by JonathanH 21 Replies latest jw friends
Jonathon---we are not out of touch. We understand that this only affects a small minority of people. But he is big to US---and really---don't we all operate in our own little bubble anyway. He is significant to US, and it's fun to puff up his significance. It's part of the humor. It part of the release. We are being hyperbolic---but that's the fun of it.
Now take it back, or Sparlock will beat down your door. Don't throw Sparlock in the trash!
NC
Jon, you make some valid points. We have a shared bias that makes Sparlock significant to this forum, which is no surprise, but yeah most of the world will remain indifferent, if not ignorant of him. And I have no delusions that it will lead to a mass exodus among JWs.
Having said that, I think Sparlock could be a tipping point for a few fence-sitters. Who of us didn't have a lightbulb moment that led to clicking the link to JWN, JWFacts, or Freeminds instead of WT.org?
My tipping point was the discovery of Jerusalem's 586/587BCE destruction on Wikipedia. For my wife, it was the blood issue and some comments she heard at the annual "medical directive" service meeting. Not everyone shares the same tipping point. The WT's UN connection did nothing for me but I understand it did for others. The 607BCE chronology did nothing for my wife. But in both cases - despite having different triggers - the scales were eventually tipped in favor of doubt. An accumulation of small doubts helped us get there and one put us over the edge.
I think Sparlock will generate the spark that some need to start thinking critically. I've got a few old buddies who I am almost certain will watch the video with WTF written on their faces. Maybe it won't set them to googling Ray Franz before the credits roll but I'm hoping it will at least be another straw.
If a curious witness came here and saw the wierd and angry furor over a wizard bear, they would think "Wow, the society is right.
Nothing more need be said... (though I posted the wizard has been removed from youtube thread)
Hope it calms down SOON....
It's not a God Tier Meme that's for sure.
I think it was supposed to be fun, nothing more. I don't think anyone was under the belief that this was going to become a national phenomenon.
Granted, there are some "apostates" who suffer from the same level of self-delusion as JWs with regards to their overall importance in the grand scheme of things. But Sparlock was nothing more than a lighthearted symbol of the sheltered and oppressed existence of JW children.
Nobody outside of this website knows or will ever know who sparlock is.
I think that's true of pretty much anything that's posted here. The JW religion is a non-entity. The rest of the world doesn't give two shits about it, or the rants of its ex-members. Talk to someone outside of this forum about the significance JWs attach to 1914, and it will be greeted with the same level of indifference as Sparlock.
Well, either way, I sent an email to our local columnist of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, suggesting he might want to google it and told him how the ex-jw community has made Sparlock their mascot. He might or he might not, but wanted to get it out there somehow.
But.... But.... Sparlock lives, he is our hope for showing the world that JW's are a mind-controlling cult !
Oh, O.K the World will say, "The JW's are a mind-controlling cult ? .... yea, we knew that, didn't you ?
Who gives a flying fu** ?"
The value of exploiting Sparlock is as said above, maybe many, but if only a few then good, maybe many JW's, will see what they are in to.
We are a small group of a group labeled "apostate" by a small insignificant christian sect. We are a sub set of a sub set of a subset.
I don't mean to be picky but I believe if you check wts stats, there are more ex-jws than jws.
Well every friend I showed it to said it was evil, and manipulative. 2 of them gave me a hug. So it helps morn the holes in my childhood, much beyond toys. My desires to play sports, go to dances, and spend the night were all sparlocked.
Well, of course no one really cares about Sparlock. It's just a joke. He's sort of a symbol of what the Society has done to so many--caused them to give up their innocence and their goals, hopes, dreams, imagination, and put it in the dumpster and treat it as so much rubbish. It's the destruction of a childhood, the end of normalcy. I think that speaks to a lot of us here, and won't mean jack to the outside world. So what?
I think we all like something or someone that is utterly irrelevant to the larger scheme of things. The fact is, it's comical, and absurd, and that's why it has caught on so much. It's basically a running gag. I do think it's probably been overdone, but why the heck not? Sparlock is pretty much the best and most exciting new release at a convention that I've encountered in a long time.
All of this stuff is an unhealthy obsession that we should forget about and move on from. But we lost decades of life, family members, friends, children. None of that is a joke. "Sometimes, I don't know what to make of all this. But this is how it is."
--sd-7
