Jws use activity as a distraction

atypical

I was just thinking - Since I have been fading and not at meetings, I have gotten many, many phone calls. I have gotten many comments. It occurred to me that every time I hear something from a witness, it has to do with trying to get me involved in an activity. "Come to this meeting" "Come to this special talk" "Did you hear about the Arabic group's first official meeting?" "So and so has a talk this sunday, would you like to come?"

How come nobody says "Can I come over by myself and talk to you? We can pull out three different translations of the bible, an interlinear, Strong's concordance, and I will show you exactly why this organization is chosen by God. I will show you from the bible why you should follow this group." It seems almost comical to imagine.

The only objective seems to be to get me in a group setting where I will be the outcast. Everything involves group pressure. Then it will seem so easy and nice to go ahead and fit in. I will turn off my brain, and just concern myself with endless, mindless activity.

My point is, and I'm sure it has been said before, but I think that the Watchtower uses constant activity to keep people from having a chance to step back and look at what they believe and why they do what they do.

prophecor

They'd prefer it if they could keep your mind at bay, Atypical. The busier you are in Jehovah's Service, the easier it is to keep you from focusing on what's going on outside the box. I'm sure your folks mean well. When they no longer see you at the meetings, they wish to run to your assistance. Maybe the others don't really know any other way of trying to FIX your situation. Are any of them truly those you would even call friends? I mean, real friends, not just acquaintances?

If you never have a moment to do anything but go to 5 meetings a week, preperation for those same five meetings, which if done properly should take at the very least, an hour plus. Preperation for getting to those meetings. You whole focus becomes, the meetings the meetings. Then you just can't waltz yourself out of the door, you have to stay and SO CIALISE. It can really get you down afterwhile. Hope you're giving yourself a break, though.

atypical

Yes, I have definitely been taking a break. I haven't been to meetings or service for months now. The longer I am gone, the less sense it all makes, which I find interesting. And you are right, Prophecor and Sphere, if a person really follows the schedule that the WTS wants them to, they would barely have time to use the bathroom, let alone start to question doctrine or leadership. I have been reading Steve Hassan's website, and it has so much that applies to the jw culture.

Even though I understand what is happening, somehow it still blows my mind that nobody wants to step up and prove the religion to me with their bible. Even though I have been gone, I am still shocked to realize how much the religion is based on social pressure.

greendawn

They do show a hypocritical interest, all they want you to do is to go back to being a slave of the WTS, when it comes to showing real personal interest they fail miserably as always.

willowmoon

They are not really interested in you as a person, but rather as a fellow slave. The mission is not your personal happiness, the mission is to bring you back to the fold. They believe what they're doing is right. It's just that you've stepped back and view it differently now. You see more than the four corners of their box.

willow

Honesty

The crazy thing about the situation is that while I was still brainwashed and deluded it seemed like every week or so when I was out in FS and we had a lot of Not at Home's someone would say, "You know Satan keeps all these people busy so that he can keep them away from Jehover's organisation."

I know better now.

Thank God, it's good to be free from their grip.

Peppermint

I was constantly told to keep busy and everything else would fall into place. When you go on holiday (Vacation) you are told not to forget meetings, field service etc. It is hard to give yourself time to think in the “truth”.
From the platform I remember hearing an example of a couple who stopped going to meetings for a few weeks to decorate their house. The brother said weeks turned into months, months turned into years. There is a manufactured fear of losing your faith in God/hope for eternal life by being inactive for even a short time.
In my case I became ill, had to stop attending meetings and immediately relaxed-thought-read-remembered-understood. No wonder inactivity is frowned upon.

ithinkisee

Combatting Cult Mind Control : The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults
by Steven Hassan
ISBN: 0892813113
============================
(One of the cult traits from his book:)
Most groups have a stringent schedule for members. There is always something to do in these groups. It has its own distinctive set of behaviours that bind it together.

Does the Society encourage this?

KM 1/95 "Always Plenty To Do" We must prepare for and attend weekly congregation meetings. We are encouraged not to let a week go by without having some share in the field ministry. Sufficient time must be regularly set aside for personal and family Bible study. Elders and ministerial servants have many congregation assignments. At times we are asked to help worthy ones in need. 2 Occasionally, some of us may feel overwhelmed by all that we have to do. Yet, the busiest people can be among the happiest if balance and proper perspective are maintained. [...]6 There is an added benefit in having plenty to do. When we are busy pursuing a healthy spiritual routine, time seems to go by much faster. Realizing that each day that passes brings us closer to the new world, we gladly accept the full life we enjoy now. We also realize the wisdom of staying busy, inasmuch as we have less time to get involved in futile worldly pursuits.

w94 9/1 p 13 Despite Being Made of Dust, Push Ahead!20 Now, during the concluding years of Satan?s world system, is not the time to slow down-not as far as Kingdom preaching is concerned and not as far as developing more fully the fruitage of God's spirit is concerned. In both areas we have "plenty to do." Now is the time to push ahead because we know our "labor is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:58) Jehovah will sustain us, for of him David said: "Never will he allow the righteous one to totter." (Psalm 55:22) What a joy to know that Jehovah is permitting us personally to share in the grandest work imperfect human creatures have ever been assigned to do-and this despite our being made of dust!

Watchtower July 1, 1943 pages 204-6
Righteous RequirementsThe territory now being covered one to two times in six months could very easily be covered four to six times in the same period if everyone took his Kingdom responsibilities seriously.

-ithinkisee

Narkissos

Very insightful.

May I remind some of Blaise Pascal's comments about divertissement = distraction or diversion (which in Pascal's mind is not limited to entertainment; it includes war, for instance)?

"Leave a king entirely alone, with . . . no diversion, with complete leisure to think about himself, and you will see that a king without diversion is a very wretched man" (137).

"Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things" (133).

"We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us seeing it" (166).

rebel8

After I'd been totally away from the borg for about 5 yrs, I had one introduce himself to me and invite me to come with him in field service the following Saturday. AS IF the activity would somehow distract me from normal life and get me back into the borg. I should have gone and handed out Silent Lambs brochures, LOL.

Jws use activity as a distraction

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