Excellent thread. This topic, more than any other, is what tells me that the GB/F&DS/WTBT$ is generally full of crap. If you applied this scenario to almost any other relationship (a doctor, a field guide, a lawyer, a car mechanic, a building contractor) where people rely on "experts" to provide advice, direction and service to them and those "experts" had the abysmal record of predicting, flip-flopping, "new light", totally screwing up, over-charging, etc that the GB/F&DS/WTBT$ does you would run away from them screaming with your hair on fire. Not so much because humans are imperfect and make mistakes, but because you were ASSURED beyond any doubt that this person or entity was the "expert" and insists that he has never been wrong about anything. The audacity and hubris and hypocrisy is stinking ripe in all of this.
But when you really boil this all down...... I blame myself/ourselves (the adults, not the kids). We are so good at ignoring reality and living in fantasy. Some more than others but we all do it. The only reason the GB/F&DS/WTBT$ has any money or power at all is because *we* gave it to them. The same applies to governments. The same applies to civil authorities. The same applies to an attacker. *WE* give them that power. We hand over our fear to people so that they can manipulate and mold it as they see fit for their best interests. Most people would trade their harsh reality for comforting lies and fantasy. It is partly due to laziness. It is partly due to people trying to fill a void in their personality or character or life. So many people yearn to be a part of something bigger than themselves for the false sense of security that gives them. You can see this easily in other cults, environmental causes, political parties, social sub-cultures and on and on. This is a human being flaw, plain and simple.
Our only saving grace is that I believe Jehovah knows these flaws in us and accepts the fact that "man dominates man to his own injury". Why He has not intervened yet and done something to fix mankind...... I have no clue. To me, it feels like enough time has passed to prove whatever point needs to be made. Enough suffering. Enough abuse. Enough of charlatans using God's name to use people for their own aggrandizement.
I swear on my eyeballs, the next person I hear spewing off some re-tread "new light" and telling me they know "the truth", I am going to make them swallow some of their own teeth. Cannot take it anymore.
