and trimming) is setting them up to become something new.
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Vidiot
metatron - "OK, thinking about it..... I might be able to see that a completely weasely, cynical governance might be difficult to maintain. Even sociopaths might have their moments while staring into the mirror in the morning ('What the hell am I a part of?')"
Some did have their moments.
They left and/or passed away though, and (from what I can see) left no spiritual or intellectual successors; Jaracz saw to that.
All that's left now are men like him ("Double-High" authoritarian leaders) and their loyal enablers, both types of which are almost always full-on True Believers (TM) .
Guys like that see whatever they need to in the mirror; not in spite of what they believe, but because of it.
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metatron
OK, but for every honest, conscience-driven mensch like Ray Franz, there are likely to be ten others that aren't going to raise a fuss or seek to be burned at the stake as a martyr. Just not comfy....
The comparison to Mormons is interesting especially as some have thought that they consciously imitated the LDS in setting up family night - but if so, how do they live with themselves knowing about that sort of weird syncretism? Just shopping around for ideas in cult religions? Really?
The Mormons survive because they have good structure - which is exactly what the Watchtower Hierarchs are tearing down. They got cash flow (tithing), an excellent rite of passage thing with the 2 year mission program and BYU. The WT cult opposes college, fails to help teenagers and has publishers closing their wallets. Good luck changing that.
I think there has been an occasional desire to be more respected or prominent in the world. They were well on their way to becoming apologists for the UN before it all got exposed and wrecked (yes, you WT defenders, they did! .. but that's another story).
metatron