You'll probably find that the leaders of the Witness world today aren't insane poseurs at all.
In fact, they're very, very shrewd, and they have a great marketing and PR department. Check out any of JR Brown's videos to see what I mean.
Although we might make fun of them, they do in fact appear to be a bunch of pretty savvy businessmen.
And that, friends, is exactly what they are.
All of their recent actions give testimony to this assertion. For example, as soon as the Guardian newspaper exposed their dealings with the UN (an absolute hammer-blow of justice, IMNSHO), they immediately withdrew their membership. Damn, the ink on the newspaper wasn't even dry yet before they had some poor Bethel lug sitting impatiently on the phone to the United Nations to tell them that the Watchtower, previously a great instrument that furthered the UN's purposes with the utmost efficiency and attention to protocol, was now quitting as an NGO.
Doh! It was like they pulled their finger away from a red-hot stoveplate! And then, in a telling move, they sent around a big, slickly-worded letter to the all of the Branch Offices, explaining how they'd just wanted to use a library card. However, other people have shown convincing, nay, nut-grabbing evidence that reveals exactly how many hoops of fire the Society had to jump through just for a damned library card! Most damning of all, this included furthering the UN's charter in the literature of the Society!
I'm 100% sure that there was a financial reason behind all of that rigmarole - those "boys" knew exactly what was at stake when they joined the UN, and kept renewing their application year after year (this is no simple, easy process - you have to prove that you'll be useful to the UN before they renew your application). Some tax benefit, perhaps? I can't say for sure, but when it comes to the Society, and the top-notch Theocratic CEOs who run the whole damn thing now, you can always find a solution to your problem by following the very simple rule of FOLLOW THE MONEY, as JT, one of my favourite posters here, would put it.
For instance, the Society recently recented a Convention venue where their contract specifically stated they weren't supposed to collect parking fees. Guess what they went and did? Yes, they forced the Brothers to pay for parking, to the tune of $120,000. It seems that Jehovah doesn't mind the Governing Body collecting a bit of pocket change from hapless Publishers who have no other choice but to cough up the green.
No, it would be just too simple to dismiss them as insane ass-clowns, although the temptation is strong. As I'm sure many other mature posters here will soon attest, previous members of the Body were certainly a few pancakes short of a picnik, a few scientists short of a Life: How Did It Get Here, By Evolution Or Design book, and so on.
But the last few decades have seen a larger trend - the globalization and amortization of the Watchtower. Now what we're confronted with is a super-corporation with a religious past. Think about it - what better company is there than one where most of the employees work either for free or purely for room & board? It's brilliant! Of course, all is not well in Watchtower-world. Their main line of business has become grossly unprofitable in the recent past, as sales of literature to Publishers has gone down, with the "cooling off of the majority" now taking place in great force all around the civilized world. There are still small pockets of vigorous Theocratic activity in poorer nations, where people are desperate for any solution to their problems, but not so in the Watchtower's large First World markets. And publishing costs have increased - recently, it was announced that the Watchtower is selling a lot of very expensive property in Manhattan, letting go of Bethelites, amortizing the printing process, and so on. All of this, once again, goes with the guideline of "FOLLOW THE MONEY".
Yes, just like every other cash-strapped corporation that ever existed, the Watchtower is tightening it's purse-strings.
Another important trend that has been asserting it's influence, and which gets right back to the actual topic of this post, is the gradual sanitizing and stabilization of Watchtower doctrine. If you were to chart Tower doctrine on a graph of NUMBER OF NEW DOCTRINES / PREDICTIONS RELEASED PER YEAR versus TIME you would see a sharp fall-off of any prophetic statements after 1975, with damn good reason - they lost a vast swathe of Publishers when the parakeets failed to arrive on the morning of January 1, 1975, as per their predictions! You'll also notice that recently they haven't really changed any major doctrines, although they have very gradually and very carefully begun to loosen restrictions on things like blood transfusions, organ donations, and so forth, mainly in the medical field.
Against this same chart could be plotted the growth of the XJW movement at large, and more specifically, to those XJWs who know that there is an actual movement! That growth has had an enormous spike recently, almost like an exponential curve, specifically relating to the use of the Internet to bring disparate groups of XJWs together to form united fronts against the Watchtower. Thanks to the tireless efforts of these knights in shining armour, we've seen documentaries, news articles, and all sorts of other damning information brought to light, showing that the Watchtower is not in fact the pure Ivory Tower it makes itself out to be.
This, combined with a concerted effort to clarify the obvious inconsistencies and utter trollop that is the body of the Society's literature, especially recent gems like the Evolution book, which is itself a morass of bogus science, poppycock, and other delightfully fecund propoganda, have put the Society in a really bad light. It's gotten so harsh that they can't even release a new book anymore without being widely ridiculed by thousands of people!
So I guess those boys at the tight are in a pretty tight spot. I hope they enjoy the plush offices, Alaskan fishing tours, private planes, and First-Class flights while they can.
[SYN],
Wordy Class