What's with the third person ?

by Bang 9 Replies latest jw friends

  • Bang
    Bang

    Has everyone noticed that the wtbts are always talking about jws like some kind of anthropological observer, rather than using "we" or "us". A quick look at their website and you can see the language. There's no "we", it's all "them", so I suppose when they get it wrong again it was "them", not "us".

    When confronted with blame they can just hang them out to dry - whoever they are. It's like a company money trail where no one is ever accountable because it's always owned by another company or another.

    Has anyone got wt articles that blame God or the Lord for when they are caught out as wrong?

    Bang

  • Amazing
    Amazing

    I had not noticed that before, but you are correct. Maybe it sounds better, less boastful, to write much in the third person:

    WE spent 1,000,000,000 hours in Service and WE place 6 quadrillion magazines in 2002!

    vs

    Hardworking JWs spent 1,000,000,000 hours in Service and THEY place 6 quadrillion magazines in 2002!

    It just sounds better I guess.

  • plmkrzy
    plmkrzy

    a tie breaker?

    what if one has two witness against him and he, of course is denying? then unless a 3 person comes forward then no deal?

    Maybe back in the old days it was less likely for 3 people to be close friends then 2

    3 make a conspiracy

    conspiracy is supposed to be considered less likely

  • Jankyn
    Jankyn

    I'd attribute it to the generally immature writing style used by the WT. As I've noted before (in the posts about agentless passives--"It has been said"), the WT writers use many stylistic devices common to inexperienced writers who want to sound more authoritative. The use of the third person is assumed by many inexperienced or naive writers to convey a certain weightiness to their words. These writers tend to think that anything personal is less authoritative and therefore less credible, so they'll often go to great lengths to avoid using the first person.

    Just another example of why the WT Writing Department would probably flunk my freshman composition class.

    Of course, they could also be writing in this fashion to sound more "God-like." I'm sure Jah would always refer to the JWs in the third person!

    Jankyn, self-proclaimed grammar dork

  • MrMoe
    MrMoe

    Amazing - 6 quadrillion hours WE will spent on this forum bashing THEM

  • ItsJustlittleoldme
    ItsJustlittleoldme
    Hardworking JWs spent 1,000,000,000 hours in Service and THEY place 6 quadrillion magazines in 2002!

    It's plausable deniability <ROFL>..

    Some 'brothers' in their zeal have predicted dates.. It wasn't us, it was them, honest!!!

  • COMF
    COMF

    I expect they're trying to use a little psychology on the readers. It's like advertisements where there's an actor wearing a lab technician's white coat and expounding the superior quality of Healthy-O's cereal. On a surface level, we all know it's an actor wearing a lab technician's white coat, but the subconscious still responds to the authority figure and believes what it hears. So with this little ploy... the reader knows it's JWs talking, but still there's a place in the subconscious that gets the idea it's somebody else, a non-JW, a narrator-type figure who has done his homework and wouldn't be saying these things about JWs if they hadn't been documented in independent tests.

    Nifty terminology you hear every day, that's intended to make you think they said something else:

    "No other product does more." - you're supposed to hear "This product does more than all others" but that is not what they said. Actually, the products all perform exactly the same.

    "A part of this nutritious breakfast" - Okay. But it's necessary to show the nutritious part in order to get to use the word. If the fruit, juice, eggs and so forth weren't there, would they be able to show you the cereal by itself and say "this is a nutritious breakfast"?

    "Got bad credit? WE DON'T CARE! ALL applications are accepted." Yes, if you hand them the application, they will certainly accept it. But that doesn't mean it will be approved.

    "Save more!" - than what? Before you can "save" by spending money, you had to have already been intending to buy the same product somewhere else, for more money. If you weren't already in the market for it, you can't possibly "save" by buying it.

  • Reborn2002
    Reborn2002

    Exactly my thoughts COMF.

    No need to interject further upon your post, because you covered exactly the point I wished to express.

    Excellent comments.

  • Farkel
    Farkel

    : What's with the third person ?

    Farkel has often wondered the same thing.

    Farkel

  • Perry
    Perry

    Third Person: A genre of speech or literature that works especially well with children.

    Ex. Now Johnnie, if a person continues to make doo doo in his own house, they're gonna wake up in a world of S*%T one day aren't they?

    Edited by - Perry on 27 July 2002 6:1:26

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