Posts by kaik

30

When Did Higher Education Become Taboo?

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

i have been reading about the early history of russelites/jws and in the beginning, it seems the organization was formed and headed by quite a few educated people.

lawyers, doctors, businessman.

you could buy voting rights within the organization for $1000, which by today's standard would be somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000, something most of us do not have on hand, unless you are highly educated and/or wealthy.

kaik

My grandparents wanted my father to go to medical school (1940s). My grandfather had a degree, which was unusual back then

Very true. My grandfather came from lawyer family who held various position in the county offices, so they had money to sent their sons to university. My grandfather had college education prior the Great Depression, but got PhD after the war. Otherwise there were no college loans and grants; education was cash only. Women had high literacy rate in Austria-Hungary but a few attended school after their 16th birthday. My grandmother went to all girl boarding school and lyceum in the 1920's and she was among a few women to had chance to do so in her time and place. People do not realize that how lucky they are now, when they attend college.

WT had not considered college education threat until much later times. There was just handful of educated people to cause a problem to WT ideology. Today education is much more widespread, but also the length of the education increases. Master's degree takes two years after four year degree. PhD and postdoctoral degrees can take even 5 years after Master's. Obviously WT does not want people to get degree when they should be spending time preaching instead doing dissertation research.

30

When Did Higher Education Become Taboo?

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

i have been reading about the early history of russelites/jws and in the beginning, it seems the organization was formed and headed by quite a few educated people.

lawyers, doctors, businessman.

you could buy voting rights within the organization for $1000, which by today's standard would be somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000, something most of us do not have on hand, unless you are highly educated and/or wealthy.

kaik

Women in Europe did not get college education until middle of the 20th century. The college education was oriented toward men. In Austria-Hungary the ban on college education for women was lifted in 1892 and it was for a medical field only. Next fields that opened for women education was philosophy and pharmacology just when the Great War started. This changed with emancipation of women after 1945 and especially in the 1960's. This was first decade when college education became a norm in workplace in Eastern Block. I am not sure exactly when the speaking against college education started, but my cousin had a chance to study engineering field in mid 1970's and elders talked to him from it. I remember my dad felt that he was making a bad decision. So they had to speak out against around the time. I remember these talks from the 1980's onward.

5

Decluttering Swedish Watchtower books

by applehippie in

i've been doing a lot of deep de-cluttering and came across some watchtower books i had stashed away and forgotten about.

they belonged to my grandmother and came to me through my father's estate.

just wondering if they would be useful to anyone.. sanningen som leder till evigt liv - truth book '69.

kaik

Just donate them to university library. My mom has all these WT bounded and I recommended to get to donate it.

14

How many killed by the 5 Cholera pandemics during the 1800's?

by redpilltwice in

you all know jwfacts (run by paul grundy).

on this website, under “did the last days start 1914” ---> “pestilence”, it says:“during the 1800's five cholera pandemics killed around 100 million people.” .

there is no link to any source of info, so i emailed paul and asked where i can verify that total number?

kaik

resist the myth that our days are the worst of mankind

Many ways the historians agree that the worst century for mankind was 14th century. The Black Death pandemic killed 100 million people in known world, where Chinese population dropped by 1/2 and European by 1/3 in matters of several years. There was 100 years war and Timur conquests that killed millions people. Only other similarly devastating century was 17th century due outbreak of 30Years War and Ottoman Wars centered in Europe, Mediterranean, and ME. Plagues in 1666-1681 were as devastating as Black Death. German population shrunk by 2/3 in that century and it took another 100 years before recovered to 1600 level.

30

When Did Higher Education Become Taboo?

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

i have been reading about the early history of russelites/jws and in the beginning, it seems the organization was formed and headed by quite a few educated people.

lawyers, doctors, businessman.

you could buy voting rights within the organization for $1000, which by today's standard would be somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000, something most of us do not have on hand, unless you are highly educated and/or wealthy.

kaik

I am not sure about USA, but I know in the Czechoslovakia the push against college education started in the 1960s. Prior 1950, there was not many college educated people. German during WWII managed to execute significant number of educated people in occupied Europe and Czech colleges and universities were closed while remaining students were deported into concentration camps. My grandfather had university degree since 1920's and he was pretty much among a few people who survived WWII while majority of his colleagues never returned from the camps. Stalin system did not support intellectual development either. This changed with general liberalization of Eastern Europe in the 1960's when the grip of communist party weakened, and many young people had a chance without political affiliation to study. It was around the time when elders started speak against young people (postwar generation) to go to college. In my KH we had several college educated people, but they were these who were born prior WWII and were able to get advanced degree after the war. Young people who entered workforce in the 1960's and 1970's were counseled not to attend college, because Armageddon was imminent. One of my cousin wanted to pursue engineering degree and he was turned away from it around 1970s.

19

JW girls are very shy

by theBaus in

jw
friends

what they do when they are having crush on someone?.

how do they act?.

*new in this world, so need to hear your opinions.

kaik

Majority of them are shy, but there are many "gold diggers" as well. When I grew up in the WT cult, I see how several girls and young ladies were determined to seduce an elder with influence, get married, and look down upon everyone. Then there were young ladies who married to first available brother just for sake to get married and they did not look for love, money, appearance, or security. They just wanted to be married in "Truth". Many times I was surprised how generally shy, good looking lady, ended marrying an elder who could be their grandfather or father, looked like Mephisto, or were outright abusive.

35

Best pills meds or other to take before meeting?

by Crazyguy in

thought it would be good to share what ones take to deal with the meetings.

kaik

My uncle was an elder. He had shots of hard liquor prior going to KH and got wasted after the program. He was alcoholic and unpredictable when he got drunk. Eventually he died from liver failure (liver cancer or cirrhosis).

17

JW driver dies transporting literature to Honduras 01/09/2016....disturbing comments by local elder!!

by krismalone in

on 01/09/2016 a jw driving an 18 wheeler trailer full of jw literature dies as a result of an accident.

the trailer departed from guatemala and heading to honduras to drop shipment.

a local elder is interviewed as he arrives on the scene.

kaik

So sad. I do not understand Spanish, but I am not surprised with the lack of empathy. 24 years ago, an elder drove his car to local convention and had an accident where he died and so did his grandson. The accident happened less than five minutes from the convention. JWs were driving by, and they did not stop because they did not want to be a late and miss a part of the program. However, everyone in my quarter debated that they had seen the crash, and top of it several people recognized the car of the elder!

35

Best pills meds or other to take before meeting?

by Crazyguy in

thought it would be good to share what ones take to deal with the meetings.

kaik

Just have a shot or two of tequila, whiskey on the rock, have martini.

14

How many killed by the 5 Cholera pandemics during the 1800's?

by redpilltwice in

you all know jwfacts (run by paul grundy).

on this website, under “did the last days start 1914” ---> “pestilence”, it says:“during the 1800's five cholera pandemics killed around 100 million people.” .

there is no link to any source of info, so i emailed paul and asked where i can verify that total number?

kaik

Hungarian cholera epidemics in 1830's according to the web infected 850,000 people from which 185000 had died. So there is discrepancies even within one country like Austrian empire. My other probability could be that Asian sources could exaggerate the death tolls, similarly did medieval and renaissance era with outbreak of Black plague. While epidemics of 1348-1352 was indeed catastrophic, so did outbreaks in the 17th century, last major European epidemics in 1711-1713 had comparable death rate to that of cholera. Yet, renaissance did not build as much plague memorials unlike Baroque era, even when more population died in 1600's than century later. When observer mentions that 60000 died in Alexandria in 19th century in city that had 50,000 people than there is something miscalculated.