An ageing organization - depression and dementia?

by jgnat 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jgnat

  The study mental health of the very old. The experts have a name for it, Psychogeriatrics. I wonder if the organization as a whole is being dragged through the same mental deterioration that an ageing governing body would be subject to?

  Though I seriously doubt the Governing Body (GB) is running the show any more, and I bet dollars to doughnuts that Bethel lawyers review all proofs before print, I think the GB are still the "spiritual" head of this highly structured and centralized organization. Is it possible that the organization is suffering by proxy, the same mental impairment that the GB suffers?

  Here are some quotes on geriatric mental health. Are these symptoms familiar?

  "Late onset depression is a descriptive term for depression first diagnosed after the age of 65 years. It shares many characteristics with earlier onset depression, but some distinctions include greater apathy, less personality dysfunction and more prominent cognitive deficits including more impaired memory and executive functioning. Insomnia and sleep disturbance are major features of the clinical presentation of depression in old age although this may reflect increasing sleep disturbance in older people generally (US Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1999)."

  http://www.ipa-online.org/ipaonlinev3/publications/bulletinarchive/dem_dep.asp

  The clinical expression of dementia is usually heralded by memory impairment. Early memory impairment normally involves declining recall of recent events and as the dementia becomes more severe also encompasses long-term memory. Other clinical features of dementia include lack of orientation, dysphasia, personality changes, paranoia and psychosis.

  Dysphasia is characterised by a complete or partial loss of ability to understand, speak, read and write.

  A person with dementia may ask the same questions repeatedly and get lost in familiar places. He or she may be unable to follow directions; be disoriented about time, people, and places; and neglect personal safety, hygiene, and nutrition.

  The local kingdom hall certainly lacks a certain vitality. Language and manners are slow and deliberate. I am sure many suffer from depression of one sort or another.
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  jgnat

  What do you think? Are the old guys at the top causing the society to go prematurely gray?
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  Big Tex

  Actually jgnat, this description sounds more like the organization itself. I don't think, but have no personal knowledge, that the old guys at the top call the shots. I think it's the back-stabbing middle aged wannabes just under them that do.

  But if you think about it your description, memory impairment, paranoia, apathy fits the organization as a whole. In watching my mother in law decline with Alzheimers I would throw in wild fits of anger as well. We've all seen them lash out angrily.
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  Pistoff

  The old men at the top idea is in reality one or two iron fisted men, Ted J in particular. His myopic vision of a tightly controlled theocracy (which really means not God rule but what we few in power THINK God would do) is putting the final nails into the coffin of the body of believers in the WTS. I mean, really: If the entire fellowship except for 12 old men at the top are forbidden from offering their creative solutions, critiques, and complaints, how can it do anything else but wither and die? The aging analogy is good; maybe slow death is more accurate. Many older people are active and vital until the day they die; but only if they exercise mentally and physically. In the WTS, this is not possible. Read, meetings, service, pray. Keep your opinions to yourself and don't ask questions. That is the main theology of the WTS. Is it any wonder the rank and file are in rigor ortis mentally? P
• 

  gumby

  A person with dementia may ask the same questions repeatedly and get lost in familiar places. He or she may be unable to follow directions; be disoriented about time, people, and places;

  Good god almighty!!!

  I musta caught the old bastards disease from birth......I have ALL the symptoms and I'm only 50

  Gumby
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  jgnat

  I think it's the back-stabbing middle aged wannabes just under them that do.

  Big, Tex, you are on to something there. Yes, I think the entire organization could be suffering, since deviation from the standard is not allowed. So if the leadership declines in to dementia, so follows everybody else.

  Pistoff,

  If the entire fellowship except for 12 old men at the top are forbidden from offering their creative solutions, critiques, and complaints, how can it do anything else but wither and die?

  I couldn't agree more.

  Lolol, gumby. I worry about the same thing all the time. I got this marvellous brain, but I can't remember where I put my keys.
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  Undaunted Danny

  Diaper time! GROWING OLD IN THE WATCHTOWER'S "SPIRITUAL PARADISE"Here it is friends in the year 2004.We are well into the 21st century.How are you coping?When i was conceived in 1956,my pioneer parents were reviled by the 'friends' for getting 'knocked up'.The end of this deplorable ole wicked world,was so close how dare they! The JW missionary's,from old Bridgewater Mass.USA .Who recruited my clan,also knocked themselves up with a beautiful baby girl.For this they never forgave themselves and were guilt ridden for life.That pioneer couple have turned to dust by now I'm sure.Roy A. from the Wilmot Flat New Hampshire USA Cong.,had heard a"judge" Rutherford sound truck booming along the road ca.1930'sh and responded to the 'ring of truth'.Roy pioneered to the extent that he had literally spoken to every single family member in his vast territory. Last I saw him in 1982 he was suffering from multiple disability's due to old age.He was so frugal, to budget his meager pension for his full time pioneering.Rest in peace Roy.The same goes for four generations of my family.We SQUANDERED our youthful vitality for a deceptive and demonic cult. `MILLIONS of victims of a conniving cult of greed.Growing old and infirmed,because they derived their income from 'washing windows' and their little JW cottage industries.Many have No retirement plan or savings to support them.No IRA or social security, some are even rendered HOMELESS in the "spiritual paradise". One of the perks of eldership is robbing the cradle.All you young babes who married prestige twice your age,look forward to changing daddy's diapers.Same goes with you 'toy boys' who married older JW women,"cause the new system is gonna make you young for me in six months".. What will happen to the Watchtower?BE WARNED WHEN THE JUDGMENT COMES, IT WILL START WITH THE HOUSE OF GOD! [Matthew 25:41-46] Do pampers disposable diapers come in XXL adult ?
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  zen nudist

  From what I read of Fred Franz's Book, it seems just like most world governments, the organization is now run by ghosts. unlike the days when one dynamic leader ran the show...like Russell, Rutherford and Franz behind the scenes for Knorr.
  

  what I mean is that he said a 2/3rd majority had to exist to override anything their now dead predecessors had brought into existance.

  so even if more than half of them agreed on a course of action and understood its importance, they could not override the understanding of the dead....

  think about how most governments defer to founders and documents which are by the dead who have made it nearly impossible to change their overall intentions except by violent revolution.
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  A Paduan

  • We are the most important people in the universe
  • The world is against us, like unknowing ethereal zombies
  • The invisible evil beings in them, and the ones roaming free, are always on the lookout to jump into our heads and change our way of thinking because they hate us
  • If we are 'good' enough the invisible master person in the sky will favour us when he kills the whole world, really soon... any day now
  • The others in my family who aren't like me are possessed by the devil and I must consider them dead
  • The omni sky master being mentioned above would likely kill me even if I were bold enough to grow a beard, or choose the wrong music
  • If I become 'strong' enough, I too could be priveleged to speak with the permission, guidance and supervision of my real brothers - the suited men.

  Nope - sounds rather normal to me - why would you suggest something like that ?
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  Erich

  zen nudist : "the organization is now run by ghosts.."

  Thats called "obscurantism" lat. obscurare, »darkening»

  E.