Did anyone find the DC encouraging?

by sweet tee 29 Replies latest jw friends

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  sweet tee

  I remember going to the assemblies and conventions and feeling encouraged by the information that was presented. In hindsight, I may have just felt that way because that's how you were supposed to feel. I was a 100% brainwashed fool for many years, if the GB said it, I did, I felt it and I believed it

  Did anyone who attended the convention even HEAR anything encouraging at all? Or was it just the usual GB mental beat down with don't do this, don't do that ... I read on another thread that they're speaking against college education again. That's funny as hell! "Little Johnny went to college and now he's not so strong in da troof". Yeah, cause little Johnny knows how to do research, use the internet and think critically so now he's on to your bulls***t and only goes to meetings so he won't lose his friends and family. Hell no he doesn't want to be a 'servant' he's just faking it until he can figure out how to convince mom and dad it's all a lie.

  Why can't the conventions actually be upbuilding? Like a good church revival with singing and praise and teaching values from the 'good book'. How about a sermon on making your family life happy that emphasises spending more quality time with your children. Do fun things like play boardgames, go out to the park more often, play catch, fly a kite ... that type of stuff makes me feel warm and fuzzy .

  Come to think of it, I really didn't feel upbuilt after a convention or assembly. I felt like I had to 'do more', do more, do more ... just thinking about it gives me the cringes
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  Mutz

  The best part of the DC was the after convention cleanup in the evening.
  We used to have a great time shipping all the stuff out, there used to be plenty of food and some real laughs.
  Then the Society did one of their rationalisation programmes, that and a cocky jumped up CO killed all the fun.
  As for the DC itself, mostly an endurance test listening to the same old things rehashed every year.
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  stillajwexelder

  No not really - I am trying to give a balanced reply but I came away feeling a bit down and angry
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  rebel8

  It was encouraging in that I walked away thinking we dubs are doing everything right and everyone else is sooo wrong, look how many people believe as I do, this must be true, etc. I was trying to convince myself.
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  sweet tee

  Then the Society did one of their rationalisation programmes, that and a cocky jumped up CO killed all the fun.

  That's just it mutz - The GB prides itself on sucking the joy out of everything. If the 'friends' get any enjoyment out of something the GB will find something wrong with it and apply the same few catch-all scriptures; make sure of the more important things ... bad association ... be no part of the world.

  They SUCK!!!
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  Elsewhere

  When I was young I enjoyed the conventions as a social activity - I never really listened to the talks. The only thing I ever paid half attention to was the dramas.

  As I became more and more distant from the WTS I began to find the conventions to be extraordinarily boring. In my last few years "in" I literally slept through every talk of every convention. I would walk in, find a seat and then promptly fall asleep.
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  sweet tee

  In my last few years "in" I literally slept through every talk of every convention

  elsewhere - ROFL
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  Sith

  When I was younger, I really looked forward to District and Circuit Assemblies. Not because they were spiritually encouraging or because I was hoping to learn something new. I looked forward to them for one reason. It was a chance to spend 2 or 3 or 4 days looking at and flirting with beautiful girls dressed up in their sunday best.
  
  I remember also thinking how well organized and how efficiently the conventions were run, from food service through security. I know now that they weren't any more organized than any other type of convention. I just believed these things because I was told to believe them and because they were pounded into my head from the podium. "We are Jehovah's people and our fellowship and brotherly love enable us to work together in a way that nobody else can." Bullsh*t! I've been to many other kinds of conventions since leaving the Borg, and most of them have been just as organized.
  
  After I grew older, got married and had kids...and couldn't flirt with the ladies anymore...the Assemblies got downright tedious.
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  sweet tee

  I remember also thinking how well organized and how efficiently the conventions were run, from food service through security. I know now that they weren't any more organized than any other type of convention. I just believed these things because I was told to believe them and because they were pounded into my head from the podium. "We are Jehovah's people and our fellowship and brotherly love enable us to work together in a way that nobody else can." Bullsh*t! I've been to many other kinds of conventions since leaving the Borg, and most of them have been just as organized.

  Dag sith, I forgot all about that. I attend a few large trade shows a year and they are just as organized if not more so than the conventions and such. It's just mind boggling what big liars the GB are. But with their limited experience and exposure to THE REAL WORLD they probably believe themselves.
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  Elsewhere

  They HAVE to toot their own horn... no one else will!