just saw this on the public area of jwtalk (i am not a member).
here is the link.. http://jwtalk.net/forums/topic/23523-privvy-news/.
such a shame - i do feel for these ones - i just don't know what to say.... wgo.
Vidiot - I've long suspected that the ones who express themselves the most (the way the posters in the linked thread have been) are the ones feeling that quiet desperation the most acutely. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a psychological mechanism used to shore up their confidence in the face of increasing evidence that undermines it.
Yes. It is how they resolve their cognitive dissonance.
d4g
in short:- tight pants is no longer just a am3 hang up (or is that a hang up on the well hung?
)- brothers who have effeminate body language are flagged up- as are sisters with 'masculine' hair styles or dress- such dress is 'disturbing to the congregation'- the above must heed the (repeated) counsel from the elders...or they get stripped of the right to share on the ministry- however...this will not be revealed (announced) to the congregation.
wow.
The difference is a company does not judge a person's worthiness by their style of dress. The WTS does.
A person can leave a company if they find the dress code to be too constricting for their taste. This is a whole different matter. While certainly not as important as direct abuses, it is a type of ambient abuse in of itself, and very much a legitimate concern to be noted. No one is getting carried away by bringing up such points.
d4g
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
I would argue that it is impossible to be woken up by someone else, however seeds can be planted that will produce fruit given the proper environment.
I had severe cognitive dissonance for many years before leaving, and did my best not to embrace it. Embracing it means facing the dissonance and trying to figure out why there are logical inconsistencies. This was a painful process, because deep down I recognized there was a severe price to be paid for discovering my beliefs could be wrong. This is why it often takes a personal traumatic situation for someone to wake up, as it did for me.
This article below I believe explains the reasons why even very intelligent people believe nonsensical things. The four keys points represented provide some insight as to why logic alone is not sufficient in most cases for someone to "wake up" and seriously question their belief system.
Why do intelligent and educated people still believe nonsense?
d4g
we talk a lot about most jws being uneducated, uninformed, and that they lack critical thinking skills, but in my area there is a lot of jws that went to the university, medical school, law school, and came back to the organization.
in my circuit, that i know of, we had two electrical engineers, one computer engineer with a ph.d. eight teachers with a bachelors degree and three of those with a masters in education.
we had two medical doctors, one was a pediatrician who closed his business about 3 years ago and went to bethel.
Diogenesister - This is not a USA vs. Europe thing. A masters or PhD from any real university is an academically rigorous degree.
We are not just talking about converts that already had their degrees before becoming a JW. This affects born-ins and raised-ins as well, even more so. Many of these folks do go to university, (I did), and what happens is the programming is already well set in by that time, so it is easy to remain in, as one can treat the experience as "necessary business". Remember JWs that do go to university are going for career purposes, not to be enlightened in the general sense, so it is easier for them to have a rather disengaged viewpoint to the experience, even though they may perform well academically. Compartmentalization is the result, unless one is already having doubts.
University educated people have a greater degree of success in aggregate than non-university educated folks. Successful people have higher levels of self-esteem, and generally work to preserve that self-esteem. If something stands in the way of the ability to maintain a healthy level of self-esteem, (such as being wronged in a judicial committee, divorce, etc.), this will lead a successful person to often see things as they really are. Those experiences can happen several years into the future after one's education is completed.
d4g
we talk a lot about most jws being uneducated, uninformed, and that they lack critical thinking skills, but in my area there is a lot of jws that went to the university, medical school, law school, and came back to the organization.
in my circuit, that i know of, we had two electrical engineers, one computer engineer with a ph.d. eight teachers with a bachelors degree and three of those with a masters in education.
we had two medical doctors, one was a pediatrician who closed his business about 3 years ago and went to bethel.
A university education does not mean someone will "leave" immediately, if ever. That is a myth. If that were the case I would have left 11-15 years before I did. Those that do leave because they are attending university are already questioning the organization.The GB are just plain paranoid about their constituents being better educated and smarter than they are, as any authoritarian group is.
IMHO JWs compartmentalize JW life vs. "normal" life. In their day to day normal life, they can use critical thinking skills, and become very balanced and successful people, until they are confronted with something that sets off the group think/cult programming. This causes cognitive dissonance as has been mentioned above.
Having said that, successful people do not make good robots, and very often times, with the passing of time and experience, probability dictates that something will happen to these ones that will force them to wake up. This is the real reason a college education is a problem for the WTS. College generally = success, and success = not taking bullshit.
d4g
that's right folks time to kick back , pour a cold one and in take in some tunes.. what are you listening to right now ?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu87294pvx8.
Good thread. Will add later when not at work...Who, Radiohead, Dire Straits...all good.
d4g
https://youtu.be/spnxx52oesa .
mike huckabee thinks that sin and evil, not guns, are the reason the us has so many mass shootings.. if this is true, then all things being equal, the us has more evil and sinful people than the rest of the world.
who's to blame for that?
Until people start using science and math to reason, (in this case using simple probability theory, not even its more advanced concepts), stupid comments such as Huckabee's, and one I saw yesterday on this forum that the "US has a problem with crazy people", (or something close to that), will continue to proliferate. Sadly, people will believe it.
Yes, I said stupid comments...not stupid people. I don't want to offend the poster that made the above comment I mention, but Huckabee's comment is just another variation thereof. That poster is not stupid.
d4g
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because she would not show him her puppies.. nobody has to tell you what country this happened in, you already know.. source.
Vidiot - It's not rocket science.
No, it isn't. Its probability theory and considered a basic mathematical requirement in any engineering or scientific area of profession or study. Even a well designed gun cannot be engineered without it.
It is no coincidence either that the same people that tend to be anti-education are also the same ones that tend to be the most pro-gun.
d4g
when i joined this forum i was seeking more people who felt the same way i did in terms of seeing the jehovah's witness organization for what it truly was; a false prophet.. once i found like-minded members i slowly started to open up and participate more in trying to help others that were also exiting mentally and physically.
today, i offer support to anyone who desires it regardless of what they believe or not believe.. so what is your purpose on this board?.
support?
I have been on here over 9 years, not long after leaving the JWs. It started out as mostly a place to have my thoughts validated. I had already read CoC by that time, and Timothy Campbell's Beyond JW site by then.
I would have varying degrees of input over the next 3 years or so, with little contribution between 2009-2013. Last year, a very hurtful personal event brought me back, as I really needed to cathartically express my thoughts about the situation, and still do from time to time. I am also concerned with what goes on in JWdom for the sake of two people I still dearly love.
I now try to help others to the degree my small amount of insight might be beneficial to them.
d4g
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because she would not show him her puppies.. nobody has to tell you what country this happened in, you already know.. source.
Simon - US politics is simply dysfunctional - everyone knows what needs to be done, the majority support it ... but the laws still cannot be passed
There is something fundamentally wrong with our congressional makeup. It mostly has to do with House districting.
House districts are geographically significant, not populationally significant. There are more districts that represent rural areas in Washington, than those that represent well populated areas, hence more votes representing those interests. Rural areas are generally very conservative in the US, as opposed to well populated areas that are generally much more liberal, and therefore these rural areas are over-represented in Washington. This accounts for the deadlock we see in our system. A Parliamentary type system, such as like that of Canada or the UK is far more efficient when stark differences of political ideals exist from one geographic area to another.
This was not always a problem, however with societal change taking place at the pace it currently is happening, conservative types tend to dig their heels in deep, resisting change. This takes place in fiscal, as well as social matters. Gun control is just one of many things that are affected by this. This is also why the Supreme Court is being called on to play such a significant role in affecting legislation.
d4g
