Deep stuff. From this, it looks like they're trying to cut thought off at the source, that being ideas. An idea springs upon anyone, yet these are often raw and unpolished, in need of refinement which can only come from concentration and varied perspective. So "to not harbor" clearly means that a Witness should not allow a passing thought, the kind that are likened to birds, to land on your head and build a nest. Harboring/nesting would mean allowing that passing idea to be dwelt upon several times, turning it over and fashioning it into something conveyable, communicable. If the raw idea has been harbored long enough and smelted into a useful implement/instrument of thought, and has been reviewed and agreed upon by the mind's members, then it may well become a personal opinion. Some opinions are so very well researched, constructed and communicated that they are dangerous to other opinions. The personal opinion that emerges from an idea can be neutrally advocated, showing respect for the listener, or adamantly insisted upon, showing less respect. Generally, people advocate upwards along the heirarchy/chain of command, and insist downwards. Imagine then a line of millions of points, a continuum, stretching from the basement of obedient custodial artists to the heights of white, crinkly anointed decree, and that each of these points on the line has the capacity to form an idea, and to harbor it, and to then form an opinion. If an opinion is formed, it can be advocated upward or insisted downward. This is an insidious and elegantly simple network of thought terrorism, so the WTS is engaging in their own war against it. Opinions that are already formed are the terrorist disasters/fires that need stamped out pronto, as these are already usually fashioned into a streamlined medium of exchange, and can move about freely if one is greater than another. (It being rare that any two opinions are equally stupid so as to settle against each other, but it being common that most opinions are of a substance not greater than their neighbor, and so also settled against each other. It is the insightful and sagacious opinions that are most dangerous.) The second edict to not harbor private ideas is the attempt to strike closer to the root of the problem, the root being that ideas occur 'at all' in a Witness. As yet, the WTS still cannot get at the Idea itself. They cannot prevent the Idea from being born. But they are still working round the clock towards a theocratic NewSpeak, where Ideas become impossible. (1984)
