Posts by warehouse

33

What Would It Take To Prove......

by metatron in

jw
friends

a hypothetical question.. at a minimum, what evidence would it take to prove that the society is trying to quietly shed publishers?.

now, i don't think we have evidence of this yet but that doesn't mean it could never happen.

we must consider where the trends of magazine/literature cuts, branch office sales, coerced contributions, bethel/do layoffs, and emphasis on jw.org lead us.. otoh, you might argue that there would never be a deliberate move to get rid of them, just moves that discreetly abandon them.

warehouse

Vidiot wrote:

I don't entirely agree with you.

Lol, yes you do

Vidiot wrote:

the real bottom line is, they saw the 67% retention rate, the young people "leaving in droves", the so-called death of printed media, the impending pedo lawsuit payouts and bad PR, and numerous other harbingers of death . . . implemented the corporate equivalent . . . and thusly proceeding to help the process along

Exactly my point. This describes, as you mentioned, a strategy that is purely reactive to external forces. It's also evolving, which is why they redact things, update and destroy BOE letters, and have eldubs editing their KS books.

I suspect that at least some loyalist movers-and-shakers in the WT heirarchy had enough practical common sense to see the way the wind was starting to blow . . . and began directing policy accordingly, ostensibly to save face and to (hopefully) keep the WTS afloat.

This also describes a situation where there isn't any real vision or direction. You have a group of people within the organization who are acting independantly of the visible leadership. They think they know better (and granted, they might actually have better actionable data) and they've proceeded to manipulate individuals/circumstances because they don't believe the GB has the appropriate viewpoint.

There's no bottom line, except survival. I would even hazard to say that the pedantics we see on the ground are a result of an attempt to not only muddy the waters in terms of visiblity by the R&F, but as an obscurification tool to prevent these splinter groups within the top layers of the organization from running around doing whatever they feel is necessary.

33

What Would It Take To Prove......

by metatron in

jw
friends

a hypothetical question.. at a minimum, what evidence would it take to prove that the society is trying to quietly shed publishers?.

now, i don't think we have evidence of this yet but that doesn't mean it could never happen.

we must consider where the trends of magazine/literature cuts, branch office sales, coerced contributions, bethel/do layoffs, and emphasis on jw.org lead us.. otoh, you might argue that there would never be a deliberate move to get rid of them, just moves that discreetly abandon them.

warehouse

It's a runaway train guys, with no conductor. Vidiot hit the nail on the head. While it's entertaining to analyze and weigh potential conspiracies, the bottom line is, there is no bottom line. There's no one cohesive vision or direction or plan, other than pure survival. What we see is usually reactive behavior of groups of people who live sequestered lives.

33

What Would It Take To Prove......

by metatron in

jw
friends

a hypothetical question.. at a minimum, what evidence would it take to prove that the society is trying to quietly shed publishers?.

now, i don't think we have evidence of this yet but that doesn't mean it could never happen.

we must consider where the trends of magazine/literature cuts, branch office sales, coerced contributions, bethel/do layoffs, and emphasis on jw.org lead us.. otoh, you might argue that there would never be a deliberate move to get rid of them, just moves that discreetly abandon them.

warehouse

At minimum, I would say some kind of confidential letter/phone convo containing direction to "thin the flock" would need to surface. And this "direction" would need to contain the trademark surreptitious manipulation of scriptures that the society is known for.

EDIT

OneEyedJoe wrote:

you'd have to get multiple independant reports from high-ups at bethel, or some internal memo or GB agenda item or something that confirms it.

great minds think alike

37

New BOE Letter Re. Elders/MS Appointments and Deletions

by XBEHERE in

jw
friends

from the wording of the letter it seems that the co has been given carte blanche with appointments and deletions.

nowhere in the letter does it indicate that any records are sent to and from the co to the branch office.

even if a body wants to delete an appointed brother and he disagrees his only recourse would be to write a "brief" letter to the service dept.

warehouse

Separation of Powers wrote:

However, I believe that there will be a huge wave of removals with the CO solidifying his power base by getting rid of the more vocal among the elder bodies. Animal Farm anyone?

