Thanks Prisca, Very thought provoking post.
Compared to some who have recently left the JWs and thus rejected by friends and family, I feel like I'm an old hand at this.
I think you are!
Your post makes me remember one point we so often miss when we look at any abuser, a parent, a relative, or a religious authority like the Jehovah's Witness elders, is the psychology of the omnipotent abuser. All my abusers were omnipotent, narcissistic, and egocentric. A person who has a need to see themselves as having the power of God, to dispense good, is a dangerous person to have company with.
That person, that elder, will maneuver into a position that gives them the power, or the illusion of having the power, to meter out harm to individuals. They are keenly aware that they have the power to make our lives worse, by social markings, by withholding something they know we want or need, by physical abuse, by having us shunned, by discouraging us from working for an education, by limiting our employment opportunities, by limiting our pool to choose a spouse from, and on and on.
By their holding these powers to make our lives worse, by simple inversion, they hold the power to make our lives better (in comparison), simply by withholding that which makes our lives worse. He who holds the power to make our lives better is godlike or one power, omnipotent.
The big reason Witness people see the world as bad is not because of the secular news of events in some far off place. The reason they see the world as bad is, their lives are bad. Made bad by the religion they look to as holding the power to remove the bad. They see evidence of that power (of withholding the bad to give the appearance of doing good) working, on a small scale, when the elders disappear behind closed doors and people's lives are worse, or better, instantly.
The study is that of the malevolent dictator. That is what every elder really is when they enforce the mandates of the book publishing corporation to the detriment of their fellow man.
Remember, control is an illusion, power is a reality. He who has power has the appearance of having control. The elders have power. GaryB
http://www.freeminds.org/buss/buss.htm