Randy's comment:
When the dissolution of the Watchtower movement comes, as it inevitably will, it will more likely be due to dissension from within than from the disconfirmation of prophecy.
I would argue that the dissention is already simmering at a fairly substantial temperature.
Some of the other threads on this board have had discussions about how great the turnover numbers are for the BORG. In fact, recently in the popular press, a report about religions in America, stated that the Dubs have the highest turnover rate of any American religion. Up until the present the BORG has been able to find replacements for the dissenters who leave, but there may be a tipping point at which they will not be able to recruit new ones faster than those who bail on the whole fiasco.
The message the BORG preaches now is so diluted and toothless compared to the message they had throughout the 20th Century that it has prompted many of the half-way intelligent, thinking elders and ministerial servants to leave. I saw this happen when I was an elder and heard about it even after I left. The vast numbers of people who come into the BORG, never fully buy into the hype (and hence the men don't become servants), and end up leaving is evidence that they are hemorraging numbers -- and many are those who were once the backbone of the BORG.
My ex-inlaws are a perfect example of the type of people who were very disappointed with the failed prophecies. They were life-long witnesses, going back to the 1940s, and my mother-in-law, in some rare moments of candor, lamented about the disappointment. That disappointment, coupled with the vague message and pathetic quality of the reasoning and writing in the publications (compared to times past), may be a catalyst for a mass exodus of the old-timers. Some of the private messages I've received on this board back up what I've just stated.
It should be interesting to see how things unfold over the next few years.
Cheers to all,
Alex
