As I was growing up in a household with my grandparents, I heard a certain phrase hundreds of times, "Well, you know what they say . . ."
And I wondered: "Who are "THEY"?
It was my first encounter with shapeless, formless, invisible, abstract, non-descript, and anonymous AUTHORITY.
The premise seemed to say:
"There are experts who KNOW things. Their expertise, mastery and conversancy have ESTABLISHED the facts and evidence
and if THEY say something is true--it is automatically to be believed and repeated."
I think such a phrase came in handy when I was absorbed into the Watchtower Society.
It was a warm-up exercise for accepting anything/everything spoken, written and extolled from the Governing Body.
This Governing Body gives us an "estimate" of the TRUTH rather than the actual, factual, and inerrant truth.
It is a general guideline which puts your mind in the ballpark without enough concrete detail to be the last word.
The Governing Body estimates they can unclog your sewer line for $200 bucks. Of course, it ends up costing you over $1000--but--
they can enumerate all the contingencies they encountered while making the repair which caused the costs to rise and rise . . .
When you've finished the last payment, yet MORE problems occur and a new estimate appears. They blame you for believing nothing
could go wrong. After all, they are only human.
The GB digs a long ditch in your front yard and ruins your lawn and floods the garage with shit backed up into the house.
Well, what's the matter? You know what they say: SHIT HAPPENS.
The Truth = Shit happens
You see, it's only an estimate.