Intellectual starvation among JWs

by zagor 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • zagor
    zagor

    Wanted to write another topic entirely, but after quite some thinking I thought that one particular topic should be addressed. Especially, for people still feeling confused.

    We often wonder why so many dubs looks like zombies, why it is hard to make them see the real truth about the “truth”, why can’t they discuss any topic in depth without resorting to “Reasoning” book or other WTBS literature, why it is that they are so easily manipulated, why it is that they are filled with “apostate” state of mind fears (fearing to question anything), why, why, why?

    It all has one common thread – cognitive vacuum. Let me explain. WTBS has for years strongly discouraged reading anything other than their literature. So now even when reading ordinary newspaper dubs are searching out only bits that are supposed to confirm their belief system, e.g. end of days. When they watch TV it is to be highly “selective”, meaning, simply don’t watch anything that may challenge your beliefs. In fact some elders will use these exact words.

    As intelligent beings we humans have natural need for information as fuel for our minds, by shutting down all potential information sources they create a cognitive vacuum where mind is starved. In this now starved state only information that’s coming in is one whose intention is to mold your mind into compliance. After many years of such starvation you are no longer you, which is why after number of years some (now awakening dubs) cannot recognize themselves anymore. For great majority this transformation of mind dulling is so complete that they cannot make a single decision without seeking what the society thinks. Here is a typical example. I’ve just got off the phone with friend of mine who told me quite typical story. He spoke of a dub sis who recently went to ask an elder if “her conscience would allow her to accept some help from catholic caritas” (with these exact words). It not only shows that for most dubs conscience is something held in Brooklyn it demonstrates complete surrender of ones cognitive, mental if you will, perceptive, discernment and moral powers to an institution. And the culprit is? Intellectual starvation perpetrated by WTBS. That is why WTBS strongly discourages everything that can challenge that status quo including but not limited to education, media, internet, reading “apostate” books, reading non-dub books from your local library, etc. Speaking of local libraries, the other day I went to look for something and I came across this book by Robert Jastrow so I thought oh great I’ll just browse through it to see if I can find bits dubs love so much to see in what context he said things he did. And lo and behold, as I was browsing it became apparent that a dub was also reading this book at some stage before as it was filled with comment on margins, around headings, footings, white space between sentences and basically everywhere. (Actually he should have been fined for it as the book was public property and not his own)

    It also became apparent he was searching bits that he thought agreed with WTBS worldview. Also bits where Jastrow clearly spoke against something WTBS holds, our clown dub quasi-scientist put in his own explanation sometimes almost made it impossible to read what the author himself had to say. See my point? In this new state many dubs are in their minds are no longer theirs they are remotely controlled robots that search only bits that agree with

    Best medicine I can recommend anyone still suffering from it is to forget everything for the time being, take an university course that will force your mind in new direction and then after you’ve been successfully through it all, only then look back and analyze objectively what you believed in. Anything less will likely lead you into confusion unless borg never had a real hold on you in the first place.


    (here is also a good article to read http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/fbi/leb_sept961.htm)

  • ithinkisee
    ithinkisee

    I cannot tell you how many times I stopped and started with dates and quotes and so forth in the Society's literature.

    So many times I tried to track down quotes they put in their articles from scientists, historians, authors, scholars, etc. and would be stopped cold because they never put the page numbers or any additional references - quite often. It wasn't until Google came along and I could paste quotes into the search field and get a book - or at minimum an ISBN number and start getting somewhere.

    Then, regarding dates. There were times my dates wouldn't match up with the Society's. I thought I was just being stupid and couldn't figure it out in my dumb non-college-educated brain. And once I couldn't reconcile it, I would give up - or tell myself I was being too faultfinding.

    I realize now I was doing things the wrong way. At the time I was researching to try to "make things fit" what I had been told. When in reality I should have been simply looking for the facts that would lead me to my logical conclusion.

    For instance, right now I really love some of the MP3's I got of Dr Walter Martin and his ripping to shreds the New World Translation. Now I'm not necessarily a born again, or trinitarian, maybe not even Christian. But from a logical standpoint I AGREE with what he said. It is not that I agree with his teachings 100%, but what I have learned from the MP3's is not WHAT TO THINK, but HOW TO LOGICALLY DEDUCE. There is a birthday thread going on right now where some WT apologist is using the same regurgitated lines from the JWs over and over again. It makes me sick that I was the same way at one time.

    Anyways, not sure if that was what you were looking for ... but yes ... intellectual starvation is something i definitely felt.

    -ithinkisee

  • bother_forever
    bother_forever

    I would agree with what you have here, its sad but true. There are those JW who would consider that they are even more intellectual than most due to extensive bible study and higher reasoning concepts that they only employ. By the way what part of aus are you from?

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien

    zagor,

    cognitive vacuum...i like that.

    Best medicine I can recommend anyone still suffering from it is to forget everything for the time being, take an university course that will force your mind in new direction and then after you’ve been successfully through it all, only then look back and analyze objectively what you believed in.

    in zagor's name amen.

    (really, lurkers, great advice there)

    TS

  • zagor
    zagor

    LOL, terapod

    Thanks mate

  • upside/down
    upside/down

    A prime example of this Cognitieve Vacuum...

