We do bear some responsibility, because we listened to them. They were the conmen, we were the rubes.
So yes, it is true, if we didn't listen to them, if we didn't believe them, if we had been smart enough to see through their lies right away, then yes, we could have been much happier and we wouldn't have screwed up our lives as much as we have.
In a sense, our future happiness is dependent completely on our own actions. Nobody is going to go to college for us, nobody is going to reimburse us for the lost years and wages, and nobody is going to help us build new social webs. We have to do that on our own. So yes, I assume responsibility for all my actions from this point, because I've seen through the lies.
But I emphatically refuse to absolve the WT for the way my life sucked up until I left. I was born in the "troof" and was raised to believe that the GB radiated holiness and that the angels watched over every meeting, and that Jehovah helped me write my talks. My parents fed me that line. I don't absolve them of their culpability, although I forgive them. I forgive the society, in the sense that I'm moving on with my life, but I will never forget them lying like they did. I will never teach anything they say again. I will raise my children to watch out for religious shysters and lawyers. I spend a great deal of time on this board, denouncing the WT for all to see, precisely because I cannot forget the way I was manipulated. Nobody bothered to tell me the truth about the borg until I got onto this board, and I will shout the truth about those manipulating bastards until I turn to dust.
If you fell for a con game - whose fault is it? Is it your fault for being a trusting sort? Especially if you've never run across a con game like it before? If you bought Enron stock because the executives said it was a good buy, whose fault is it when the stock tanks because of that executive's misdealings? Is it your fault for being a well-intentioned person who really believed that God's Kingdom was going to solve all the problems? When the Society grabbed you by your sympathetic "hooks" with pictures of starving children and said, "Our way is the solution to all of that," does it make you especially gullible or stupid for buying into it, even passionately?
No! It is not our fault for being good people who genuinely thought we could help others by following the Society! It is not our fault for being suckered in with their too-good-to-be-true promises that were quoted straight out of the Bible, for God's sake!
What about those who have learned the truth about the troof, but still remain in?
People who have bought these lies for so long have no other life options left! They have no degrees, no friends, an overriding sense of guilt and fear... they've been tricked into slavery with lies and deceit. It is hard to become free! How much fault resides with the dealer and how much with the buyer? At a certain point, the religion becomes like an addiction, with the borg feeding on the weakness and misery of the dubs. They could choose to become free people again, but the process is insanely painful, thanks to the borg's careful construction.
So yeah, I fell for it. But never again. I will vent my spleen on those who abused my trust. Anybody who will listen will hear about my anger and my humiliation!
CZAR