Coondawg-- I enjoyed reading your paper! Having lived in the west my whole life I found your sociological perspective on the midwest very interesting. It sounds like you have found your new path. I hope you find more satisfaction in life than you did as a JW.
Oh, and I forgot to post my grade. I got an A on the paper and in the class. The teacher actually sent me a note questioning some of my findings, for her limited knowledge told her that JW's were very sociable and family oriented. She was surprised I had experienced any isolation. Here was the response I sent her:
Thanks for the grade on the sociology paper. It was harder to write than I thought it would be, but once I was done I realized how much I enjoyed the assignment. In your response you said, " I am a little surprised that you felt isolated as a child -- I had understood Jehovah's Witnesses to be cohesive communities similar to Mormons." From the outside it appears a cohesive unit but, as with any group, there is a caste system of sorts. Elders, servants, pioneers (Those serving in a more full-time capacity) were at the top of the pyramid. My father used to be an elder and my mother and he both served full-time, but as my mothers health worsened and our ability to maintain a clean orderly house declined we became outcasts. The more alienated we were the more desperately we tried to be acceptable. As you are aware, that has a tendency to have the opposite effect it should. We became the doormats in the congregation that others would use to make themselves feel better. Not everyone was like that but the elders would say very hurtful things to my father when he would ask for more privileges. God hated us because we couldn't keep a clean house. The social isolation created personality disorders, of sorts, that my father and brothers have never been able to shake free of. I learned to be perfect so no one could criticize, but it was at the cost of my soul. Once I learned the damage I was inflicting on myself, I started to free myself from the damaging constraints. I had included more of that in the initial paper, but it was too long so I had to cut. At any rate, as with any group run by man membership is based upon a popularity contest. Those with more ingratiating, or gregarious, or acceptable personalities become the winners in the game.
she sent me a short note in response saying that most groups have a pecking order.