I agree it's all about protecting the Society at all costs, anything less is seen as disloyalty to not just them, but to Jehovah, which is pretty much the same thing.
And of course, once you become disloyal, you're an outsider, treated like one.
Funny, we have local Mennonites here and they run several businesses. They remind me so much of Witnesses, except they don't do door to door peddling. But given a chance, they will speechify about their religion to you.
They're nerdishly clean cut, the women dowdy even, and they make it clear that even though they deal with you in business, you're a "wordly" person. They are proud of their scrupulous honesty and lack of materialism, too. Sound familiar?
I looked at some comparitive religion studies and sure enough, Mennonites are somewhat related to Witnesses in their social set up, all these religions practice a form of shunning. Once you're out, you are just one of those worldlings they're afraid of, basically.
But, I wonder how a person in these faiths would be regarded if they went to a counselor and talked about how miserable it was to be a Mennonite or Amish? I wonder if it's fairly rare, or what?
It can't appeal to everyone born to it, I'm sure. I wish Witnesses were even that open minded about realizing their religion isn't appealing to the masses...at least the Amish and Mennonites are aware of it.