"Neutrality" is Nonsense

by metatron 22 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  I have observed some people drifting away from the Watchtower who will acknowledge that most Witness beliefs are false.

  However, they may still cling to "neutrality" as a means of assuring themselves that "it's still the truth".

  The Witness idea of neutrality is naive. As entire nations now mobilize for wars, the idea that you are somehow 'not part of it'

  is nonsense. Nazi Germany needed farmers, skilled factory workers, and all sorts of hard working people to keep going,

  regardless of whether they actually made or used weapons or not. An incompetent soldier might never approach the value

  of one skilled factory worker producing precision ball bearings - for tanks and aircraft.

  As to personal sacrifice, many Witnesses gave their lives for what they believed. However, what is almost always forgotten

  are the vastly more numerous sacrifices made by men and women who ended the horror of Nazi rule. Why should

  a person who died in a concentration camp be looked upon with greater admiration than men who died to liberate those camps

  in combat? Frankly, the concept gets insulting, at times - as regards the veterans who thereafter are quietly dismissed as part

  of "Satan's world" , while Witnesses - who worked to support Hitler's economy are lionized.

  Ever hear about the Four Chaplains? who died trying to save others? Would the Awake ever 'highlight' them?

  www.immortalchaplains.org/Story/story.htm

  Has the Society ever praised men like( Orthodox) Father Arkady or (Catholic) Kolbe , who sacrificed for others, under the most horrible

  conditions?

  If Hitler had won, the SS planned to use Jehovah's Witnesses as a means to help pacify conquered territories!

  Does that sound like 'neutrality' turned against its 'purpose'?

  I'm sick and tired of reading about Witnesses who opposed Hitler, Stalin, and others - while the far more practical efforts

  of other men and women, suffering for freedom, are not mentioned in the Witness- world view. The intolerant Watchtower view

  of things only serves to make them, not "neutrals", but parasites who enjoy freedoms that others bought with blood and pain ,

  while feeding off a human society they look upon with contempt.

  metatron
• 

  ferret

  Metatron: I agree with you 100% Those that fought for everyones freedom are the real heroes!
• 

  Scully

  The neutrality thing never washed with me either - and not just for the reasons you mention, metatron.

  JWs are just as loudmouthed as anyone else in their complaining about the governments and proclaiming what needs to be done to make the country or the world a better place - and more often than not, it doesn't involve God's Government™.

  If they were truly "neutral" politically, they would have the sense to keep their opinions to themselves, or better still, not have an opinion at all.
• 

  carla

  Good post!
• 

  BluesBrother

  However, they may still cling to "neutrality" as a means of assuring themselves that "it's still the truth".

  Whilst I have no time at all for the J W beliefs anymore, I have not been drawn towards nationalism either. Why should I believe that Britain is the best place in the world, when it clearly is not ? Why give blind allegiance to a country {which means simply supporting politicians in their decisions] simply because I was born and live here?

  I do have the utmost respect for those men who died fighting for the freedoms that we enjoy and I do not wish to berate anybodies viewpoint . I am trying to learn tolerance since leaving the dubs. I wonder though how soldiers at the time really viewed their service. Basically soldiers, like my father, were mostly conscripted to fight for their country , whatever side they happened to be a part of. They were all told that the cause was just. They all believed that they had "God on their side".

  I do agree that there were many heroes who opposed the Nazis without the benefit of a large organization around them. And I am sure that we will not read about them in the Watchtower

  Of course the issue involves much more that WW2. Every issue and conflict is different. I do not call myself "neutral", that would be too much of a self righteous stand. Perhaps I am just a cynic who does not trust what our leaders have to say..
• 

  daniel-p

  Of course you refer to Hitler - where a counteraction was clearly necessary - but what about all the hundreds of other wars and conflicts that have neither a "good" or "bad" side? In those cases it is a war of philosophies, where both sides rationalize any course of action to defend what they think is right - in your words: "freedom." People like you have relagated the word "freedom" to a meaningless catchphrase designed to elicit an emotional response. But do you understand that a lot of people on the other side of the world think we are the ones enslaved to an economic system that keeps us easily controlled. How many worshipers of Islam do you personally know?
  My point is, remove yourself from the clutches of emotion and look at it from an outside point of view. Humans - the most advanced species on planet Earth, still can't get beyond the point of using their resources to destroy each other. In that sense, we are not advanced at all. In ten thousand years there will be no human life as we know it. We have built up entirely non-sustainable systems as our foundation and the laws of nature will soon level us out. And you worry about "freedom." Freedom and religion are not important.
• 

  silentWatcher

  the only reason the witnesses had a problem with the nazis was that they negatively impacted their book sales. period. the only reasons the watchtower ever has a problem with a government is when the government impacts their bottom line.
  
  -silent
• 

  Reefton Jack

  Some good points, Metatron:

  If you belived the WTS, the JWs were the only religious group that defied Hitler.

  According to them, ALL the others in Germany (without exception) collaborated with the Nazis.

  In fact, that was not necessarily the case.

  (This is aside from the fact that Rutherford initially tried to suck-up to Hitler).

  Jack.
• 

  metatron

  If war is the problem, then modern, social democracies are the solution!

  While the US has disagreements with Europe and Canada ( and vice versa), we don't go to war with them. For one thing,

  the web of international trade makes such very difficult. Why would China bomb their biggest market? or destroy the "HSBC"

  bank in the U.S.? ( it stands for "Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp") Mitsubishi made the Zeros that bombed Pearl Harbor.

  Today they send us cars - and they can buy Hawaiian real estate, if they want to.

  Notice also how impossible arms control with the Soviet Union seemed - until they became "Russia"! Their change towards

  democracy ( such as it is!) nevertheless removed a huge amount of potential warfare tension.

  The Islamic nations are on a long bumpy road towards democracy. It's worth fighting for - especially if you consider the alternative

  of simply letting them drift deeply into hate-filled fantasies, driven by the fact that the world is passing their culture by. The idea of India

  getting big and rich ( idolators, by Allah!) makes them sick.

  Coming from a past of Watchtower deception and control, I'd say freedom may be the only thing worth fighting for.

  metatron
• 

  DanTheMan

  Good post.

  JW's will be standing by idly when the totalitarian Christo-utopia-pipe-dreamin' theo-crackpots of the Religious Right take over the USA, and ruin it. I'll die fighting against it.