The Watchtower has an Achilles Heel that few seem to have noticed: Every change must be interpreted as a victory. For them, this goes well beyond the sort of hype and 'spin' that would be expected from a government or ordinary corporation. The reason why is obviously because they feel that their whole mythical reputation as God's chosen organization is on the line, with everything they do.
Even rank false prophesy by them gets redirected as ' they were really unfaithful and just serving towards a date' (what, the date YOU provided??)
Going further with this, they can't even appeal to Bible examples of decline for support - because this would expose their "spiritual paradise" as a facade and also contradict the notion of 'Armageddon Any Day Now'.
I call this 'Fantasy Maintenance' as they must also be quick to remove failing programs that threaten to expose their illusion. They dump 'Pioneer Assistance' and years ago, got rid of the foolish notion of meeting for service during a convention/assembly.
The cooperative nature of this Fantasy Maintainance extends to publishers eagerly willing to deceive themselves about Bethel layoffs, magazine cutbacks, dumping subscriptions and uncaring elders while taking a completely negative view of the same things they encounter at their place of employment! Cognitive Dissonance, indeed!
I'm not sure how much longer this collective psychosis can continue without some sort of 'dam breaking'. I think this is also why they created the Family Night arrangement as the massive loss of Witness kids was threatening to expose them, due to how bad it really is. It gets them off the hook by creating another, 'well, it's probably your fault' situation.
The failures of the Governing Body seem to be accelerating recently, across the board, with the unpleasant new Songbook as a reminder at every meeting. If we wish to encourage a 'tipping point', I wonder if we could find success with discretion and euphemisms. Such as:
"Don't you think this is Jehovah's Organization??!"
"I think the Organization is getting old and tired. They seem to be cutting back on everything and few men want to reach out. I just don't see how they can go on this way"
No 'false prophets' , no 'child molester protectors', no 'liars' - you save those gems for this board! By shifting the discussion away from cult theology , you might get a different reaction - or at least, a moment in which they don't know what to say.
and that might lead to the sort of thinking that terrifies the Watchtower.
metatron