Good thread. For the 8 years I have been on this site, (with varying degrees of participation), I have seen probably 1000 threads asking things such as "how is the org run", "do the GB really believe", "is there someone else pulling the strings", etc. Answers are usually never found, (though many plausible explanations offered), only to be asked a different way on yet a different thread. This usually just leads to all types of theories, including those of the conspiracy type. Ususally when a things go as far as unprovable conspiracy theories, (of which stating some outside force controlling the GB is one of), we are way off the mark.
The real underlying question that needs to be asked is why they do what they do what they do? "Why" often gets to the root cause of what is going on generally in a more expiditous manner than asking "what" or even "how". This can be answered using a logical approach, but not neccessarily one that follows the normal hueristic of "common" sense.
To answer this, one needs to consider some counterintuitive concepts. In this case, the main concept is social evolution. Social evolution, (just as biological or any other evolution), has its roots in probabilties. In biological evolution, a gene mutates by stochastic, (random), events. Eventually with enough tries, a working mutation that produces a useful evolutionary genetic change takes place. Since this change is one that produced somthing useful for survival, it has advantages over mutations that do not produce a useful genetic change. Now take note, we really never see these "bad" genetic outcomes in the fossil record, do we? "Why" is what we should be asking ourselves, but we typically do not bother, because the answer, (to anyone familiar with biological evolution), is obvious. The fact is, since the mutatations produced "bad" genes not fit for survival, the organisms that were produced died off long before they could reproduce themselves.
The same principle applies to social memes just as it does biological genes. In this case, the social meme is the WT. The organization has survived about 140 years through years of social evolutionary change. In 1971, when the autocratic nature of the Presidency was threatening the organization's survival, (mostly due to the 1975 craziness), the board of directors began to flex their muscles and form a "theocratic", version of themselves, that today we know as the Governing Body. This was the first of such memetic mutations that took place with the board. Guess what, it worked. We know it did, because within 5 years, (1976), it gained enough power to take all power away from the Presidency. On the other hand, if it had failed, we probably would not even know about what took place in October of 1971.
In the years since, the organization has continued to evolve. It is much larger than it was in 1976, and we live in a much more complex and legalistic society. The organization has continued to exist due to random changes over the years, some of which have proven successful. It is not that some very intelligent people are running it, (and know it is all BS). Rather, the ones running it are mostly as delusional as most of the R&F, (just much worse because they have no other life outside of the organization), they just simply have made enough satisfactory decisons over the years since to keep it alive.
As a corollary to this, we do see the organization dying a slow death. In other words, the larger evolutionary changes neccessary for survival long term would really involve changes the organization is incapable of making.
There is nothing mystical or conspiratorial taking place. Just random decisions and happenings that have been "good enough" to keep it alive. Social evolution will run its course to completion in the end.
d4g
