To All
The list below is a compilation of techniques the WTBTS uses to control the rank and file. You may find your own contribution has become part of another entry. Perhaps you disagree with how I have categorized the techniques, if so please tell me. Thanks to everybody who contributed to a very interesting discussion on this. I think the 'mantle' should go to Siveld for identifying fear as the dominant technique. However the list is not in any order of dominance. Instead I have grouped the methods which seem to me to be related. I wanted to include Auset's excellent 'belonging to a community' idea but I couldn't because it came from a totally different angle. Thanks again for your thoughts.
-- Cultivating fear
-- Shunning (blackmail)
-- "Don't stumble"
-- Cultivating guilt
-- Shaming.
-- "Leave it to Jehovah"
-- Making implied promises.
-- Intensive repetitious teaching
-- Intensive "keep busy" routines
-- WT Vocabulary & Wordspeak
-- Propaganda
-- Invention of enemies (Internet, UN, Moyle).
-- Cultivating thought dependence
-- Denigrating individuality
-- Denigrating intellectuals "worldly wisdom"
-- Humbling people (class notions?).
Siveld,
I humbly offer the remainder of my mortal life to distribute copies of any books you may write from door to door.
philo