Watchtower has a Philosophy of Totalism

by OnTheWayOut 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

Hairtrigger

Great OP and Also WTWIzards comments.
IMO. There are three essentials that stop Watchtards from breaking away.
1. A certain comfort level they have developed within the village despite CD. The false sense of security ( from the wicked world) among their'loving' brothers and sisters coupled with the exclusivity that goes with their retarded mind sets programmed by the mind control, doctrinal mumbo-jumbo . Some are so dependent on people within the organization that they will not interact with anyone else outside the org. A few yers ago one Eldub told me he was getting his taxes done by a sister who was charging him $350. This guy is a retired carpet cleaner and he and his wife get SS. When I told him I got mine done for $ 125 from an outside agent ,he looked at me in disbelief. He still gets it done by the sister-who, by the way, is an eldubs wife in a neighboring congregation.
2. Relatives and loved ones shunning them and the sense of shame that shunning generates. Rejection is a terrible psychological wall that few care to climb over.
3. "Lord whom shall we go to .You have the sayings of everlasting life." Most of them believe this is the 'truth', I had one tell me , and I quote," God has always had an organization. Look at David, look at Solomon . They were imperfect. A murderer and an apostate.Yet god continued to use their headship and run his organization through them.The GB isn't made up of perfect men.But god has appointed them. So we just need to wait on J just like the Isrealites did. In the end god rectified things. Show me one organization on earth that has the truth and I will listen to what you have to say." People like him are never gonna break away . They are BELIEVERS and will always try to find fallacious arguments to justify their beliefs. Masochism is a big part of some of their mental makeup. CD is brushed aside with scriptures that inform them so- 'dissenting' with the WORG - is "murmurings" that god asks us to guard against ". And their god knows the WORG has beaten this drum into their thick skulls, and rivited it on with 'threats of HELL and hopes of PARADISE'.
Billy the Ex-Bethelite

Billy, uniforms would look too weird to the outsiders.
Agreed. They don't want to look too weird... but they have no problems acting strangely, talking nonsense, and trying to teach rubbish to outsiders. So they can be weird, just don't look weird.
And there are gray areas, but not to Headquarters or your local BoE.
Headquarters certainly set a terrible example trying to make gray areas completely black-and-white. For supposedly being a "spiritual paradise" filled with "spiritually mature" brothers and sisters, bethel "family" had tons of rules for everything, well beyond the few rules of my family at home. Your room was policed for what music you had, pictures, etc. and had to be completely clean and organized before the housekeeper got there. My mom was satisfied as long as my room smelled okay and wasn't a serious fire hazard. The clothing rules were crazy. With no casual clothes allowed in the lobby, you're expected to go out for pizza with friends or to play football in the park wearing a tie? My parents didn't care as long as there were no "dirty" words on my t shirt, but I had to look right for the meetings. The bethel routine was, one person does something that Ted Jaracz or George Couch didn't like, so some rules get explained at Morning Worship. Then as the list of rules grow, they become harder to remember, new arrivals aren't aware of them all, and older members are incapable of reasoning on things, just unquestioningly trying to follow rules.
A handful of things are conscience matters and the conscience should be trained by the literature and the leaders. Anything where they didn't clearly spell out directions, you should come to them and ask and abandon an independent path when they tell you something different.
I'm guessing that there are others here that knew the type of elder that would condemn things after the fact that they said nothing against beforehand. Or the type that would allow their own kids to do things that other kids would not be allowed to do. Hmmm, examples, a sister with unbelieving family would be directed by the elders and shown in WT publications that it was wrong to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. Yet, she later hears that several of those elders had family dinners on Thanksgiving. Time to try to repaint that gray area, "It's okay because we went out in service that morning." "Our whole family is JWs so it's okay." "We had lasagne, not turkey, so our family dinner wasn't Thanksgiving."
In bethel, we had what we called, "The Book of Angles." There were so many rules and procedures to follow that it became impossible to get some things done, and it was extremely difficult to do some things that we wanted to do. So instead of facing this crap straight on, we would come up with "angles", ways to get around rules and requirements without fully breaking them. Or having enough justification in order to explain away some conflict. This attitude trickles down to the congregation. Example: "No higher education!" Yet the elders will exploit the angle, "It's okay because my kid lives at home, is auxiliary pioneering, plans to go to bethel, and we're certainly not encouraging others to pursue higher education."
So to complicate what would otherwise be a gray area, a lot of us figured ways to make those "bad" areas, "good" for our case.
It is, after all, a crazy cult.
Island Man

