Do you still struggle with a negative world view?

new light

Well-trained JWs tend to view all current events in relation to Armageddon. They see the world as having no hope of improvement, and view all efforts to improve our home as a waste of time. Have you totally broken free of this destructive viewpoint? Do you struggle with it once in a while?

I'll start. Yes, I've broken free and it's good. I'm no starry-eyed optimist, either, but I think we stand a pretty good chance of pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps and uniting into a global society, free from the mental poison of dogmatic religion.

blondie

It helps to get away from the constant diet of BS at the KH. I limit my WT reading too but I have to read it to review it. The other thing to do is to read more upbeat, well-rounded material and to surround yourself with positive flow. I'm not a pollyanna and think that non-JWs can't be negative about things or that things can't be going in the wrong direction. But I no longer think that I should just sit back and wait for it to happen...too many years of that at the KH.

Blondie

Lady Lee

I've left it behind. There is good and bad everywhere.

In my work I have seen the tremendous changes a person can make to change his or her tiny corner of the world. I suspect that this one by one change will eventually add up to a lot of people wanting real change in the bigger world around them. Slowly one by one. I doubt it will be mass change but a steadily growing better

Ciara

Left it far, far behind.

That was such a miserable way to live. I can't imagine having to go back to that. Then they wonder why they have so many suicides happening. People can't live up to their legalistic standards and the rest of the world looks so bleak from their perspective. "The dead are concious(sp?) of nothing" starts to not sound like such a bad option.

Ciara

FMZ

I am cursed to see the world how it really is, a dark and disgusting place. It's filled with murder, rape, war, starvation, the list goes on. This is not because of the witnesses indoctrinations, but because it is how it is. There are plenty of good people in the world too, but unfortunately the former outnumber the latter.

I don't consider myself a pessimist or optimist, just a realist. It no longer depresses me, as I know there is nothing I can do about it. I just get on with life and do what I can for whoever I can. That way I know I am making the world at least a little better place to be.

God bless

FMZ

Undaunted Danny

Well living is the best revenge!

WARNING!!! Exiting a destructive, high control cult will INDUCE HYSTERIA. Call it 'Stockholm Syndrome' / 'battered-spouse syndrome' / 'shell shock'. Whatever, it may be delayed, that's why it's called P.T.S.D. (Post - Traumatic - Stress - Disorder).

The anguish and the agony yes, the surreal horror,of having to renounce the life long convictions of my heart. Awww Shucks

So,what am I now? I like to say I am an 'Honorable Humanitarian'. Got a nice ring to it. Humanitarianism is just a throw back to basic Christian altruism. alt Just be a nice person for now. I think I would still like to die saved, considering I made a really heavy investment (in what I thought was) Christianity. This altered state of ambivalence is normal, a sort of temporary spiritual limbo. Know this!! GO INTO THE WOODS A MILE, IT WILL TAKE YOU THE SAME TO GET OUT!! I was in for 33 years of it so go figure the same. For us especially, for it is a 'crusade not a cakewalk'.

Prepare your family as you would for a disaster drill. Remember the cult survivor's motto: "THERE IS LIFE AFTER THE CULT"

There is plenty to live for!! It will take time (the great healer) to adjust.Danny cares and shares

DireStraitJacket

I've just become so insensitive to any form of suffering..
Whenever theres a natural disaster, or anything I think 'to bad', I'm not affected, I don't care.
The war in Iraq, people are dying there everyday, theres all sorts of other crap happening around the world, I watch the news and I see people all over the world crying for lost family members, I'm thinking to myself 'To Bad, oh well whats for supper..'
I hate to say this but I saw the video of the Iraqi militants cutting the guys head off, I was eating lunch when it finished downloading, so I watched it then. I stopped midbite thinking 'damn, thats wrong' carried on eating, and checked what else had finished downloading.
I don't get affected by anything unless its happening to someone real close to me, like a close family member or a good friend. I can only assume this is because of the JW teaching, but then again I've always known that deep down theres something really wrong with me..

GentlyFeral

Broken free? Hell, a "negative worldview" was what led me into the jaydubs. I grew up in Berkeley during the sixties. Every telephone pole and wall around the university (one of my favorite haunts) was plastered with references to AmeriKKKa, police brutality, endemic racism, environmental destruction, and the horrors of the Vietnam War. And late in 1971, rumors of imminent atomic war had just swept the school I was attending.

On top of all that, I had no idea what I would do after graduation: no career plans, no ambitions - except I wanted to be an actress (and might have been a good one); but I already knew how stiff the competition was and how few actors made a living at it.

My then-boyfriend showed me Ps. 37:11 and handed me a Truth book.

I didn't wake up for 25 years.

I'm just beginning to think it might be possible to "break free." I've recently worked with someone who built a career in medicine despite huge obstacles, battling institutionalized racism every step of the way. I've learned a lot from her about the warrior spirit and the assumptions it makes. But I'm not there yet.

GentlyFeral

Obviously Secret

I have the feeling of the world's problems are always on my shoulders. Lol I try to save the world in my little 4 square prison that my parents call a room. I get worried and start thinking of all these scenerios that the people who suffered went through. I think that's a good quality in a way because it makes my writing like really dark and crazy, but I dunno I care too much about crap I need to change that. When I walk down the street I just look at different people, it maybe nothin wrong with that person but I think of all this crazy stuff that ruins this person's life it seems lol. I was shocked when a person told me that she never was really sad ever in her life. I thought she was lieing her ass off but I guess that does happen. So I'm gettin over it here and there.

Just a little side note, I'm still considered in it and gonna be in it for a good 2 years. Ain't strong enough to just say, "Hey Mom I don't wanna go anymore".

One thing that is kind of off topic that I just wanted to get off my back, even before I found the truth about the troof I always said that being DFed would be the best thing for me lol. Everybody breathing down my neck and nobody becoming friends with me. At least all that hostility and fake caring would be done behind my back away from my point of view.

Carmel

Newlight, you have every reason to be optimistic! 99% of the world's population wants humanity to live in harmony and peace. The other 1% are the constraints to that happening.. (my numbers are probably exaggerations). Too many who see the world as locked in unchangeable patterns do so out of the constant reinforcement of media that thrives on bad news and on persons in positions of power, be it political, religious or military that are content with the status quo of conflict and rivelry. If one looks carefully and is fair minded, they will see a pattern of amazing advancement in the lifes of people all over the world. True there are hicups but then learning to walk requires that we fall many times before we are able to remain vertical for long periods of time.

Life is indeed great and it will continue to get better on all fronts.

carmel

Do you still struggle with a negative world view?

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