Damocles, welcome congratulations on a wonderful first post.
Apologies for jumping in here a bit late. I take pride in my 'strong fortress' as a lurker, but this thread breached the defenses.
I have concluded that most witnesses are considerably less interested in doctrine than in friendships, family and belonging. So does 1914 matter....maybe only to those of us who have left.
Remember back to when we were ministers, then we were not ministers, then we were ministers again? Remember the earnest questions and answers in WT study demonstrating how all JWs were ministers, then the equally earnest discussion of how we were not? Then some months later we see a picture of a sailing ship in the ocean and....we tack back 180 degrees to an earnest position where we are, indeed, without question, ministers! All this in a space measuring months not years.
In all this back and forth, not a smile of cynicism, not a hint of consternation, not a smirk of humor .... just earnest questions with equally earnest answers.
Are most JWs that brain dead? (there's a good joke about that if anyone is interested) Nah, we know better. But consider the sequence..if this back and forth is wrong, maybe the doctrine is wrong, if this doctrine is wrong, then maybe this other doctrine is wrong, if that is wrong......then, cricky, it all may be wrong and so I maybe I will quit....and lose all my family and friends!
Hmmm. Okay,okay, I get it. Today I am a minister, no, no I'm not...Oh pardon me I was wrong.. I am indeed a proud minister....and I get to keep my family and friends. Cool.
Not a lot of question, in my mind, why waffling on 1914 produces nary a ripple on most folks minds.
That is the same conclusion that I have come to.