My folks were raised in that depressing environment.
I, otoh, was raised as a "baby-boomer," when times were (at least in the US, though I think also in many other parts of the world) ripe with opportunity: "Seek your goals, and you will achieve them!"
The WTS has, however, consistently presented quite a different perspective: "The world is ending, and so put no trust in what this doomed world has to offer."
Recently, I've been pondering how the way my folks raised us 3 boys may have been more a reflection of those tough times they went through, rather than what the WTS said...that the WTS may have simply provided them a certain kind of "voice" for their own frustrations, and self-limitations, in life, which they, in turn, "projected" onto us, their children.
Craig