From an article appearing in this week's edition of The Last Days newsletter:
licking at an ice cream cone during our spiritual feasts - The Watchtower magazine, June 1, 1953
Have you ever heard of ‘a self-licking ice cream cone’?
A self-licking ice cream cone is a self-perpetuating system that has no purpose other than to sustain itself.
In a paper published by the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), a self-licking ice cream cone is described as “something that exists only for its own enjoyment and no one else’s.”
The website A Way with Words describes a self-licking ice cream cone as “a process, department, institution, or other thing that offers few benefits and exists primarily to justify or perpetuate its own existence.”
The Urban Dictionary further adds that a self-licking ice cream cone is “an organization or entity whose sole purpose is promoting its own existence and splendor.”
Sort of reminds one of the Watch Tower Society, who thoughtfully reminded us of their primary purpose of existence, when they embedded themselves into Lesson 19: Be Generous.