I was thinking this as well, but I don't know. Would a CO really risk upsetting the current power bases in the congs all at once? With the emphasis being more on the local leadership, you run the risk of creating pissed off splinter cells, especially if you delete entire elder bodies, or individual elders who are respected within the cong/circuit. Though, this stragegy could play into the theory of a intentional trimming/pruning phase of the borg. Should be interesting to sit back and watch it all play out.

37

New BOE Letter Re. Elders/MS Appointments and Deletions

by XBEHERE in

jw
friends

from the wording of the letter it seems that the co has been given carte blanche with appointments and deletions.

nowhere in the letter does it indicate that any records are sent to and from the co to the branch office.

even if a body wants to delete an appointed brother and he disagrees his only recourse would be to write a "brief" letter to the service dept.

warehouse

As a side note to this, from what I've observed locally, it seems that all appointments are on hold until this new arrangement takes effect. I suspect we'll see a barrage of appointments come September.

32

NLP, Subliminal Messages and the WT Writing Department

by 00DAD in

a few years ago i became interested in the subject of neuro-linguistic programming (nlp).

while the core concepts of nlp have been largely discredited as new-age pseudo-science, there is no doubt that there is at least some validity to the idea.

words and images remain the key way we communicate.

warehouse

DATA-DOG wrote:

The extreme control that we exert over you exists so that we can extend leniency towards those who cannot meet our standards.

Couldn't agree more; or have said it any better myself. One thing that drives me up a goddamn wall is when they try to talk about marriage/dating. The fucking first line of almost every article is some derrogatory/negative experience, so that they can line up whatever "counsel" contained thereafter as "wisdom in such a wicked world". It's a physcological smear-campaign of words, designed to make their viewpoint look like the solution to peoples failures.

Fucking assholes, I swear to god. If you would just encourage and train people to believe in themselves, YOU WOULD'NT HAVE TO DEAL WITH HALF THE IDIOTIC PROBLEMS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

62

Simon, please update my profile picture!

by will-be-apostate in

i've read on another thread you need to delete the cached file of the profile picture so that it can be updated by the gravatar user.

i created a gravatar account, added the email address i use on here and uploaded the an image, but nothing happens.

this was 3 days ago.. could you please solve this problem?.

warehouse

Simon wrote:

What is never fine or acceptable is making threats and harrassing people.

Well, his public comments always seemed to me to be a bit abrasive, but nothing that I would personally take offense at, or even discount as a repercussion of a relatively anonymous internet chat forum. Though, I am not privy to whatever private messages were sent, or complaints from others, or how substantial such threats/harassment were. I trust that your judgment is as objective as possible.

62

Simon, please update my profile picture!

by will-be-apostate in

i've read on another thread you need to delete the cached file of the profile picture so that it can be updated by the gravatar user.

i created a gravatar account, added the email address i use on here and uploaded the an image, but nothing happens.

this was 3 days ago.. could you please solve this problem?.

warehouse

Just Kidding wrote:

Focus... I always felt he was over-extreme

eh, satiracal hyperbole has its place. did he over-do it? possibly . . . i think people tend to be slightly defensive and tender on this fourm, i guess this place has evolved over the years to be more of a support site than a discussion/debate site

62

Simon, please update my profile picture!

by will-be-apostate in

i've read on another thread you need to delete the cached file of the profile picture so that it can be updated by the gravatar user.

i created a gravatar account, added the email address i use on here and uploaded the an image, but nothing happens.

this was 3 days ago.. could you please solve this problem?.

warehouse

oh snap, did focus just get banned?

21

If "The Feast" of the RC is so vitally important for every JW to consume.........

by Darth Fader The Sequel in

....... then why wouldn't the wtbt$ easily make the entire program, complete with rockstar gb's, cheesy dramas, etc, available on youtube or some other free or almost free web streaming service?

obviously it is a huge burden for a majority of the "friends" to attend a regional convention and many either cannot go or it takes all of our their funds (or borrowed funds) to be able to make it.

how about all the "friends" that are morbidly obese, infirm, have extreme health conditions, have unbelieving mates, or have mental issues which prevent them from attending a convention?

warehouse

If they made the RC just a downloadable/streamable video, how would all the volunteers and overseers at the convention lengthen their fringes and have any prominent places? There would be no "platform" for any extracurricular, outward apperance of righteousness. We wouldn't want to take away all the greetings in the RC marketplace, now would we?