garybuss,
That is an excellent find.
It's amazing how we can see that statement from the watchtower leaders in a very negative way and loyal JW's will see it in a very positive way. That kind of statement always reminds me of one of the most gruesome mind control techniques used in history to justify the murdering of 1.7 million Cambodians during the leadership of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
Similarities in the brainwashing of Cambodian nationals and the followers of jehovah's witnesses are astonishing. The separating of families, the specific goals of putting in time doing the main objective (Cambodians working in the fields) (JW's in field service), putting all your trust in an invisible authority figure (JW's Jehovah) (Cambodians Angka), the complete void of acknowledgment of those who oppose their teachings, The focus on a specific year, the calling the leaders by the title "brother" , the encouraging to turn in those who do not obey the rules for punishment and much more. The techniques of controlling a mind are usually similar and hardly ever realized by the one who is having their mind controlled. Thus the difference in how we see that statement from the yearbook and how the average JW sees it. The big difference between the Khmer Rouge and the JW's are, the JW's live by "the threat" of death by disobeying and the Cambodians were actually killed.
Keeping separate from the outside world kept the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge hidden from the rest of the world as it went on, just as the atrocities of the JW's dirty little secrets are kept from the publics eyes by their policies of keeping it all within the organization. Even the word Angka (the invisible teacher and ruler of the Khmer Rouge) means "The Organization."
I have seen many photos of the thousands of human skeletons scattered in the middle of "the killing fields" of Cambodia that resemble the illustrations in some of the Watchtower publications. The Cambodians who saw Angka as their savior looked to the many skeletons of human remains as the beginning of their deliverance from evil just as the JW's see the gersume illustrations of the millions of dead people in their publications as evidence of their pending deliverance. Iv often thought about writing a thread about this comparison, Hopefully someone who has more time to write will do it before me. Your post has gotten me thinking about it again.
The average JW's inability to see how their leaders are controlling their minds is amazing. Their frequently white washed and controlled minds are certainly cleansed from any ability to see beyond their own dirt filled soap bubbles.
Dave
