Brother Ted, Theocratic Economics and Card Run-outs (page 3)

I always thought that in the New System we wouldn't need to barter; I thought the entire world would be one big, idealized Bethel. If I wanted some milk, I could just mosey on down to the Cafeteria and grab a gallon. See how sophisticated I was… I always understood that a control point/money-less market would be necessary, though not sophisticated enough to convert to metric.

Then again, I just knew that Jehovah wouldn’t give us perfection (and the use of the mythical ‘other 90% of our brains’) for no reason. Surely He, in all his Love and Wisdom, would allow us to use and perfect technology. We would have cars that floated above the ground like Luke Skywalker’s land speeder. We would have sprawling metropolises, with glass buildings hundreds of stories high that curved and leaned to form huge sculptures that defied rules of structural engineering—kind of like how Superman’s home world of Krypton was in the old comic books, before it was suddenly destroyed (there is a metaphor in there somewhere, I’m just sure of it.) While it was a point of some speculation, I never had much doubt that we would eventually fill the earth and build spaceships to travel to other planets.

Paradoxically, when talking to my Luddite friends, I had no trouble accepting the version of Paradise most often illustrated by the society. We would have no need for cars—what’s the rush, when you have forever to reach your destination. (A trip to Africa to visit friends could take five minutes or five centuries, depending on which group of friends I was talking to.”)

how we would get the milk to the strategically placed Cafeterias. How would we get the raw materials for our spaceships, or clothing factories, or printing presses (even in my childish daydreaming, the WTS was still a printing company) to disseminate New Light? Who would do the menial labor required? Who would live near the ugly scars on the surface of the garden-like Earth where the raw materials were extracted from the ground?

The answer was simple: Jehovah would work it out with his Holy Spirit. See how sophisticated I was?

PS When I read your illustration of the card run-outs, the first thought that came to my head was that if I was on the red team, I would take down and hide any blue cards I came across. I guess I wasn't cut out to live forever with a world full of perfectly honest people anyway. Too much temptation.

OldHippie: I can hear the gut-wrenching desperation in your words. Most of us went through a similar time when we buried our heads in the sand rather than listen to the nagging little voices in our heads that things just weren’t clicking with the WT. I know I shuddered to think that this Wicked Old World was the only thing to look forward to. I thought, “If this isn’t the Truth, then I don’t want to live in the real world.” But guess what: The real world ain’t that bad.

Hmmm

Thirdson

Great post Duncan; it was the best Boy Scout story/lesson since I read "the Goal."

Money is a pretty old invention and is about as essential to human life as the wheel is.

Thirdson

Open mind

Just stumbled across another long-lost JWN treasure: Duncan!

Marking this thread so I don't have to wade through the "Member" list when I'm ready for another installment of Duncanisms.

om

Mad Sweeney

Thanks for pulling this up for us noobs to see. Duncan's original post in this thread is spectacular.

Duncan

Hello Open mind,

delighted that you have resurrected one of my old posts.

It made me smile re-reading this - my 9 year old cub scout boy in the story is now nearly 17!

I still visit here most days, and read posts, but don't write so much.

thanks again, and kind regards

Duncan

Open mind

Duncan lives!

I still visit here most days, and read posts, but don't write so much.

That's a healthy sign, IMO. Hopefully I'm not that far behind you.

You have a PM, BTW.

Cheers,

om

Brother Ted, Theocratic Economics and Card Run-outs

Nathan Natas

Hmmm

Thirdson

Open mind

Mad Sweeney

Duncan

Open mind

zoiks

nugget

DoubleVision

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