My father would have started college 49 years ago this week. About three months earlier, the week he graduated high school, the Awake! Magazine came out with some very clear direction to teenagers. The May 22, 1969 issue on page 15 stated:
If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. Of the generation that observed the beginning of the “last days” in 1914, Jesus foretold: “This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” – Matt. 24:34.
Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way towards its finish, if not actually gone!
It’s been 49 years since that article came out. My father, along with countless others in the congregations his age, took that article’s advice and skipped college to work in menial jobs they did not enjoy.
Over the course of those 49 years, their non-Awake-reading peers went to college, graduated, and they did indeed fulfill a career, contrary to the promise of the Awake magazine. They married, had children, raised their family, and are watching their children raise families of their own. Those teenagers – like my father – that article was directed to are now retired and drawing Social Security.
The congregation servant used this article to persuade my dad not to attend college back in the summer of 1969, and I know he wasn’t the only one. Looking back, those two paragraphs were filled with false and misleading statements. No wonder the 1969 Awake isn’t included in the Watchtower Library DVD-ROM!
The passage of time has proven nearly every sentence in that two-paragraph quote wrong. Consider it, sentence by sentence:
If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things.
The 18-year-olds who read this article in 1969 are now 67 years old. They indeed are growing old in this system.
Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years.
Shaky evidence, to say the least. Would you consider 49 years to be “a few”?
Of the generation that observed the beginning of the “last days” in 1914, Jesus foretold: “This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” – Matt. 24:34.
Old light.
Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers.
Not only did their peers fulfill careers, many of them have now retired comfortably from those careers.
If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way towards its finish, if not actually gone!
This article was written at the height of the 1975 fervor, and many Witnesses sincerely thought the world would end in six years. Sadly, that fiasco is nearly forgotten today, as we are as far removed from that era as those 1960’s kids were from the similar 1925 fiasco.
Young people, lurkers, please take note: College isn’t for everybody, but don’t take this organization’s advice when making major life decisions, like whether to go to college or what career to pursue. Do NOT rely on this organization for advice in making financial decisions, either.
The leaders of this organization, by building a luxurious Warwick complex for themselves while selling off local Kingdom Halls, have shown that they are digging in for the long haul. All the while, they’re still peddling this anti-education nonsense.
In one of their JW Broadcasting shows from 2015, the university-educated legal department director and a Vietnam veteran got on screen and told their viewers to reject getting an education because it would damage your personality, make you arrogant, and cut you off from organizational service. They honestly think your time would be better spent selling their comic books and standing next to their carts for 70 hours a month while doing low-wage menial labor.
In their opinion, the only education you need is attending the midweek Life of Misery meeting and reading the 48 pages a year of Awake!
Heed their advice at your own peril.