Hello,
When a person lives within a tight community like the WTS and seldom if ever have any of their views and opinions seriously challenged, they can develop an almost psychotic self-confidence.
Confront many CO’s, as I have done on many occasions and they will bristle, they have not been trained to deal with a challenge to WTS authority, imagining that it has no basis for being challenged, other than by Satan or his 'dupes', who of course must be wrong.
Have your ever noticed how rather than focus on terms like ‘conversation’ and 'discussion', the WTS emphasize and re-emphasize the term ‘boldly declare’. Think about those words ‘boldly’, ‘declare’, then put them into the hands of the less than humble and you have a recipe for verbal pain.
A couple of years ago I visited a famous movie personality, I cannot say whom or where, but I will say that he received a Golden Globe award this week. We were due out for lunch. Just as we were leaving his substantial home two elderly JW’s approached the front door, and ignoring his plea that we were running late, launched into a magazine presentation. I played the part of an onlooker, and it was quite obvious that they recognized who the person was that they were speaking to. It encouraged them to an even greater degree of ebullience.
I watched them carefully, 1950’s brilliantined untrimmed hair, raincoats shiny from overuse, scuffed shoes and devoid of even minimal social graces, yet the total confidence granted to them by a belief system that has convinced them of an unassailable belief in their own self-importance, was pronounced.
Eventually after much mumbling, one of them through a sick sort of grin said, ‘I suppose that you think you have your little Kingdom already’. With that they both turned around and shuffled back down the drive convinced that they had struck at the heart of all that is wrong with the world. Movie man, a gentle and kind man, just shrugged his shoulders quizzically.
Please do not misunderstand my point. My life is built on an understanding of the equality of every human life and I fervently believe in this. People are just people, but it was the lack of true self-awareness that is the issue. The same attitude that allows janitors to set themselves up as psychiatrists, judges, scientists, and experts in scripture, and then to be totally confident that they have been chosen by God for these assignments.
It is a very ugly trait that fights the spirit of humility at every turn.
Best regards - HS