For many ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses there is a disconnection between what we wish we could be doing in terms of making pronounced change in the ideological structure of the Watch Tower Society or the dissolution of it, and what we actually find ourselves doing. At some level we sense there are incredible potentials just waiting to be realized in the collective struggle to bring down the “Tower” not just because it is fundamentally wrong and harmful to millions of lives but also for the changes it will make in our lives. Over the years though, I think a lot of us kind of feel that we are stumbling around in the dark trying one thing or another without anything serving as catalyst that starts an energetic chain reaction.
In a way, it reminds me of a phenomenon I learned back in my college days about termites. Termites are known to be master builders of huge and complex nests that have sophisticated environmental controls and security features yet termites are both blind and leaderless. In fact, if you put a few termites together in a small chamber with plenty of building resources they seem like the Three Stooges and never quite get anything right and nothing gets built, no matter how long you wait. Introduce a certain critical mass of additional termites though to the group and something remarkably different happens. Suddenly, everything starts to go right and immediate progress is made. The process whereby this happens is called emergence.
Emergence has not flowered yet with the collective army of ex-witnesses on this site and many other ex-dub websites or activist groups and presently we appear not to be much more than a group of discontented and soured former members. There are certainly a lot of bright and talented people in the ranks of the “apostates” who would love nothing more than working on the constructive liberation of those still trapped in the Borg or would be happy just accelerating the evolution of it’s eventual metamorphosis or destruction in some way but in effect they are all running around and working independently at best. These comments are not intended to be negative of the individuals who have already followed their conscience and engaged in battle with the Society but my point is that almost all these efforts are individual in nature and not a collective group strategy.
I’ve been wondering if there is a way to work with other people in teams to systematically and collectively research and exploit the property of emergence for our own use and then create a dynamic movement which aims at synchronizing the amazing amount of potential of all these people who escaped from JW ideology and want to work for positive changes in this religion, barring that, to bring it down
My guess though is that the time isn’t right yet. To my own way of looking at things it appears that people who do online associations in ex-dub sites are primarily there for their own healing, fellowship with others, and perhaps entertainment. Maybe this is a misconception on my part though, what do you think?
Another thought for you to consider is that I think that the social evolution of the Witnesses, left to a random and independent feedback loop, won’t happen rapidly this way. I believe that there is a natural cyclic evolution that the Watch Tower Society is following and perhaps at another time I will post my thinking on that. My guess is though, that left to natural internal cycles, the Society will just restructure with different packaging on the outside but the same drivel on the inside.
If you think that a small group of people working together to change the Society is doomed to failure, it is probably due to the fact that you don’t pay much attention to the abilities of individuals working together to influence other individuals. Sometimes people think that as the individual seems to be so small and the Watchtower Society so big, that we have little chance of changing the Society, and then the individuals making up the Society will likewise never change. “Society” is only a word, there are only individuals, there is no society, and it is a mental concept. You soon realize that you can only change the individual, even though this seems like such a small way of doing things. However, once you learn the way to do this, it is immediately applicable to individuals everywhere and enables rapid assimilation and evolution of others in the future.
Your thoughts?
Skipper