Omg... yes... the smugness, the arrogance...
Juxtapositioned against being meek, lowly, humble, submissive... a worm... a grasshopper... nothing but dust... a weak, inferior, fleshly organism... unworthy... sinful... imperfect... unrighteous... undeserving of kindness... doomed...
And then, footstep followers, blessed by the sovereign of the universe... clean, righteous, holy, moral, like a pig washed from his mud, like a dog not eating his vomit... a precious pearl... highly valued in god’s eyes... blessed with special knowledge and insight, saved from the wicked world... upstanding... a glory to the nations, a spectacle to the world... (the JWs somehow thought that was a good thing, the spectacle to the world thing, where people would oooh and aaah at our holiness and uprightness...)
Yes, omg, I think I even have some wrinkle lines of total smugness still etched on my face... but they are changing...
I remember once even praying, “Oh Jehovah, thank you that I have the truth, and that I am not like these sinful, worldly people all around me...” and then I stopped cold, because I sounded JUST LIKE the Pharisee who was praying how thankful he was that he was not like those sinners... I remember feeling very confused and not knowing what to think... the cognitive dissonance was strong at times...
And yes, I totally agree with Sparky that JWs do not have the market on arrogance smugness... I see it and recognize it instantly with any person or group or religion who also holds similar, superior types of views ... which I now find very sad, divisive, and un-enlightened ...