Awake 1976 - Should a Pocket Calculator Be in Your Pocket?

by Ron.W. 27 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Ron.W.

  Awake 1976 - Should a Pocket Calculator Be in Your Pocket?
  

  Somehow this totally zany 'bible based' article passed me by first time around!

  Anyone remember it?

  A short extract:

  What Disadvantages?

  As might be expected, an electronic calculator is not all advantages. There are disadvantages, and it is wise for you to consider them. For one thing, having a calculator is going to involve some money, time and attention. How much would you use it? In your case the few occasions when you would really be helped by having a calculator might not justify the cost, even with the recent low prices. Do you want to put money into something that you may not need, or that may be just a toy for a few days?

  Also, it will take you some time to learn how to use a calculator. You will have to think about repairs if it breaks. And what about getting batteries for it periodically if it is of the type that requires such? Good questions to consider.

  Another thing, how might having an electronic calculator affect your present ability to do mathematics? One man from Illinois got into the habit of using his even for simple addition or multiplication of a few small numbers. Later he observed: ‘When I had to figure something out without my calculator, I found I was much slower than before. It was harder to do simple calculations, things I had learned as a child and formerly could do easily.’ Hence, he decided to use his electronic calculator only when he faced long, tedious mathematics, such as adding columns of figures, when working out many percentages or averages, or when speed and accuracy were vital.

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/101976646
  
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  NotFormer

  You've got to remember that calculators were very expensive at the time. My brother, an electrician, bought a fairly basic calculator at the time for about fifty dollars. That was a hideous amount in those days.

  And you can bet that the WT would much prefer you to spend your hard-earned on them, rather than on frivolous expenditures like tools for work. 🙄
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  Biahi

  How would the apostle Paul view pocket calculators? 😂🤔
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  Ding

  Get out a calculator and figure out how long it's been since 1914.
  
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  road to nowhere

  WWJD

  should there be an abacus in your pocket? Or that work of the devil a tablet. Remember the advice to ask for householders password to show them a video?
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  WTWizard

  This sounds typical of the washtowel, and other cults. Begrudge people the few minutes it takes to operate a calculator and that it might become a "toy" while people are learning to work with numbers. And the prices were coming down--by 1975, calculators in the 30 toilet paper range were coming out, and I had a scientific calculator in 1976 that was in the mid 40s. While prices would be more today, these days prices of calculators have fallen to where they are just about giving them away.

  Or do they really want life to be a complete drudgery? And this was right after the fiasco of the 1975 end of this system. Also, if you didn't use a calculator, what about the slide rules they replace? One could just as easily play with one of those things, "wasting" as much time while becoming better with adding and multiplying, and working with exponents, at the same time. And given the choice, I think learning to work a slide rule is actually harder than a calculator. Beyond that, just look at how much a decent slide rule costs these days.
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  ThomasMore

  Cell phones now have calculator apps so I wonder how calculator sales have been affected?

  I also found that the more I used my calculator, the less adept I was at doing calculations in my head. I decided to limit using the calculator to complex math like determining depreciation, compound interest, and CSA settlement totals.
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  hoser

  2 Thess 3:11

  Another reason to “mark” the watchtower society as bad association and withdraw from them

  Meddling in what does not concern them

  My dad had one of those calculators for work. I think it was several hundred dollars. Not exactly pocket change in 1976.

  Money that could have gone to the borg
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  Vidiot

  WTWizard - “…do they really want life to be a complete drudgery?”

  When I was younger, I thought maybe the WT leadership figured that since secular infrastructure could be initially problematic in the New System (for a number of obvious reasons), the rank-and-file might be better off not letting themselves become overly dependent on technology.

  These days, I think they just never wanted the average JW to be too comfortable, lest they pine for the New System a little less… and let’s face it, life these days is arguably more comfortable than back in, say, the 50s and 60s.

  Similar to how they never seemed to particularly want overly good-looking members. I always found the sheer blandness of young people portrayed in JW media was depressing AF… I’d be like, “this is how a ‘righteous’ kid is supposed to look?” 😟
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  LongHairGal

  VIDIOT:

  You might have a point there where you say “they never seemed to particularly want overly good-looking members”.

  If somebody didn’t understand the whole thing they might say this sounded ridiculous. But, in fact, somebody overly attractive, flashy or whatever would be seen as a distraction 🙄 to some morons there.. The religion got too populous and started to get choosy and arrogant about a lot of things - hence all their stupid rules.. I think they even seemed to like the idea of disfellowshipping people - thinking the persons were going to come crawling on their belly begging to be reinstated in this ‘special’ place.. Some idiot elders were probably salivating over this and ‘playing God’.

  Now, they can hardly keep people in the religion as members are fed up and leaving in droves. Oh, well. That’s what faulty teachings, meddling in people’s lives and failed predictions will get you!.

  Now they have to resort to special campaigns to entice people back into the religion who have been long out! .. Well, this serves them right and they deserve to have nobody there.. Hopefully the last person out of this charade will remember to turn off the lights!