"The truly awful part for me is that they are so black and white and yet when they change (and they often do) there is no apology or sense that they did wrong to people who they booted out for holding beliefs that they themselves now follow."
I think the rationalization they give for this is that the person was booted out, not for having a false belief, but for causing division/disunity by promoting a belief different to the one currently being taught by the organization.
They value conformity to and support for, Watchtower's teachings as being more important than conformity to what is actually true. They want JWs to be loyal to Watchtower's teachings even if they're false, and not reject those false Watchtower teachings until and unless Watchtower rejects it, thus giving them (rank and file JWs) permission to reject it.
A good question to ask JWs might be:
"How is it that you encourage non-JWs to leave their religion because of the falsehoods it teaches; but it's wrong for you to leave your religion because of Watchtower falsehoods, but you are instead expected to loyally continue condoning and spreading the falsehoods while you "wait on Jehovah"? Isn't that utterly hypocritical?"
John Aquila

Only in the information age and with former JW's managing to get together have those answers been easily shown to be flawed. But many members don't see that yet. To keep them from examining things, the totalism is enforced on the members.

That is so true.

I’ve only been out of the organization a little over a year. I remember in the late 60’s there seemed to be a huge invisible wall that separated us from the rest of the world. Regularly it was drilled in our minds that outside this symbolic wall of protection, destruction was imminent, especially since 1975 was around the corner.
A JW might hear of one or two persons climbing the wall and going into the unknown. But all of us that stayed in the organization, dismissed it as “Crazy people who lost all common sense”

I remember several families, who sold their homes, pulled their kids out of school, bought small mobile trailers, and moved to serve where the need was great.

After 1975, we faithful JWs started hearing more stories of JW’s scurrying over to the symbolic wall and making a run for it. Looking back in time I now realized that it was tiny cracks that were starting to appear in the organization.

In the 1980s I remember a friend from Bethel that told me a huge mutiny was happening in the very headquarters of Jehovah’s organization. There was talk of books that were being published by EX-JWs that promised freedom, and a better way of life from a totalitarian existence.

The tiny cracks in the organization were now getting bigger and more noticeable and “Mother” raised the ante. (No more personal Bible Studies as groups, any talk against the teachings of the WTS were met with an iron fist, etc.)

By the 90s the tiny cracks had become fragments pieces that were falling with a great thump. The internet was up and running. The stories of one or two JWs climbing the protective wall and leaving were now increasing to tens and hundreds leaving and surviving.

The Mother Organization already had a barb wire fence to keep the rank and file in but now they started to construct a symbolic concrete wall to keep the members in. The disfellowshipping and shunning policies started evolving into firm, unyielding, rigid laws that kept family members that had left the organization from being any type of influence to their still trapped loved ones.

The world today is a different animal than the world of the 50s and 60s. Instead of waiting in line to get on the merry-go-round, 8 year old kids are clicking their I-Phones to read or listen to the latest “THING” going on in the world. No matter how much software protections parents “Buy” to shield their children from wrong information, the kids today are one step ahead.

The totalitarian construct of the WTS is coming apart. No matter how much concrete they use on their walls to keep their population in, the little one that made a dash to freedom has now become thousands.

Many JWs are fed up with the totalitarian way of life. They are not scurrying to the wall anymore. They are taking their time, packing, and walking calmly to the other side of freedom. I used to hear just the husband leaving or the wife or maybe one child. But now I am seeing entire families leaving at once.They don’t give explanations and they don’t even say Good-Bye.

The JWTV, the JW.ORG, the silliness of the Governing Members and their antics is waking up entire families. And the youth today growing up in a totalitarian environment will just not put up with that kind of life. Door to door work will just not cut it with today’s youth.

