What Are The Motivations Of Old Men?

by metatron 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  A subject I (sadly) may have some expertise in !

  If you are an old dude, what motivates you? Not sex, generally. The hormones decline and the performance goes........ well, limp (except for those wonderful blue pills). If you're a Witness, it's only done within marriage anyway and not as a hobby.

  How 'bout food? Often, no. You end up on some god-forsaken diet, your digestion goes, your teeth fall out, diabetes looms large and your sense of taste may suffer.

  So, what's left?

  EGO !

  Your sense of importance, of being 'somebody' (not a nobody). And the desire can intensify as eventual demise approaches - the ultimate loss of self/importance. If you are Hitler, Stalin or Mugabe, it gets intense.

  It isn't always bad. You may begin to think of your 'legacy', of leaving the world as a better place, in other words, being a statesman. Even if you're some grubby politician, you may want to do accomplish something great and memorable, like LBJ did with the "Great Society" , in contrast to his years of corruption and ugly behavior.

  Like Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins, you want to 'make your mark' on the world, while you still can.

  So, what motivates the (old) Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses? They cut, they downsize, they layoff, they reduce. They see the malaise..... and where's their opportunity to 'make their mark'? To do something lasting and good, unique to them as an individual?

  Well, it isn't there. It can't be. The money and zeal are draining away and they have strong prohibtions against any organized charity. There's also no 'Witness College' or Watchtower version of BYU. It's that 'The End Is Too Close' straitjacket.

  It must frustrate them terribly. The only other Old Cabal that I know about in a similar situation are the collective leaders of North Korea (with their Spiritual.... Oops! I mean "Worker's Paradise"). They can't grow, they can't win a war and their organization is decaying.

  Currently, they are drifting into outright fantasies, talking about reducing Seoul to ashes in a few minutes and defeating the US.

  Maybe the Governing Body will follow suit and drift into deep fantasy too. Perhaps their egos demand it.

  metatron
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  Scully

  Abraham Maslow would say that "legacy" is a legitimate motivation, or the desire to leave something meaningful of oneself to future generations.

  Let's face it, most of the old guard of the WTS, the stodgy old farts in the ivory towers at Bethel, have no children to whom they can bequeath their "wealth" - whether that's in terms of financial wealth (hey, somebody has the keys to the vault!) or the legacy of being a Big Shot within the Organization™, or just a vast library of WTS Publications™ that date back to the very beginning.

  And, yes, even if they have serious doubts that they never dare to breathe aloud, their egos demand that they stifle their doubts, otherwise their entire lives will have been for naught. Their reputation, their status, their following, their groupies who hang on every word they speak from the Platform™ at Conventions™ and Special Talks™ all depend on hanging on to the bitter end, even if they know to the core of their being that it's a crock of crap.
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  HintOfLime

  Hope

  False hope, but hope is powerful.

  - Lime
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  TOTH

  I dunno, I'm 50 now and sex is still one HELLUVA motivator for this fat ol' cowboy...LOL
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  darth frosty

  John maxwell on god assigning years to creation starting with dogs.

  link
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  scotoma

  With males it's always sex. The whole purpose of male ego is access to females. (Gays excepted but substitute "person of sexual interest".

  Male appetites decrease depending upon their health and fitness level. But the flame only goes out at death.

  The target market for prostitutes is not young men. It's old men.

  Of course humans are quite maleable and under constraint of social mores some are capable of even fooling themselves about their real motivation.

  From an evoltuionary standpoint the bull is quite capable of mating right up til the younger challenger pushes him out of the way. Do you think the old bull loses its drive. Nope. Only loses the opportunity.
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  Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

  Don't know too many but my guess is nookie.

  Either they're motivated to do something to get it, or motivated to do something to make sure no one else is getting it.