Where is the Watchtower Society sense of humor?

by besty 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  besty

  The great philospher Wittgenstein said:

  "Humor is not a mood but a way of looking at the world. So if it is correct to say that humor was stamped out in Nazi Germany, that does not mean that people were not in good spirits, or anything of that sort, but something much deeper and more important"

  According this analysis some conflict situations are just so terrible they kill jokes and the possibility of jokes as effectively as they kill innocent victims. So the existence of a large number of playfully insulting ethnic jokes could be an indicator of a fairly healthy and sustainable cultural relationship between two groups. It's the complete absence of such jokes we should look out for. In fact, in Mein Kampf Hitler warned the bourgeoisie of the dnager of making jokes about the Jews, on the grounds that laughing at such jokes would undermine their implacable opposition to the Jewish threat. In other words, its very difficult to hate something that you are accustomed to find funny.

  Source - The Naked Jape - Uncovering The Hidden World Of Jokes - Jimmy Carr + Lucy Greeves

  I would argue it's also impossible to love somebody you can't joke about or with.

  So where is the WTS sense of humor about itself, or, in fact, about anything?
• 

  Mastodon

  It was moved to Beth Sarim and then sold to the Jews...
• 

  bluecanary

  Good question.

  I was unaware of this bit of history. Thanks for posting this.
• 

  sir82

  Seems that the corporation's sense of humor is a reflection of its leaders.

  From everything I've read, Rutherford, Knorr, Franz, & Jaracz would all fall into the "humor impaired" category.
• 

  besty

  I don;t recall seeing anything in print that resembled a joke and certainly nothing where the butt of the joke was the WTS.

  I don't recall hearing anything resembling a joke with the WTS or the GB as the butt of a joke from the platform.

  Nadda. Total and complete absence of self-deprecation. Miserable bastards.

  Which is why humor is the best anti-cultists tool - always be ready to gently poke fun at the WTS. Nothing a cult member hates more than being made to feel inconsequential or the butt of a joke. I mean you can't seriously call that persecution can you?
• 

  wobble

  Besty,

  You are such ayoung wipper-snapper that you can't remember the good old days of the "Golden Age" and "Consolation" they used to print jokes and cartoons, but I think they stopped during Ratherfrauds time,

  I think they got to feel more and more self-important,with no time for frivolity.

  Love

  Wobble
• 

  steve2

  Self-appointed prophets are as alienated from humor as they are from humility. But seriously, folks....
• 

  C. T. Russell

  I’m not sure if they ever had a sense of humor. Want to hear a funny story?
  
  I lived in a worldly building at Bethel. So I had a real mailbox, not just Bethel mail. I would also receive the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. I’m not sure if it was a subscription but they would drop one off for each apartment.
  
  Anyway I was on my way out to go to a meeting and noticed that the new copy had the word Watchtower on the front. I started reading it and it was the Halloween edition. All of the stories were fake, ala the Onion News.
  
  The main article was that the Watchtower had purchased BAM, the Brooklyn Music Academy for x amount of dollars. The article went on for 3 pages about how part of the buildings would be converted to Watchtower offices, but in a deal with the board of trusties the remaining part of the academy would continue normal operations. The only contingency was that the Watchtower would have some say on what it considered to be acceptable performances. No Christmas or patriotic music.
  
  Well I was waiting for my ride to the meeting. The driver was a heavy on one of the committees. In particular the one that would approve any building purchases. I handed the newspaper to a sister in the car and asked “Have you heard about this?” She started to read it out loud. Now I thought this was going to be he-larrrrry-e-ussss. But as she started reading the article nobody smiled. The heavy started getting visibly upset. He asked her twice to re-read certain portions. The more she read the madder he got. At this point I started getting nervous. She kept reading though, nobody got the joke. At this point my mind is scrambling, what have I done! She just kept reading and reading. He kept getting madder and madder. I this point I was in trouble. As soon as I started to say “It’s a joke!” he said “I think I need to pull over and make a call” At this point I blurted out, “Maybe it’s a joke, I didn’t have time to read it all!”
  
  The sister skipped ahead and finally confirmed that the entire edition was a joke.
  
  Nobody talked for the rest of the trip.
  
  I still think its funny.
• 

  Farkel

  The Watchtower never laughs at itself.

  So I do it!

  Farkel
• 

  JimmyPage

  Actually, that's one of the reasons I was drawn to this site: the humor!

  Watchtower cover parodies and books like "I'm Perfect You're Doomed" are going to go a long way toward helping people out of the cult. If those things had been around when I was a kid I probably would have gotten out a long time ago.

  You young Witnesses today have it so much better with your interweb to save you!