Bizarre Assembly Seating

by metatron 41 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  mkr32208

  I don?t' think the cleaning issue is accurate we used to have to sweep the roped off areas too, wtf?

  As too speaking your mind years and years ago while I was still in Watkins glen NY I had some elders approach me in the hall after the Sunday meeting about a incident from an assembly where me and some of my friends had been seen acting in a way "unbecoming witness youths" (they didn't know the half of it... hell not the tenth! lol) but following my usual policy I said "wasn't me, was an evil doppelganger." So then two other elders come up (one of whom was in the "abuse ring" his son was actually abusing lots of the kids in the hall and he himself had been caught hiding in his daughters closet watching his teen daughter undressing, not that anything was done he wasnt' even removed as an elder everyone just sort of laughed it off... not I!) and I said really loud "I'll be glad to talk to you brothers about anything you want but I will not talk to this asshole" then walked away... pin drop silence doesn't even begin to describe it! hahahahahahahaha

  I moved to florida about a week later!
• 

  Lady Lee

  A couple of things come to mind here

  The WTS is about appearances and they also like publicity often placing an article about assemblies in local papers. Appearances = publicity and sometimes = pictures. Now it really wouldn't look too good in pictures if the place was empty - like those churches they keep talking about it.

  After having done public speaking in a wide range of venues I know how weird it feels to have your audience sitting as far away as they can get. Makes you feel like people don't really want to hear what you have to say. It is a very isolating experience. I am one who likes to see the audience and see what impression I am making and judge if I need to change tactics or the direction of my info.

  Now I know I speak about much different info and people are there presumably because they want to learn something (most of my speaking has been done in colleges or universities with a captive student audience) but I assume people have not heard my presentation before and are sometimes new to the topic. As opposed to the average JW who has heard the same thing dozens of times often using the exact same phrases.B-O-R-I-N-G

  So speakers want the audience where they can see them and the JWs want to be as far away for the boring info as possible
• 

  simplesally

  It used to bug me when I would go to the CA and see that a whole section had been roped off. The CA hall had been built so that the whole circuit could meet together instead of just 1/2 the circuit.......the change took over a year to implement. But it was a pain in the arse to come to the meeting just before the meeting was to start.......and try to find a seat. My ex was df'd but attending meetings, he didn't want to go early and sit like a bump on a log for 30 minutes. It would break my heart everytime to see all these easily accessible seats and yet we'd have to go find seats in the center of a long row stepping over book bags, coolers and people.
• 

  SAHS

  This is a nice little issue here that illustrates the high
  control aspect of Jehovah's Witnesses.

  This certainly seems to be the case, especially when you look at the latest rules regarding not being allowed to go to any food stand or restaurant at lunch time, and having to pack your lunch. (As if you can really order adults around like that.)

  You have to wonder just what?s next! . . . . maybe an approved list of foods you can bring in your lunch bag (e.g., grasshoppers and locusts are okay, but not meat from any animal that splits the hoof but doesn?t chew its cud, and no seafood that doesn?t have scales?so, no pork and eel stew!).

  ?SAHS
• 

  willyloman

  After having done public speaking in a wide range of venues I know how weird it feels to have your audience sitting as far away as they can get. Makes you feel like people don't really want to hear what you have to say.

  Yeah, thanks for the input. That's insightful. Never thought about it that way, but it rings true. Cognitive dissonance in reverse, eh?
• 

  metatron

  The Watchtower expends a lot of effort on control issues during assemblies.

  For example:

  sometimes taping over mirrors in the ladies room

  putting up 'out of order' signs on functioning vending machines

  demanding that no one venture out to local fast food places during lunch break

  putting program audio in bathrooms

  assigning a discreet brother to be a monitor of all C.O. talks - in which he

  follows the manuscript word by word, to make sure the speaker doesn' t deviate

  ( this is an assembly standard, not widely known)

  In the past, they've assigned brothers to walk thru halls with signs like "Quiet, Please"

  or "Keep moving" ( where very crowded, not as much of a problem these days)I

  As for seating, I know of congregations that share a hall. The congregation with little

  attendance has brothers remove rows of chairs and carry them into a back room. When

  the other congregation shows up, they carry them out and remake the lost rows.

  I've also known of Assembly Halls in which they station a brother to prevent people

  from using the front exits during the program. If you're a brother in a hurry to reach the

  bathroom, you'll have to go exit in the back and go around.

  I sometimes wonder if any of these 'Theocrats' ever reason that their obsession with

  control is futile. While they agonize over 'new leanings' from the 'faithful slave',

  attendance drifts, kids manage double lives, and the adults maintain their own hypocrises.

  How often I wanted to stand up screaming at an elder's meeting, " this attempt at micro

  management is crazy!". It's a sort of consensus reality - and they all play along.

  Just repeat 'spiritual paradise' and the spell magically continues.

  metatron
• 

  juni

  This is kind of off the subject but does have to do w/assemblies. Is it really true that you could only use 1 piece of paper for drying your hands in the bathrooms? It sounds extreme but believable.
• 

  Winston Smith :>D

  I think it relevant.

  Like JT said, it illustrates the WTS' cry of Babylon the Great's waters drying up, except it's happening to the WTS.

  No, it's not ground breaking, but it is notable.

  Kinda like seeing your ex after breaking up 5 years earlier.

  Sure, they may not be homeless and bankrupt... but they sure are getting fatter.
• 

  Winston Smith :>D

  Is it really true that you could only use 1 piece of paper for drying your hands in the bathrooms?

  Yes

  That's why I just stopped washing my hands and made sure to shake everyone else's hands on the way back to my seat

  Remember,

  this is the same group of yahoo's that would have attendents carring signs that were stuck in your face 5 minutes before a session started telling you to "Please Keep Moving"
• 

  pr_capone

  I was always told while serving as an attendant, that the reason that some of the sections were roped off was because they got a better deal from the buiding if not all the sections were used. *shrugs* I bought it when I was a kid but I really doubt that now.

  Kansas District Overbeer