Bitter Fruitage of Ignorance &Isolation

metatron

It is reasonable to expect more accounts of violence and deranged
behavior among Witnesses in coming years.

Why? Please consider:

To the Watchtower leadership, the organization appears little
different in character from previous years. However, the 'gap'
between the world and the organization has rapidly grown into
a yawning chasm that now marks Witnesses as increasingly radical
and extreme by contrast. Every passing month brings some new
threat to their narrow way of life - internet porn, tolerance of
homosexuality, wide distribution of 'apostate' ideas, couples
living together, etc.

To preserve their shallow and childlike existence, certain
reactions are predictable. Appeals are repeated not to read
certain material, or think 'independently' or cite scholarly
works in talks (latest elder school). The Society demands
maximum isolation from df'd relatives and avoidance of 'bad
associations' (all worldly people).

It's not surprizing to see educated, aware individuals leaving
the 'truth' in droves out of doubt and frustration. This leaves
behind an organization that is INCREASINGLY childlike, shallow,
and unable to adapt to a complex world.

The result?

Bad marriages - based on utterly unrealistic hopes. Ever hear
of 'green card' marriages in the 'truth'? Grab a nice Eastern
European sister, marry her and find out she won't live with you or
have sex. (sorry sucker)

Murder and suicide - Witnesses who can't take it anymore, aren't
good enough, aren't zealous enough. Murder of kids because otherwise
they'll die forever at Armageddon.

Bizarre ailments - Witnesses allergic to everything, Self mutilation
problems, multiple personalities, anorexia, bulimia. Maybe the
'truth' doesn't directly cause these behaviors but I'm convinced
they make such sufferings worse by filling a person's mind
and heart full of extreme, hateful ideas. (99.9% of people will
die, die, die at Armageddon).

Frauds and scams - being victimized by con artists with get
rich quick schemes BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE GOOD CRITICAL JUDGEMENT!

I see the situation as similar to Islamic madrassas (schools).
They pump people full of intolerance and extremism - and then
claim they didn't actually tell them to commit terrorism.
In the Witness world, the violence is usually self directed
as opposed to Muslims.

Keep checking the internet and news sources about the Watchtower
Society. I predict you're going to hear more and more horror
stories of confused, deranged Witnesses doing unthinkable things.

They have to - in their insular, deceived world there's
NO WAY OUT - and, no matter how it fails or loses money,
the ORGANIZATION can never be wrong.

metatron

avengers

You are right. The point is how to make it clear to those who are still victims of the WT. Realize that when some find out that it's not the truth that suicide is the only way out.

"Few are they that look through their own eyes and feel with their own heart"
A Einstein

happy man

Well my friend, what glasis do you have on today, ofcourse we have more and more problems like all odher relligions,
but you tell only negative things, funny widh you sk appostates, never anything positive, who come it is 6 million peopel aot there , working hard, and try to do the best in a tuff word, my expiriens is rader bigg, 40 year inn JW an 20 as an elder, i is abitt unusual, i hade read this side and a fuw others inn several month, it is not so easy to discuss all error some tell here, i am to bad inn my english. Only want to tell, that i think most JW is radeher happy, even if it can bee problems. perhaps wee are on the HEEDs of moab, who nows.

metatron

Depression and mental illness is widespread in congregations.
I can't tell you how many Witnesses I know that are on
anti-depressants.

Take a good look at your 'happy 6 million'. Meeting attendance
is sinking - they're not so happy.

metatron

Room 215

Right on once again, Meta,

Although the Society isn't yet totally bereft of intelligent, sensitive people, it's also fair to say that they've alienated, kicked out or driven out the larger proportion of this demographic since the Ray Franz-Dunlap ``apostate'' witchhunt of the early eighties.

Their retrenchment to an organization of uncritical, unthinking automatons, not quite entirely accomplished, is well advanced. It used to be that, albeit with some difficulty, the brighter, more urbane JWs could create a comfort zone by holding to the basic, less controversial doctrinal tenets (i.e. soul sleep, hellfire, Trinity, paradise earth, etc.) while discreetly holding in abeyance (``let's just wait and see'') any acceptance of the more radical interpretive and chronological notions of the Society.

