As usual, you bring a unique perspective to what we've all experienced and this is a good analogy. It probably won't be very effective when used on the average dub, however. But it's a good description of what's going on in the organization. They really do appear to be running out the clock.
However, I wonder about their strategy. Running out the clock is a good move when you are ahead of the other team on points. I see no evidence the WTS is ahead or, for that matter, even in the game. But I understand what you mean.
Before I finally dropped out, I had felt for a long time that the organization was "rudderless," lacking any real leadership. My suspicions were confirmed by Ted Jarascz two years ago when I sat with a group of elders twice in a matter of months and heard him speak. At a "special supplemental session" of the annual meeting, about which you may recall there was rampant speculation that some major shift (or "new light") would be announced, he opened with: "There's been a great deal of speculation about this meeting, brothers." Then, after a long pause. "It's not good to second-guess Mother." This was greeted with nervous laughter, after which was a several hour sales pitch for international convention tours. We left dismayed and extremely disappointed.
Then, when he presided over an elder's school a few months later, he lambasted the brothers for insisting on a regular diet of recreation and entertainment. "Some brothers feel they have to go out every Friday night, to be entertained," he said. "We never used to expect to have to be entertained. Why not do what I did? Go back and read all of the society's older publications, all the way back to 1919. That way you'll know the history of your organization." This was met with a barely audible gasp, at least in the section of the assembly hall where I sat. It was like, "Is he serious?" I was thinking, "Well, if we all did that, a lot of us wouldn't be sitting here when the next elder's school rolled around."
He's emblematic. They have no clue.
