I tend to agree with OneEyedJoe on this point. For me personally, I don't think that simply because the WTS has mocked and riduculed others, we should do the same when addressing the organization and its wrongdoing. Yes, mockery, ridicule, satire and sarcasm have their places in discussion, debate and interchange. I get that. And for some of us, this kind of expression is a natural expression of our own personalities. I understand and appreciate that as well. At the same time, I am reminded of one of Abraham Lincoln's aphorisms. No one would dispute the belief that Lincoln himself was an accomplished writer, speaker and teacher whose words are still respected some one hundred fifty years after his death. The aphorism I have in mind is, "You'll draw more flies with one drop of honey than you will with a gallon of gall (vinegar)." Lincoln certainly used mockery, sarcasm, ridicule and satire on numerous occasions to make his points. But he also realized there were times when the exact opposite was necessary and required.
Two of those occasions were his Inaugural Addresses. In the first, he spoke directly to the secession-minded South and pleaded with the region not to initiate civil war. In the second, he spoke to the victorious North and implored it not to exact vindictive revenge against the defeated Confederacy. In those speeches, as well as in those in which he had to take a much firmer and harder stance, the goal was to reach not just the minds but the hearts of his listeners and readers. History shows that he failed either to prevent civil war or to stop the North from punishing the erstwhile rebels. Nevertheless, he made the effort to do what he felt was the right thing regardless of the popular sentiments he faced.
I believe it is similarly in our writings about the WTS. That corrupt organization is beyond redemption. Nothing we say or write will change the course the Governing Body has set. Some of us post here to vent and I fully support that. Many have been seriously wounded by this execrable group and we have every right to expose it as the ravenous wolf in sheep's covering it is. Hard speech with acid words can be entirely appropriate when we are posting. Lurkers and others who are not committed to leaving the Witnesses can certainly benefit from reading our experiences and thoughts arising from our years as Jehovah's Witnesses when they are presented in this manner. At the same time, however, I think that we also want to be aware that in our efforts to expose WTS evil, we don't too closely resemble the enemy we want to decry. We can run the risk of having observers cry out, "A plague on both your houses!" If they see no difference between us and the WTS, what will we have accomplished? Very little. I just think that if we want others to see us as different and better than the WTS, we might want to weigh our words carefully. Otherwise, we might find ourselves being looked at in the same way the animals of Animal Farm saw the pigs and men seated at a table playing cards. Looking from man to pig and pig to man, they could no longer tell which was which.
Quendi
