GOOD cult control techniques

by philo 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  philo

  With logical's post in mind, I want to start a thread about something positive. The WT are positively GOOD at controlling their followers.

  Which is your favourite WT control technique, and why??????????
  The best contibution wins six million devoted worshippers and a 40 year conditional canonisation in the pages of the WT.

  The one I like is so good because it works from 'on high' as well as among the orphans and widows at the congregation. It is the "don't stumble your brothers" saying. It means don't say, or do, or be, ANYTHING that starts someone thinking about anything which could possible lead them to accidentally engage their brain - and leave the WT.

  Yes, well I'm a good swimmer and the millstone fits nicely, thanks.

  philo

  Edited by - philo on 28 February 2001 19:16:37
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  Seven

  Philo, It's gotta be guilt. My mother is the travel agent for the guilt trip.
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  philo

  Hmmm

  Guilt is pretty neat. And of course only the elders can handle 'serious' guilt. Yeah they grease you up and rub you down and then they oil your plates and dishes too. Oh and if you don't grovell and squirm properly you are toast - disfellowshipped.

  No, give them their due, guilt management deserves credit.

  Thanks seven

  Edited by - philo on 28 February 2001 18:47:5
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  unanswered

  hand and hand with guilt, my favorite has to be shame. shame for being just a publisher, shame for being sinful, shame for "perverted" sexual desires with your mate....i could keep on going for days.
• 

  unanswered

  hand and hand with guilt, my favorite has to be shame. shame for being just a publisher, shame for being sinful, shame for "perverted" sexual desires with your mate....i could keep on going for days.
• 

  philo

  Shame eh? It's a difficult one to prove though. I've got something on it...

  --snip--

  looking at WT judicial practices in terms of punishment. JWs may object that their organisation does not actually punish, but rather applies restrictions, for the protection of the congregation as a whole, and for the long-term benefit of the offender. This presupposes that the offender will ‘come back to his senses’ and repent and be forgiven. If he/she does not do this, the individual is assumed to have rejected the congregation, therefore there is no obligation to them, and they do not need to be considered.
  However, I think it is dishonest to deny the punitive element to WT restrictions because even when someone is established by a judicial committee as being duly remorseful for their offence, often, if not always, they still receive restrictions on their personal congregation activity (removal of ‘privileges’). These cannot have been applied to rehabilitate the offender since repentance has already been established, therefore the only other purpose served by restrictions in these cases, is to punish. While all Watchtower trials are secret many offences deemed serious do receive public punishments: DF, DA, or Public Reproof. However the same offences can be dealt with a private reproof. As Ozziepost (see link) has demonstrated below on the board, unfortunately, many or most times, this privacy is compromised, resulting in some form of public shaming for the reproved person.

  --snip--

  Thanks for your comment

  philo
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  eyes_opened

  One of the most maddening techniques the WTBTS employs is their use of implication. They many times IMPLY things, knowing full well that the r&f are going to take it as set in stone, then when their *reasoning* changes, or their dates don't come to pass with the desired happening, they will say "Some in the past may have been over anxious..etc etc etc" Making it sound like the r&f's fault for jumping the gun, and they never said any such thing. INFURIATING!!! THe more I read of Crisis of Conscience the madder I get.

  Eyes
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  expatbrit

  Ah, we must guard against INDEPENDENT THINKING brothers and sisters. Satan ensnares us with our own pride when we begin to question the spiritual food provided by the faithful and discreet slave. How sad that some have been led astray and suffered spiritual shipwreck because they allowed INDEPENDENT THINKING to cause doubts. Why, some have even felt that they knew better than Jehovah's appointed channel; they have run ahead of Jehovah. How sad!

  a) How might independent thinking cause us spiritual harm?
  b) How much more bollocks can we get you to swallow?
• 

  zev

  expatbrit516,

  good one.
  i liked that. Brought a to me face.

  g'day

  _

  zev

  Edited by - zev on 28 February 2001 22:24:45
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  philo

  Eyes and Expat,

  ::The more I read of Crisis of Conscience the madder I get

  I read Crisis of Conscience only recently and I know what you mean. As you read you can feel the stifling conservatism, and the non-spiritual atmosphere among the WT leadership. But by the end I had calmed down quite a bit. I don't see how anyone who reads that book can conclude that Franz is writing for any but the most heartfelt and necessary reasons.

  Implication control technique:
  ::They many times IMPLY things, knowing full well that the r&f are going to take it as set in stone

  Yes. Sometimes they seem quite timid, other times they are reckless. They say, on the one hand "we're only journalists, we comment on the changing world as we see it from our biblical viewpoint, and give us a break, we're only human". But then they also say "we're God's channel of direction to you, disobey us (upper class) and you disobey God". The two positions are virtually opposite. The art is in balancing the recipe so the majority will keep swallowing the food, and in churning out so much, that they can't distinguish the rubbish. That's how politicians talk.

  I thought Franz described a sort of drifting organisation, in which the leadership doesn't feel responsible for its decisions. The leaders have disowned themselves as individuals to serve the organisation, so whatever results must be God's will/fault not theirs BECAUSE it's God's organisation. So the organisation requires everyone to give up their INDEPENDENT THINKING, presumably to take up some sort of collective thinking. Actually that's not even true, at least the Borg contributed their mental resources to the whole organism including decision making. So it's not even collective, it's subjective thinking: "how can I be more obedient to the WTS? Think, think, think, think, think……. What's for dinner tonight?"

  Expat,
  :: we must guard against INDEPENDENT THINKING brothers and sisters. Satan ensnares us with our own pride when we begin to question the spiritual food provided by the faithful and discreet slave. How sad that some have been led astray…

  Was that a parode, or a cutting from the CD ROM? It seems very authentic.

  philo