by PenelopePaige 28 Replies latest social current
Would you say slavery is getting worse from, say, 200 years ago? How about gladiatorial games and the absolute brutality of life in the majority of places for the majority of world history? How about the rights of women? The thing is, you just focus on a few bad things and say, "wow, this is truly horrible" while ignoring all the progress.
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco: "Every generation believes its the worst, believes it's the end of the world"
How true that is...
Like I said many, many times before... Jehovah's Witnesses are like a depriving diet lacking certain nutritious you need but yet it does cut out all the unhealthy stuff.
There are many diets out there, choice the one more nutritious and healthy. There are many religions out there choice one that is honest, open hearted and good for the spirit.
Some that have the will power and self-control feel they don’t need a religion. Props to them.
Some feel they have freedom to do whatever they want. In this case you see the bad that is caused with this thinking.
“Wicked System of Things” Jehovah’s Witness term to scar you in sticking with their diet! Because there are many many morally sound humans out there when you open your eyes!!
The system is a mixture of things with good and bad in it. Put on your thinking cap and use critical thinking to sift through the good and the bad. Putting good on one side and bad on the other. Using good judgment on who will give you help in deciding that and reason what fits best for you (God gave you the power of reasoning and some men are like the devil with sheep clothing even hard to believe JWs). Remember the scripture: Happy are those searching for God. (Psalm 119:2)
Criticism of modern times can usually be attributed to an ignorance of history. Mind you ignorance isn't an insult, it just means a "lack of knowledge". Wealth distrubution has been a problem since the beginning of civilization, and despite what some would have you believe, America is not the first country to come up with the idea of laisse fair economics. Capitalism frequently leads to money pooling up at the top, and the shrinking of the middle class. There is a natural and constant dichotomy between government trying to maintain a middle class through regulation and redistribution and, the upper class trying to use it's wealth to manipulate the government and the people to become even wealthier. Ancient greece went through this ebb and flow frequently.
Furthermore morality is just the preference of society at large. Saying it's going out the window is merely to state that is changing as it always does, and mistakenly implies that it used to be better. When was morality better? When women were being minimized in society and told to be ashamed of their bodies, or when blacks were considered second rate citizens and discriminated against? Or was it back during child labor in factories before minimum wage, or perhaps outright slavery and slaughter of indigenous people? To say that morality "used to be better" is a naive statement based on conservative nostalgia. But in modern times there is greater equality, less racism, and more plurality towards the views and lives of people that may be different from us. The world was only a better place in the past if you happen to be a middle class straight white male. Morality ebbs and flows as society changes and grows.
The society was not right in that regard. All they did was define what they wanted to world to be like (which was an oddly puritanical socialistic regime where men were head over women and capital punishment would be used on anyone who disagreed with the omnipotent ruler), and then lamented constantly about how the world wasn't that.
Is this news to you? JESUS and the Apostles said it first, and many Christians throughtout the centuries. Prophecy.
JW capitalize $$$ on this subject a lot ... always pointing to the glass half empty ...
God is and always has been in control but has allowed Satan to blind those who want to believe a lie.
Psalm 24:1 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
And again in Psalm 89:11 The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.
Very good points.... :)
Like "The Faithful and Discreet Slave Class", "This Wicked System of Things" is one of those Tower-isms that grates on me more as time goes on. It's such a bleak, cynical, misanthropic worldview, intentionally crafted to demonize outsiders. Not Christlike at all. Call me naive but I like to try to maintain a positive outlook.
Life is what you make of it.
Oh yes; this world is so wicked. It just keeps going form bad to worse!
The increase of false prophets, new misleading religious teachings, more abusive cults,
religious organizations turning into sales corporations, new harlots ridding the wild beast,
pedophilia exposed in the churches, and on, and on, and on!
Yep; the Society did warn us about the world.
But they also hid from us the fact that they are a discussing thing to Jehovah!
"Actually, they are. What about the distribution of wealth in this country? How is it that a skank with a sex tape rakes in the millions and is glorified and thrown over every popular magazine while the poor guy who works his butt off at an honest job can hardly feed his family?..."
Oh, Penelope...
Check out United States history - during the mid- to -late 1800's and into the beginning of the 1900's, America fostered a climate of "Robber Barons" - that's how the Du Pont, VanderBilt and Rockefeller fortunes were made, among others...
Check out the history of "sweatshops" - they were far too prevalent in the U.S. during that time period. It was the rising power of unions that finally put a dent - albeit a small one - in the power of robber barons...
And now American citizens are being bamboozled into giving up their freedoms, again... Whenever you hear a politician yowl about "getting rid of government" or "getting government off of your back", remember that the U.S. government IS the people - or at least, it's supposed to be... So that type of politician is, in effect, telling you that your own government is the 'enemy', and you'd better sit back and let that politician take care of it, for you... Rather the equivalent of being patted on your head and told to "not worry your pretty little head about it" - whether you're female OR male...
Speaking of American history, the period of time from the 1820's to the 1860's - 70s and perhaps later, saw a positive increase in the number of American citizens who were actively involved with their government. More than one European writer travelling in America at the time, commented on it. The general attitude of the Europeans towards Americans was that we were uncivilized boors with no whiff of culture about us - BUT we knew our CIVIL rights and governmental offices and functions, backwards and forwards...
Unfortunately that is NOT the current situation. When a group of citizens allow distractions and mealy-mouths to decrease our knowledge of our own government and its functions, then a climate arises that is ripe for despots and dictatorships... And robber barons...
People nowadays are more familiar with who's on "Dancing With the Stars" or "Jerseylicious" than the names of their own state, county and city representatives. I'm ashamed to admit that I can't even name the people who are on my city's board, let alone my state representatives...
But I've gotten off-track. The fact of the matter is this - there always have been periods of time and places in time where there are despots - and democracies or beneficial governments.
Speaking again of our time, if we want to see the democratic system succeed, then we CANNOT sit on our hands, sit idly by without getting involved in OUR government...
Which is exactly the OPPOSITE of what the Watchtower Society - and the bible - tells us to do...
If there were a real "Satan", 'his' message and methods would best be served by generating apathy. Which is [again] exactly what the Watchtower organization tries to ENFORCE among its members - "Don't worry, "Jehovah" is going to take care of everything; just keep going out in service, avoiding college and keep sending us your money..."
Do you feel a hand patting your head in an arrogant, paternal fashion??
Zid
ziddina: as soon as you say that, i cant help but think of watching interviews with these tea party guys. their eyes all glazed over, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, their chests palpitating as their anxiety almost explodes into speaking over the man/woman trying to interview them...as they finally blurt out in nervous anger their ideas regarding smaller government...followed by the realization that they would stand to lose their entire livelihood, if the policies they are championing came to fruition. their va benefits, ss benefits etc. as an objective neutral observer of this, i dont know what to make of it.
