Good point Marilyn....
I find that most of the witnesses are so brainwashed into believing that the truth rests only with the Borg and Jehovah, that even though a lot of individuals have serious doubts, nevertheless they are conditioned to believe the lie. The adage clearly applies here too: the more frequent a thought process (or for that matter a lie) is presented as plausible, the easier it will be believed as truth and then gradually becomes part of an established norm of thinking.
In principle the same holds true with some daring politicians, especially those from totalitarian governments. In fact, studies were conducted how a belief system can become rooted by whole populations especially in times of crises. A new leader of a country will promise anything and often lie deliberately, not only will the people be conditioned to believe the lie but strangely enough and more so the leaders themselves will not be able to distinguish the real truth from the lie anymore. They (the leaders) will now only believe the untruth so firmly that it becomes unshakeable truth to them, a complete reversal in kind. A similar pattern exists with the witnesses....
You see, even though I had inner doubts and wanted to leave the Borg some time ago, I instinctively reasoned like this: "well, maybe they could be right after all, they existed more than a millennium and enjoyed continuous growth all over the world - so many things that I have learned did apply to the scriptures, witnesses everywhere enjoy a composure of stability - I spend more than 20 years as a witness - what about my family and close friends? they all believe like I do - I would surely lose them if I quit etc etc etc" -
These thoughts were constantly racing through my mind, not being able to find a resting place of solid ground - but then I did not realize that witnesses are never able to "investigate" anything other than what the Society put before them on a silver platter: you eat from it and digest accordingly, no questions asked but stay a good subordinate of sorts... You could say that my mind was in prison under lock and key where the fear factor had a powerful stronghold on the thought processes... the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, yes..a fearful thing indeed; they are able to literally disband and rip apart families and close friends for a life time!
So you can imagine that in order to make a decision of wanting to leave the Borg, one would almost have to be emotionally and psychologically spent and drained, so that out of sheer desperation a person would make that final resolve to defect and leave this totalitarian and misguided regime of incumbents.
Yes, first I was jealous of that elder from Europe, as subconsciously I admired his courage, but my fear held me back from resigning until the time of near exhaustion...., only then in my case I had the courage to throw out that fear and replace it with tears of happiness by embracing an inner rest where I now can commit myself to learning to live freely and show unconditional love to the ones most deserving!
:*) Richie