That course was, if not entirely acceptable, at least tolerated. But no more; since the apostate witchhunt, any expression of even the slightest misgivings to any of what Brooklyn teaches automatically transfers you from the ``us to the ``them'' column, and brings you into immediate suspicion.

Gone is any pretense to the premise, once widely, if naively, held during the fifties and sixties that the ``truth'' is intellectually defensible. It's all about partisan loyalty now.

I wonder how long before Brooklyn disapproves of all sources of information other than their magazines... no more Time, Newsweek, or newspapers, as ``worldly.'' Alas, what once seemed far-fetched, now looms as all but inevitable.

happy man

Metatron.
In this subjek i think i am alittel specialist, you say many pepoel are giong on this new medicin against depression and panik, do you no that it is more inn JW, no never it is what you think, i can tell you that here inn sweden it was a bigg discussion beaucause children have a lot of this from doctors, also the sociity it have growed alot, WHy, doktors use to give this much more, if you aare a bitt down, they have learn that the hormon serotonin and melatonin is missing inn you brain, than it is wery effektiv widh this things, so inn most cases it is a less of hormon who make the person feel bad, anything you dont can fix youself. perhps so much peopel is disturb inn the word by the polotion or something else. It is very tuff of you to say if a person have depression or panikatacks that she have this beaucause the religion or something else, IT IS A BIGG ERROR, and very lovless . If you talk to a doktor or read some of the new things inn books perhaps you will understanf who wrong you have.

voltaire

Happy Man,

I guess it depends on one's vantage point, but it seems to me that the WT is the one guilty of only seeing the negative side of life. Maybe that's why XJW's seem so negative to you, they've spent years seeing the world and everyone in it as evil, only to find out it's been a lie. That will make a person cynical. In the end, it's really no different than the basic tone of a meeting.

happy man

voltaire.
I not understan why you say this, we dont think that evry person inn the word is evel, inn a bigger wiue you can say that this diffrent systems is bad , man we all live inn the word, and widh people evry day, i live the most time widh peopel from the sk word,
as the most JW i spent most time widh peopel who not is JW, someting I see here, it seems like most of the peopel here hade think JW is a 100% perfekt peopel , but we are not. If you have this expactations i undersand yuor complaining, but even jesus gessiplar was not perfekt how can we.

metatron

I understand that serotonin plays a part in depression.
I was once on an anti-depressant myself.

Let me paint a picture for you:

You are programmed to believe that 99.9% of the human race
(non-Witnesses) are doomed to be slaughtered at Armageddon.
Your wife, husband or relatives, whom you love, are all doomed
unless they become Witnesses - and must thereafter regularily attend
meetings and door to door canvassing (or else). At meetings, you will
be frequently told by circuit overseers and others that you must do
more - that what you offer is not enough. You are told that
the world is an evil, demonic place soon to be horribly
destroyed. You are warned about persecution coming. You are told
to cut off contact with df'd relatives as fully as possible.
You are told that other people are "worldly" - and bad
associations.

Does any of this sound like it would create depression
or mental illness in a person who believes it?

metatron

Pathofthorns

The situation you describe could not have been concieved in the modern world as we know it today. It had to come about through the conditioning of several generations of Witnesses that passed ignorance onto their children as the world quickly grew more complex around them.

I find it ironic that they put forth so much effort these days to be accepted and appear normal. And yet, the rate of progress the world moves at has left them so far behind they continue to appear more and more fanatical.

As more and more of the thinking leave, the remaining Witnesses are being led down the garden path. I am interested in what will become of this group when most of the governing body abandon them as they 'finish their earthly course'.

When they realize they are have been reduced to fools with no more money to perpetuate their myth, what will become of this movement?

Path

Bitter Fruitage of Ignorance &Isolation

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