This totalitarian organization is coming apart at the seams.
OnTheWayOut

Replies to page 1 comments:

Flipper, I can picture you staying on a non-JW topic and saying something like "I ain't encouraging Satanism just because we talked about the San Francisco Giants." That ship-tacking thing was about as silly as they get. I can see a literal sailing ship having to do that but why in the world would God lead people that way?
It can be difficult to decipher the right moments to reach out to the authentic personalities of JW's. I would propose individuals in their circumstances do some serious thinking about that. Certainly, shunned ones can reach out with photos and cards and/or invitations to major events in their lives and the lives of their children. Inviting or at least sharing afterwards, a graduation from high school or college or the birth/wedding of a grandchild is typically appropriate and pulls at their authentic personality and it's desire to be part of that. Informing those that shun about deaths and health updates and surgery of a loved one are typically allowed and maybe those are good times to reach a little further with a photo or an invitation to a meal. Even in my case, with my wife right there in the house, I can overreach and trigger the cult personality back, but I keep trying.
Data-Dog, they do flip from all the answers to how they are just infallible men. And somehow, that doesn't translate as the same when looking at anything outside of Watchtower. I try to be reasonable and show that even when I disagree with a view, that people have their reasons and their thoughts and their mistakes. I point to that heavily whenever my JW wife gets to pushing a JW belief that really violates her authentic self- such as getting a college education.
Rattigan350

Only the Sith believe in absolutes.

This just shows how fake everyone is and is encouraged to be. People can't display their real feelings for fear of being judged. Married couples are fake to each other, children towards parents, etc.
MissFit

Great post John A. I appreciate you excellent observations.
It will be interesting to see how successful the WB&TS (Aka JW.borg,) will be at reinventing itself.
blondie

Other cases where the WTS speaks out of both sides of their mouth.
*** w12 2/1 p. 20 When Your Adolescent Questions Your Faith ***

Parents and experts have observed that there is a marked difference between the way young children think and the way adolescents think. (1 Corinthians 13:11) While young children typically think in concrete, black-and-white terms, adolescents tend to reason on things more abstractly

*** w09 6/15 p. 25 How to Find Joy in the Gift of Singleness ***

A spiritual person does not see things in such black-and-white terms. Though marriage was the norm among the Israelites, the Bible speaks of single men and women who had very rewarding lives. Today, some Christians choose a life of singleness, whereas many others remain single because of circumstances.

*** w95 6/15 p. 20 par. 9 “Sacred Service With Your Power of Reason” ***

The Greek word translated “discernment” denotes “sensitive moral perception.” The word refers to the literal human senses, such as sight. When it comes to entertainment or any other matter requiring a personal decision, our moral sense should be focused so that we can perceive not only sharply defined, black-and-white issues but also those of gray shades. At the same time, we should avoid applying Bible principles to some unreasonable extreme and insisting that all our brothers do the same.—Philippians 4:5.

*** g87 10/22 p. 13 Winning the Fight Against Depression ***

Distorted Thinking Patterns

All-or-nothing thinking: You see things in black-and-white categories. If your performance falls short of perfection, you see yourself as a total failure.

*** lv chap. 2 p. 23 par. 20 How Can You Maintain a Good Conscience? ***

This book is designed to help you find that joy, to hold a good conscience throughout the rest of these troubled last days of Satan’s system of things. Of course, it cannot cover all of the Bible’s laws and principles that you need to think about and apply in the situations that arise day by day. Furthermore, do not expect simple, black-and-white rules on matters of conscience.
OnTheWayOut

Starting replies to page 2:
Hairtrigger: ...There are three essentials that stop Watchtards from breaking away.

1. That is IMO part of the totalness. 100% of their comfort is with the organization and others in it. Your example, the guy would probably say how the outsider tax guy probably cuts corners and cheats the government and the guy would have to watch his back all the time if he left a JW tax preparer.
2. Certainly. Losing all your loved ones is a huge factor.
3.The problem with Totalism is that when a JW says "Show me one organization on earth that has the truth and I will listen to what you have to say" is that the [truth] is defined as the exact same things Watchtower teaches. So they are really saying, "Show me an organization that teaches the exact same things as Watchtower but with PERFECT MEN LEADING IT, then I will start to consider looking at it." They set up the impossible and miss the point.
Billy, thanks for the Book of Angles comment.
Island Man, you have it the way I see it: Conformity to and support for, Watchtower's teachings above all else.
John Aquila, I like your description. The Watchtower's iron fist has evolved as the escaping evolved, but it can't keep up. I am anxious to see a tipping point, the moment of critical mass. I hope it comes in my lifetime, and I think it probably will. Thanks.
GrreatTeacher

What about when they claim both the black and the white to be true on an issue?
The world is getting worse, therefore the end is coming. The world is stabilizing, fulfilling the "cry of peace and security," therefore the end is coming.
This is crazymaking.

Watchtower has a Philosophy of Totalism

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