Interesting post.
In past discussions some people (non on this thread, this is just observation) have focused on the level of personal responsibility of JW's for their actions. They have put forward the idea that JW's (as individuals) are evil.
I can never agree to this as a blanket statement.
For a start, they are in a cult - perhaps more usfully for this discussion we should say they are in a 'high control group'. For me, this immediately makes personal attacks on people simply on account of their being a JW meaningless, as obviously, to one extent or another, they are not responsible for their actions. Some have disagreed with this view, but I always wonder what part of the phrase 'high control group' they don't understand.
Lets face it, it's what most of us once were, we know we acted in ways we now wouldn't act, we know we did that because of how we had been influenced, and our personal experience is pretty sure to be representative of the lives of most of the poor sods who are in the Borg. To try and resolve it as an issue of individual moraility is silly.
Having said that, I don't think we can completely shrug of individual responsibility. Most of us probably had twinges, intuitions, misgivings that we could have acted on sooner than we did. But the entire environment we existed in made acting on those very hard, as it meant going against peer groups, conditioning, family and those we saw (at the time) as being in rightful postions of responsibility. So, although we can't deny all personal responsibility, we shouldn't feel guilt, because we truely were not not ourselves. We were just acting in response to our pre-programmed cult buttons.
I think many of us would have reacted to those buttons in the same way whether we had never got to handle mikes or were on the writing desk. Some horse pull carts, other run races, but they all react to the crack of a whip. Belief and faith are terrible things, as people can sincerely, genuinely, and with good intentions act in the most terrible way because of it.
Only an individual can know if they KNEW they did wrong, if they deliberately and with knowledge, to use the writing department example, used clever techniques to argue in a manner designed to leave the reader with a false impression. If they were so caught up in it they believed it themselves, they were as deceived as most of us. I know (mug that I am) I really did believe. I'm thankful I never converted anyone, but if I had, it would have been out of belief. Not out of a desire to control or dominate.
But just as you get bad apples, so you get nasty people. You get them everywhere, it's not the preserve of JW's. You can put an asshole into the Borg, and you'll still have an asshole. You can take an asshole out of the Borg, you'll still have an asshole. There are those who will use the cult as an environment in which they can control and dominate people. There have been arguments about whether paedophiles deliberately target the Borg - and they do, unless for some reason the Borg is the only environment that paedophiles do not seek out because of the way it gives them contact with children, as paedophiles are known to target such environments and professions to more easily purse the object of their sickness. Likewise, I am sure there are some misogynistic dipshit inadequates who relish the power they have as an Elder, but know that is what they relish. That's evil.
Now, rather obviously, not all misogynists are fat smelly old men. Not all paedophiles have squints and hunchbacks. Life would be easier that way. But life isn't simple, and I think the assumption that it should be, whilst understandable, is just something that ain't gonna happen.
