by Narkissos 18 Replies latest jw friends
to some? or, perhaps, why was it attractive to you at some stage of your life?
Intense suffering might be the right answer in exceptional cases, but hardly for vast numbers (such as most early Christians or modern-day cult members).
What then? Fear of life? Boredom? Revolt against reality?
What do you think?
"I dont want to go to work tomorrow, I hate my job." " I've got tons of bills." "I hate my spouse but feel trapped"
I think it's attractive to some people the same way get-rich-quick schemes are attractive to people. We want something we don't have (wealth, security, peace of mind, all the answers) and someone comes along with a solution that we are willing to invest in.
The "New System" was attractive to me because I felt I could do so many things and learn so much and never run out of time.
I had to block from my mind the murder of billions of people and tell myself that if God finds that necessary, it must be right.
But I never did see the New System as boring. Even now, if it were true, I don't think I could get bored living forever.
Oops, re-read your question... I never really saw the "end of times" as attractive, just life after that time.
To lull the masses to be more content with being slaves to whatever slavemasters there happen to be at the time. "As long as we remain faithful, things will be so much better after death" or "after God takes back His creation."
Because just as the word END times indicates...............................Its the END of the way things are now as we know it. New and good times follow. The END comes first, followed by............................Good times.
Boredom and pain are more easily suffered if you think there's a time-limit on it
Unfortunately they are often the root causes of time dragging in the first place.
For the WTS, it is the prospect of a better -- no, perfect -- earthly life. And the prospect of never dying. That is the "carrot" that attracts so many people to the movement. The "end times" is merely a means to reach that goal.
For pre-millennialist Christians, the focus seems to be on Christ's advent (as it was last century among the Adventists), being raptured into his fellowship, and the end of unrighteousness.
I think many believe this for no other reason than the presence of such ideas in the NT. The crystallation of a canon of "scripture" has fossilized some contemporary notions of the 1st century AD for all time, just as the Quran has preserved some peripheral notions not at all central to early Islam (such as attitudes toward gender). Fundamentalists of both kinds would then construe such statements in sacred writ as an article of faith, literally true, and must be followed in a rather pure (read: extreme) form.
There would probably not be any contemporary expectation at all if the canon consisted only of books like John.
Same reason the news of the "upcoming pandemic" is so attractive.
Reporting the "inside scoop" on impending doom seems to be one of the most effective way of gaining adherents to any movement/marketing scheme. Every once in a while everyone is sent some piece of literature/junk mail that talks about economic collapse of some form, pandemic (viral, resistant bacteria, etc.), terrorism, nuclear holocost, environmental devastation, conspiracy in the medical establishment, etc, etc...After the author/organization behind the literature establishes itself as an authority who knows the ins and outs of the subject beyond what is acknowledged by the establishment, the reader feels that he/she has stumbled onto one of the few "liferafts" to weather the onslaught.
The most powerful human motivator is fear.
I have a theory that "end times" anxiety increases during peacetime. It's a phenomenon that exists even outside of the JW experience. When I was a little girl, I feared a Nuclear Winter. These days, our children fear environmental annihaliation. But are these fears real? For real, we are living longer, healthier lives than ever before.
That people cannot prevent or prepare for a catastrophic world-wide disaster. I think these urban myths serve as adrenaline-pumping ghost stories to keep us alert.
Maybe people are built for danger, and in a society absent of daily threat, we create our own dangers. Perhaps a healthy outlet for our excess energy is mildly dangerous sports like bungee jumping, skateboarding, surfing, parachuting, and rock climbing.
