I happened to be in my doctor’s office yesterday and was browsing the magazine rack looking for something to kill time, and what did I perchance find? Yes, you guessed it. . . a pristine issue of AWAKE! Not having read one of these rags in almost a year now, I thought I’d take a moment to see what I’ve been missing, ha, ha.
On the cover was a picture of some “wholesome” looking kids standing about together, with the caption:
THE PROBLEM WITH CHILDREN. WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?
The simple solution offered in the Awake? Have them all killed at Armageddon (of course)! Hey ma, look . . . no kids, no problem!
What is behind the inane reasoning of these countless magazines with their perpetual, open-ended banner questions, all having the same answer?
I’ve been reading “The True Believer” by Eric Hoffer; an excellent book recommended by several on this site. He makes an enlightening point about the need for mass movements (eg: cults, political extremists, etc) to constantly DEPRECIATE THE PRESENT.
To wit: “Not only does a mass movement depict the present as mean and miserable – it deliberately makes it so. It fashions a pattern of individual existence that is dour, hard, repressive, and dull. It decries pleasure and comforts and extols the rigorous life. It views ordinary employment as trivial or even discreditable, and represents the pursuit of personal happiness as immoral. To enjoy oneself is to have truck with the enemy - the present. The prime objective of the ascetic ideal preached by most movements is to breed contempt for the present."
Is this a description of life as a Witness or what?
He goes on to explain how it is the frustrated that are most easily drawn to mass movements because of their dissatisfaction with the present, and the promise offered of an immediate, radical change in their circumstances. One in which they will find themselves as the favored (or at least surviving) subjects. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the “how they do it” aspect of the WT experience, and for seeing it in relationship to other similar movements. They all really have certain elements in common.
The back of this particular magazine (I only looked at the front and back, that was enough) had another winner. It said that the popularity of the Awake was confirmed by the fact that over 20 million issues where printed every month in blah, blah, languages. LOL
Yeah, there’s a sure and accurate indication of a magazine’s popularity - how many were printed. I wonder if the WTS had to cope with all the unsold returns that normal publishing companies do, if they would still feel the same about that statement.
When I was a publisher, I couldn’t give the things away if I put 20 dollar bills inside! And even if I placed something, 9 times out of 10 it went right into the trash. So what is being accomplished here?
Two things: a select call to the frustrated (join us, we share your mindset!), and for the r&f, a constant depreciation of the present.
Copernicus