Hi everyone
About 10 years ago I visited the three New York bethels - Patterson, Brooklyn and Wallkill. At the time, I was still very much mentally infatuated with the organization, so the trip was filled with wonder and nostalgia. I can remember being told by a tour guide at Wallkill that they were now so familiar with things constantly changing and being improved that the information they give on tours can quickly become out-of-date. They could take a tour into a certain part of the factory, and there would be a wall there where there wasn't one yesterday.
This sort of thing is very impressive to us Brits, because we are generally used to taking things more slowly. Only in Britain, for example, could the game of cricket have been invented - a ludicrously complex game that takes the best part of a week to produce a final result. Only in Britain could a restaurant chain such as "Little Chef" enjoy any sort of success, still pulling in the customers despite taking up to an hour to deliver whatever truly awful food you have ordered. Only in Britain could trains being repeatedly late despite the fares being so expensive cause nothing more than a "tut", a roll of the eyes, and a glance at the watch. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.
It struck me when I visited the bethels in the States that only in America could the organization have sprung up so relatively quickly on the scale it has done. Before my american friends start to get all flustered and offended, allow me to explain why.
The British perception of Americans (this is only a stereoptype) is that they are loud, brash and boisterous, and get all worked up over things that would cause little more than a raised eyebrow among Brits. An example would be all the movies depicting NASA space missions, where something dramatic happens of a positive nature, and suddenly the room erupts into shouting, clapping, punching the air, and grown men embracing eachother. This is not generally how things are done with Brits, although attitudes are slowly changing as new generations of Brits are being increasingly exposed to American culture through movies etc. But going back in history, Brits generally prided themselves on their "stiff upper lip" and more reserved approach. To show excitement about anything was not considered desirable.
This unbridled enthusiasm, despite being viewed by most Brits as "brash and boisterous behaviour", has served your country proud in almost every endeavor you have embarked upon. Only in America could a space program have been developed that would eventually land a man on the moon, and which to this day continues to increase our knowledge and understanding of the universe through such achievements as the launching of the hubble space telescope and the various space shuttle missions. Only in america could an essentially British invention, the Internet, have found its full potential in the brilliant minds and cunning entrepeneurs that roam silicon valley.
It is also this "can do" attitude and enthusiastic approach that gave the world the Watch Tower, Bible and Tract Society - which for all its evils, has required immense dedication, fortitude, resilience in the face of adversity, passionate support and unwavering loyalty by generation after generation of americans. I can't help but wonder whether its development could ever have been realized in any other western society other than America - because there just isn't the same enthusiasm and unbridled optimism when it comes to matters of faith in any other nation in the western world, including Britain.
I realise I may be bang out of order in saying all of this, which is why I pose it as a question rather than insisting on it. Hopefully none of you Americans out there will take offense at any of what I've said, because I've mentioned how your national characteristics have contributed to some of the greatest feats of humankind.
So, do you think it could have happened anywhere else?
Cedars