Interesting Choice of Words

by piztjw 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • piztjw
    piztjw

    I get into words, and why certain words are used, and the meaning of certain words as they are used, especially by the WT&T$. I noticed the way this statement about relief work in the Phillipines news article on j.worg was written:

    "An estimated 15 to 20 percent of those seeking refuge at the site are non-Witnesses."

    What is telling about the way it is written is that Merriam-Webster defines the word non as 2 : of little or no consequence : unimportant : worthless. However the word not is defined simply as 1- used as a function word to make negative a group of words or a word. One way of writing would imply simply not JW's, while the way it is written is belittling, demeaning, and derogatory. I know that this probably doesn't matter to very many others and may be thought of as a very small thing, but it is many cummulative small drops of water that can form a river that will flow for years cutting into the earth creating something as large as the Grand Canyon. So too with the WT&T$. Many small seemingly insignificant affronts to human dignity will carve a chasm of indifference that will never be bridged.

  • snare&racket
    snare&racket

    Probably talking about JW kids.....

  • AudeSapere
    AudeSapere

    Interesting observation.

    Also, the other non-JW's (aside from kids) might be UnBelieving Mates...?

    -Aude.

  • Island Man
    Island Man

    I don't think there was any nefarious intentions by that statement a la demeaning non-Witnesses. I think it's just Watchtower trying hard to break the truthful stereotype that the JW organization, in times of disaster, tend to give help only to JWs. I don't see anything remotely demeaning or nefarious about the term non-Witness. If they had said 'worldly' it would have been a different matter.

  • mynameislame
    mynameislame

    It does seem odd to call them non-Wittnesses even if it wasn't to demean them in some way. Maybe just a PR move written by one of the "10 years of reading the Awake" educated JWs.

    Honestly that number seems rather low considering, as snare&racket and AudeSapere pointed out, that many of these are likely non-baptised children and mates. And it didn't say they were permitted to enter, just that they were seeking refuge. Wonder if that has any meaning?

  • Oubliette
    Oubliette

    So what does the expression "wordly people" imply? Goat-like ones?

  • leaving_quietly
    leaving_quietly

    That is definition #2, according to your dictionary. Definition #1 (via the online Merriam-Webster dictionary) is: " not : other than : reverse of : absence of". There is nothing wrong with using "non-Witnesses" and most certainly was not intended to belittle them. Sometimes we get a little sensitive on stuff like this, reading into it things that most likely are not there.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    I used the phrase "non-Witnesses" even when I was still a JW because "worldy" had become too much of a pejorative label and I was uncomfortable with it.

  • Oubliette
    Oubliette

    It's all about "The Other"

    • It has been used in social science to understand the processes by which societies and groups exclude 'Others' whom they want to subordinate or who do not fit into their society. The concept of 'otherness' is also integral to the comprehending of a person, as people construct roles for themselves in relation to an 'other' as part of a process of reaction that is not necessarily related to stigmatization or condemnation.

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