by NaomiB 10 Replies latest jw friends
Why do you think that there are such extreme rules regarding flirting and dating even within the walls of the Organization? Do you think there's some psychological reason? How does this benefit the ones at the top, or the hold on the rank and file?
Naomi
The more they focus on it, the more they show how hung up they are.
The dubs have no patent on puritanical attitudes. But their little dictations on self-denial are just to feed their sense of self-denial that gives them a sense of piety.
But at the core, its all about control. It must be quite a rush to find themselves directing the basic drives of young people. I am still disgusted at the vigor with which they sought every detail of every 'event' that came under the scrutiny of one of their inquisitions.
Oh, and welcome !!
Well, in Orwell's 1984, sex was forbidden except between married people--"Our duty to the Party" is what those who were married were taught. And obviously it couldn't be because of overpopulation, with Oceania constantly at war with either Eastasia or Eurasia (if you've read the book, the people's ability to blindly accept "Oceania was at war with Eastasia; Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia" when until mere seconds before, everyone knew their foe had been Eurasia is eerily like dub's ability to swallow doctrinal changes in the same unquestioning way).
So why was it forbidden? Because the sex act took one's mind off the Party; would, via love or children, create distractions that might bring on independent thinking and a "crisis of conscience" down the road; and as the chapter telling the first time Winston Smith and Julia made love described it: "Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act."
I think the JW's control it for the same reasons:
Whether you call them the Party or the Society, as Shakespeare said (paraphrased here), "What's in a name? That which we call manure, by any other name would smell as bad."
BTW, welcome to the board.
In the YY-book (the old : make your youth) it even says that holding each others hand is wrong
Dubs have the most terrifying grip on the normal sexual development of teenagers of all. It's terrible exactly because it's so subtle - it's literally something that gets ingrained into you in every meeting, when you're so bored you're half asleep, their insidous message curls itself around your cortex, becomes a part of you, and the echoes of these horrific, unnatural and very weird cult teachings still echo in the minds of all who've been touched by this CULT, even people who've left the BORG and gone on with their lives. It still affects me down to this day - I suspect those echoes of "morality" will never leave me entirely, but I do my best to ignore them, because when you let them win, the Tower wins too.
Hi NaomiB; It all boils down to control and obviously the WBTS doesn't trust the youth in the organization, at least not as far as teens being able to control themselves, so they take it upon themselves to control young people. This, of course, is no different than the control they want over everybody in the organization. I remember coming home one day and our daughter had a male schoolmate over for a visit. Well I fairly chucked that poor kid out on his ear, blasted my daughter for even thinking of seeing a boy at her age, never mind a worldly one.(In retrospect, he was quiet, decent and respectful). My reputation spread and even our daughter's female classmates were afraid of me. She continued to see her "boyfriend" secretly until somebody in the KH saw her and reported it to an elder who then brought it to the attention of the BoE and they paid us a visit to warn me that if I couldn't control my daughter (read the organization's property) then I would be deleted as a servant. I, being the ever obedient(read controlled) JW complied and put the kibosh on our daughter's wayward attitude. So you see, it's all about control.To her credit, when she moved out on her own, our daughter told the WBTS to pound salt and never went back to the KH. Finally we, her parents, saw the light and left too.
PS If you ever have kids, don't try to control them.
alfie
Edited by - alfie on 11 November 2002 5:50:53
Edited by - alfie on 11 November 2002 5:52:2
I was an "exemplary youth" in the congregation, which when translated into normal language means "Severely f*cked up". I spent my entire teens and twenties never knowing what it was like to hold a girls hand or kiss a girl let alone anything else. This is thought of as quite normal in the Jehovah's Witness religion. Build yourself up spiritually, use your singleness to put the kingdom first and worry about having a relationship in the New Order.
I was not an exemplary youth. I managed to have several boyfriends, some I managed to hide, a couple I got in major troubls for. My sister on the other hand is 43 now and I don't think she has ever held hands much less been kissed. I would like to ask her if she lays awake a night and wonders if she has wasted her life and if she will ever have a man or get married. els
Well, on the bright side, perhaps the JWs will UN-breed themselves right out of existence.
