Posts by jgnat

He thinks the Witness routine is the right way to live. He just can't bear to do it. I don't think he could finish any book that wasn't studied a chapter at a time. I think I can give him snippets though. Blondie you are right about him needing the final revelation. Good thoughts all except for r j Harris.

94

just what am I supposed to believe now??

by purrpurr in

while i'm glad i found this site, it has also crumbled to bits everything i've believed in my whole life.

i feel like the certainty, magic and wonder has gone out of my life.

this has left a huge hole in my soul.

jgnat

I have gone through several epiphanies in my lifetime. Each one was marked by deep reflection and uncertainty. Even so, it is a great thing to pause for deep reflection. I would advise you to take your time. Ask yourself what is really true and worthwhile?

It would be wrong of me to give you pat answers and short cut this time of reflection. As painful and as uncertain as it is, it is a rare treasure.

It is how you become wise and immune to charlatans.

48

Hubby's tempted to go back

by jgnat in

jw
friends

today he kept bumping in to (or rather dodging and weaving from) fellow witnesses.

he's talking about returning but can't figure out a way to do it without enduring a fair amount of humiliation.

i did not panic.

jgnat

This is a man who feels remember, he does not think. He won't admit to himself why he can't bear to go back. When pushed, he parrots all the reasons he is told that the meetings are important. So his premier goal is to avoid pain. That means lie, lie, lie. He has considered if asked if the enquirer might hold his hand for a couple months until he gets back in to his groove. That might drive away the Witnesses faster than anything.

He has also considered telling them that he's disfellowshipped so they don't ask too many embarrassing questions.

Heck, he tangles up his life more than anyone I know.

6

Interesting re-thinking of Chinese Emperors.

by fulltimestudent in

somehow, i don't think mao would have approved:.

http://english.cntv.cn/2014/08/09/vide1407515159186661.shtml.

.

jgnat

There is a story in the Apocrypha, I am sure, where the child Jesus fed the birds.

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/bc-burnslibrary/6156228316/

31

Will someone, please, stop ISIS?

by skeeter1 in

will anyone stop isis?by josh levs, cnnupdated 2:07 pm edt, thu august 7, 2014(cnn) -- if you're following the news about isis, which now calls itself the islamic state, you might think you've mistakenly clicked on a historical story about barbarians from millennia ago.. in a matter of months, the group seized territory in both iraq and syria and declared an islamic caliphate, celebrating its own shocking slaughter along the way.. "i don't see any attention from the rest of the world," a member of the yazidi minority in iraq told the new yorker.

"in one day, they killed more than two thousand yazidi in sinjar, and the whole world says, 'save gaza, save gaza.'".

in syria, the group hoisted some of its victims severed heads on poles.

jgnat

ISIS razed a cherished Muslim temple. I have seen the images of the weeping Islamic women. The US is threatened by this group? Pah. Rhetoric.

48

Hubby's tempted to go back

by jgnat in

jw
friends

today he kept bumping in to (or rather dodging and weaving from) fellow witnesses.

he's talking about returning but can't figure out a way to do it without enduring a fair amount of humiliation.

i did not panic.

jgnat

Today he kept bumping in to (or rather dodging and weaving from) fellow Witnesses. He's talking about returning but can't figure out a way to do it without enduring a fair amount of humiliation. I did not panic. I asked what he would like to do if he went back? I also refused to accept that he was returning to the "Truth". I told him the WHO has far more truth about the Ebola virus than the WTS.

He does not want to do the Witness thing. He just doesn't want to feel guilty either. So his second strategy was to come up with some good excuses. I gave him a few, which he wasn't that impressed with:

It's part of his probation conditions.
His wife has kept him too busy...in the bedroom.
Grow a moustache.
Get a gay earring stud, a neck tattoo.
Field service is too boring.
Tell them the truth.
Grow Elvis sideburns.

The best advice I gave him, in his most humble opinion, was to be a Submarine Witness as Blondie suggested. He also asked if you, my Chat Bunnies, might have better advice. But he doesn't want it too silly.

You have my permission to be silly.

2

Must read: Michael Macy and the Emperor's Dilemma

by jgnat in

i am coming near the end of pinker's book, "the better angels..." and have come to the section on conformity to unpopular positions.

this led me to michael macy's emperor's dilemma.

http://graduateinstitute.ch/files/live/sites/iheid/files/sites/political_science/shared/political_science/1836/centola_macy_willer.pdf.

jgnat

I am coming near the end of Pinker's book, "The Better Angels..." and have come to the section on conformity to unpopular positions. This led me to Michael Macy's Emperor's Dilemma.

http://graduateinstitute.ch/files/live/sites/iheid/files/sites/political_science/shared/political_science/1836/Centola_Macy_willer.pdf

I can see why Cofty is calling this required reading. From page 649 of Punker's book, "People not only avow a preposterous belief that they think everyone else avows, but they punish those who fail to avow it, largely out of the belief - also false - that everyone else wants it enforced ... false conformity and false enforcement can reinforce each other."

Has anyone beat me to read the article?

How might a crowd break out of the collective trance?