    My brother-in -law...3rd generation ass kissin elder in the Midwest... was going to get a vasectomy....(gasp!)

    I didn't have a problem with it...as it's none of my damn business.. but you know Dubs...gotta let the whole world know your personal business... for scrutiny's sake.

    Now his wife is the BITCH from hell, elderette...balls the size of grapefruit...get the picture? She's the daughter of a CO...and is the LAST word on anything that goes on in the hall.

    Now between the two of them and their families and their friends...NO ONE had a problem with this dude gettin snipped. The cumulative bOrg conscience of all these "by the book" Dubs were fine with it.

    LO and BEHOLD....J's Spirit saved their sorry asses from making a monumental mistake...Question From Readers came out with the question of whether "gettin snipped" was OK for Dubs....(ie. true christians...ugh!). They made the bigges to do about how WRONG it would be to have it done and they were saved in the nick of time and had they proceeded they wouldn't have been "right" with J and he would have been removed as an elder.... I read the article with scrutiny....It said nothing of the sort! It ultimately left it up to a "conscience matter".

    They are now the Nazi Vasectomy Police...

    Truly AMAZING huh?

    u/d (of the why do guys with no "balls" need a vasectomy class)

  • jillbedford
    jillbedford

    I sincerely loved reading your comments about the cognitive vacuum.

    On my job, I am a supervisor and I have one JW who reports to me. The problems she comes to me with show a lack of abilty to work things out in your own mind. She has grown familar with going to those above her and asking for help. Yes, this is my job. But my ultimate goal as a supervisor is to empower my associates to make their own decisions, even if this the associate makes a wrong choice.

    The mentallity WTBTS puts on people affects such a big part of their lives. I wonder if, the JW's were told not to evacuated during a tornado, for example, those of us who have been witnesses, know they answer already. This lack of ownership to one's one personal destiny is appalling.

    The old men in Brooklyn who decide all these rules to follow, who gives them the right. They claim Jehovah god. Who will they answer to come their time to go?

    We all have certainly made mistakes in life. I know I certainly have.

    I remember one assembly I looked around the audience and saw a large group of under-educated, under-paid, mind numbed people. This was my last assembly I attended. The talk was another one about not going to college so you could pioneer as Armageddon was right around the corner. .

    My heart goes out to all those who have survived and come out of this cult.

    I find this thread one of the best I have ever read and wish you the very best on your continued search for understanding.

  • zulukai
    zulukai

    Zagor.. right on topic. You and I have discussed this issue of education before on another thread. I reently had a weird experience with an old jw friend of mine. This woman at one time had been a true " origional", a real thinker. Great sense of humor, great insight..had been in college at the time someone started a Bible study with her. When I first met her I gravitated to her immediately as she was not stuffy and prissy and always "on" like so many of the dubs I knew. In her house you could discuss the greater world out there, debate ideas and have a great time just talking and tossing around ideas. You could talk like a real person at her place.

    I lost touch with her for a few years and when I saw her again I was struck by the most awful sense that my old friend had been stolen and this imposter had taken her place. Gone was the humor, no more debates, no deep intellectual discussions. She had not had a stroke but her affect was as flat as someone who had...sort of a wide eyed flat stare and all these harsh-edged "borgisms" began to come out of that flat face. I was shocked. She's not the only one I've seen this happen to.

    The stale rehash of the same old crap year in and year out, the warnings against information not regurgitated by the WTBTS has taken it's toll on these people. It's criminal that young people are told not to get an education, not to stretch their minds and find out what they can do in this life. One of the purest joys in life is the exploration and development of our God given intellect.

    From early childhood I was in love with the mysteries of language, the magic carpet ride of imagination, the heady worlds revealed in books. I attribute my sanity having survived the bizzare teachings of jw to the fact that I ignored their assinine warnings about what not to read. I WISH more of them could see what is being done to their minds!!!

    Only reading what some man made religion tells you to read is like only eating one kind of food. Remember the macrobiotic diet craze that went around a couple of decades ago? People were told that ALL their nutritional needs would be met by eating ONLY brown rice. Variations of this unhealthy approach to food still comes around and I have seen it in the pediatric ward I worked on recently. The afficionados of this diet all look beige coloured,just like the rice they are swilling down three times a day, and become listless and lethargic. This is what happens to a starved mind.

    And SWILL certainly comes to mind when I think of what they are cranking out of the WT these days!!! LOL

  • zagor
    zagor

    I've just noticed I've made mistake in article above. This is what I wrote

    See my point? In this new state many dubs are in their minds are no longer theirs they are remotely controlled robots that search only bits that agree with

    It got chopped at the end, don't know how that had happened and generally made a mishmash of the whole sencence

    This is what should have been there.

    See my point? In this new state dubs' minds are no longer theirs, they are remotely controlled robots that search only bits that agree with mother borg own thoughts.

    Sorry about that!

  • diamondblue1974
    diamondblue1974
    Best medicine I can recommend anyone still suffering from it is to forget everything for the time being, take an university course that will force your mind in new direction and then after you’ve been successfully through it all, only then look back and analyze objectively what you believed in. Anything less will likely lead you into confusion unless borg never had a real hold on you in the first place.

    Excellent advice...hit the nail right on the head.

    DB74

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