One thing about this site that bothers me

by keyser soze 84 Replies latest jw friends

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  keyser soze

  The constant references to 'window washers' as something derogatory.

  I understand the context of it-that most JWs are uneducated, and unqualified to do much more. But sometimes the references seem snobbish, almost mean-spirited. One poster, on another thread, essentially referred to window washers as 'losers'. They aren't conning people out of money. They're performing honest labor, to support themselves, or sometimes a family.

  My father was a custodian for the State university for over forty years. He wasn't able to be anything more than that, not just due to being a JW, but also due to other circumstances in life. But he worked hard at it, and supported his family. Not once did he bitch about the fact that he spent 8 hours a day cleaning up after college students. It was one of the few things I actually admired him for.

  Just my two cents.
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  DATA-DOG

  I hear you. We could say any job that doesn't require anything past High School. We could say, "plumber" or " Sprint customer service rep." I think, " window washer" has a certain ring to it. My dad NEVER went to college, but he is no dummy, and he worked hard to feed us.

  Maybe we need to say something else besides "window-washer", but what?!? I guess we are being a little mean as well. Poor dubbies, they don't know they are being bamboozled by a Corporation.

  DD
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  redvip2000

  I might be guilty of this, and in essence i agree with your point. But i think we all agree that nobody on this site actually thinks that window washers are losers. The references to window washers are said strictly to make a point - that most JWs become limited in their careers due to the Org's influence, as you recognize as well.

  Window washing is honest and dignified labor and it would never occur to me to speak negatively about it outside of the scope of the point which we usually make.
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  BackseatDevil

  The people you should be upset with are Jehovah's Witnesses, not anyone here on this board.

  In perspective, window washers themselves are not bad people... no more than any other manual labor job. However, if there exists a group of people who take advantage of such easily taught employment and promotes that over going to college and gaining an education, THEN window washing isn't just 'a job' anymore – it's an excuse and the default in life. It becomes a menial job that doesn't require much training, skill, or mental stamina so that workers can then focus on the church, the preaching work, and the organization as a whole.

  So the people who are demeaning this is not those of us with observation skills, it's those that are treating it as a “means to an end” rather than an honest job (as your father would have looked at it) and an avoidance of a better default that SHOULD be secondary education in a field that suits the mentality and the DNA of each person. Individual aptitude and ability is suppressed for the assumption that just because “anyone” can do a job, that everyone should do that job, and that in the long-run happiness is not derived from what we do, but rather how we worship.

  Some people get satisfaction from cleaning. These people should be window washers. Some people do not... in JW terms, these people should STILL be window washers.
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  Witness My Fury

  You can earn good money doing it, so why knock it.
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  Justnowout

  Being a plumber is fairly high pay blue collar job, just as an aside
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  Giordano

  Generally a janitor usually has to have a pretty good skill set as the job is just not about sweeping and polishing floors.

  Out of respect for your Dad and others who were not able to get additional education or start their own business I will continue to refrain from likening JW's to window washers.

  Instead I will reference the JW's as a people waiting impatiently for Armageddon to arrive, donning HazMet suits and raking up bones for the next two hundred years.
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  Separation of Powers

  Yep, wholeheartedly agree. People are too much defined by what they do, not who they are. Kinda sounds like something I was guilty of as a Witness. The constant judging equating spirituality with activity. Most of the "active" ones are so self-centered you couldn't expect them to be of any assistance in the event of a real emergency.

  Long live window washers! They may endanger near-sighted birds, but they help the rays flow!
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  prologos

  old plumber joke: Lady looking at the plumbers bill after the sink works again: "wow, even my brain surgeon does not rate this rate!" plumber:

  "You tell me, I used to be one" quoted from old Readers Digest.
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  Kikura

  I hear you- unfortunately this is the fine line that people cross in the rush to degenirate anything connected with JWs

  A couple of years back someone posted the front page of some Awake article about child rearing- it pictured a mother holding her baby- comments ranged from the baby looks weird to he looks demonic, ugly,retarded etc etc

  I remember thinking- had someone posted that this was their baby, the same group would have been cooing- a real turn off with a small minority.