Yelp -- that is why I got the degree -- cause if you just look in the employment section about 90 precents of the job are asking for degrees and I am not talking about high paying jobs either. Some jobs are even asking for masters. Any children I have will go to higher education as well.
Mind Control Alert - Watchtower Article - simplifying your life -
by jgnat 32 Replies latest watchtower bible
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peacefulpete
Birds starve to death by the billions despite storing fat and in a few cases storing food. When looked at objectively the beautiful sounding words are mental novacaine.
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FairMind
I have taken the WT advice and simplified my life. I now attend fewer meeting, rarely go out in field service, do not read much of the society literature and make no special effort to be on time at the meetings I go to. Yes, simplifying one’s life is wonderful!
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Sentient
Sunspot,
You bring out a very excellent and important point- the reason why so many who have had some involvement with JWs do not feel that Jehovah's Witnesses are a mind-controlling cult and defend them is because JWs they've known were generally nice people and they CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO GIVE A FLIP and spend that much of their precious time investigating it or listening to the opinions of ones who were most deeply effected by it but managed to truly escape in their own minds.
jgnat,
What you are highlighting here is one of the key points that requires intelligence and either past deep involvement with a cultic organization or understanding of these psychological processes. Between the lines of what the nonmember or less serious member reads, the well-trained Witness is given countless CUES that further control them and cause them to reach even more extreme conclusions than the text actually appears to say.
Every so often I sit back and am just mind-boggled by it even after all this time. I would say the WTBTS is a Master of Manipulation and mind control. I'm not aware of anyone who can do it so effectively, they may very well be #1 in the world in this field. The U.S. government could learn a thing or three from them, maybe they could give them some tips. -
Virgochik
It's easy for the old buzzards in Crooklyn to wave their wand and tell people to quit a good job...what would they know about paying utilities, rent, mortgage, groceries, car insurance, children to feed and clothe, etc.? Everything is provided for them including laundry service, and they seem to just assume everybody lives like this. If the Witnoids want paychecks, it must be to accumulate material things.
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LDH
Welcome Newbies!parents have encouraged their offspring to invest much of their young adulthood in higher education
Yes, if you spend 4 years learning, you are doomed spiritually! 4 years is not 'much.' Going in field service and learning to sell magazines from the age of 4 onward is MUCH.
Of course, because of the scripture that says when 'the eye is simple, the whole body will be bright' or some such nonsense. JWs build entire THEMES for life around these 'one-scripture' mandates.
They love discussing how to have a 'simple life.' Meanwhile, they have corporate identities in MANY countries, and in 2000 here in the US, split the WBTS into 5 separate corporate identities, most of which JWs do not even know. Is that simple? Hell no.
Is the blood mandate simple and easy to follow? Hell no.
Is their formula for 1914 simple and easy to follow? Hell no
But God forbid you want something other than warm porridge for your family, you are demonized as not being 'simple.'
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stillAwitness
Finally Free-Been there, done that. I was out of work and turning down job offers that would have interfered with meeting attendence™. I was firm in my conviction that "Jehovah would provide".
I feel you on this one! Imagaine how hard it is for me as a college student to find a job that fits into my class schedule but on top of that it has to fit into my meeting schedule too.
I've had to turn down countless jobs because as mother says: "You can't miss the meetings!"
But she is the first to complain about my father still having to give me gas money!
Still broke,
StillA
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joelbear
these strategies won't work. just like the Chinese are learning about Western consumerism. JW's see the way the world really works. they know they can't survive on repetitive meetings.
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stillAwitness
This reminds me of how they always encourage the young people "to take a year off" after they graduate high school and enter the full time ministry. (I did it but simply b/c around that time college was still highly discouraged and I didn't know what I wanted to to do with my life anyway.)
I wonder how many of those young ones take a "year off" and actually end up going back to school? Can you imagine Little Susie going to mom and telling her she wants to quit pioneering to go back to school??
Sucks for Susie.
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Trojan
I want to know, does the sparrow worry about making every meeting, or getting his field service report in that month?
jgnat: LOL with that one! Good thought, i've never seen it that way. It's so true, i have to wake up in the morning and shave and get dressed, etc.etc. all the stuff a sparrow doesn't do.....you can't just compare birds with people!
They mention that a sister gave up college and went on to special pioneering in Liberia. Well, thats a bad example. Actually, very bad in the context of materialistic thinking. Why? I've been to third world countries, and the truth is that in many of them it is BETTER to become an special pioneer, as the cash that they pocket in form of an allowance is higher than a local teacher or doctor would receive. If the sister is Liberian, than that is not JW heroism, but what i call a smart career move! For foreigners in such assignments it's a little different. The allowance hardly pays the phone bill to call mum or paps.
The bethel study conductor ended the article with the comment: "This article is equivalent to having Jehovahs point of view on material things."
Well, that was a good one. What is Jehovahs view on material things then?
1. Israelites leave Egypt. All obedient and nice. Blessing? They loot the bad, bad, worldly egyptians and take all their gold and silver and jewelry....
2. Than they get along conquering other cities, and again, Jehovah "blesses" them with more material things: goats, sheep, more gold...
3. Salomon. Asks for wisdom, gets it. What is his blessing? You would expect that a wise man like that would receive tons of books, libraries, but instead the blessing was again in material form: supposedly 200 Million Dollar yearly income (hey, could RunningMan do a check on this? I would love to hear his opinion on the figures, as he did a fantastic work on his book.....)
4. The promised land. What was the carrot? "A land of milk and honey"=great agriculture=wealth. They where never promised "a land of spiritual riches, and you guys will be assisting 5 times in Jerusalem and getting watchtowers and all" Nope. These folks where creating wealth, asisted meetings one time a year and dissappeared afterwards...
5. Abraham. Job, all the same. Whenever we're talking blessings its equal to CASH, MORE CASH.
6. Modern Bethel homes: they are used as the example for the regular JW family. Ok. Let's round up. All new cars, electric gates, some of them swimming pools (how many JW families do you know with swimming pool AND that are pioneering?)
Ok. Sum this up. Jehovahs point of view DEFINITELY favors YOU in making some serious CASH, as that in biblical terms IS A BLESSING. So, now, stop reading this, don't waste time, get your college degree.....