JW org collapses

by I Faded Twice 138 Replies latest social humour

• 

  GrreatTeacher

  It's all about the demise of paper. They were a corporation that made money from book sales. The religion part was never that important.

  Newspapers are going under because of the rise of digital media. Book publishers just aren't profitable anymore. Their business model no longer works because of changes in technology

  They are struggling to find a way to be profitable in the new digital world. One way seems to be pushing donations as a funding source. There seems to be some succcess with per publisher rates at assemblies. They have convinced congregations to send monthly donations to headquarters. They will push as close to tithing as they can get without turning people off.

  Until this new business model stabilizes them, you'll see consolidation measures taken to keep what they can, sell what they can't and move assets around in shell corporations or offshore to avoid loss to lawsuits.

  The problem is that people want something in return for their donations. They don't seem to be giving back much. So they really need to double down on the religion part. They might need to reinvent it to be more palatable while maintaining enough of the old school basics to keep the elderly.

  People are willing to give up money for stuff they deem valuable. WT needs to think really hard about what that stuff is exactly.
• 

  Brokeback Watchtower

  I do think the Watchtower corporation is in the nightmare stage of wishful thinking when reality comes a crashing in on the delusional wishful thinkers.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wishful_thinking
  

  Wishful thinking is the formation of beliefs and making decisions according to what might be pleasing to imagine instead of by appealing to evidence, rationality, or reality. It is a product of resolving conflicts between belief and desire.[1] Studies have consistently shown that holding all else equal, subjects will predict positive outcomes to be more likely than negative outcomes (see unrealistic optimism). However, research suggests that under certain circumstances, such as when threat increases, a reverse phenomenon occurs.[2]

  Some psychologists believe that positive thinking is able to positively influence behavior and so bring about better results. This is called the "Pygmalion effect".[3][4]

  Christopher Booker described wishful thinking in terms of

  "the fantasy cycle" ... a pattern that recurs in personal lives, in politics, in history – and in storytelling. When we embark on a course of action which is unconsciously driven by wishful thinking, all may seem to go well for a time, in what may be called the "dream stage". But because this make-believe can never be reconciled with reality, it leads to a "frustration stage" as things start to go wrong, prompting a more determined effort to keep the fantasy in being. As reality presses in, it leads to a "nightmare stage" as everything goes wrong, culminating in an "explosion into reality", when the fantasy finally falls apart.[5]
• 

  Brokeback Watchtower

  I guess this question of survival is in the answer to these questions :
  1) How long can the Watchtower Corporation survive when active contributing membership is dwindle in like a twist in the wind as internet exposer continues to multiply?

  2) How long can they sucker enough brain dead members to take care of their property till they get it all sold?(forcing them to sell at bargain prices).
• 

  xjwsrock

  I think the biggest damage from the child abuse lawsuits is not the payouts. It is the media coverage and the slow realization by members that there actually is a problem and their precious organization isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Even if they are only “a little bothered” by it all, they likely will reduce the amount of their donations. I think this is the slow growing internal cancer that will kill the organization or leave it a shell of it’s former self.
• 

  joe134cd

  For an organisation the size of Wt a billion dollars isn’t a lot of money. In this country there is going to be an international racing event and the government has allotted a billion dollars alone to cater for it. The event only goes for a couple of weeks.
• 

  smiddy3

  "Jehovah`s Witnesses wont end with a bang but a whimper" Apologies Nevil Shute`s "On The Beach"
• 

  cobweb

  I seem to recollect seeing on one of slim's collapse threads some demographic data showing jw members by age range. With so few JW's coming in from the preaching work in the West, i find the demographics more convincing when it comes to organisational decline. I recall there was a bubble there which indicated a pretty sharp average age jump at some point, past child bearing age & with less & less young child bearing families there is less kids born. This is a more realistic perspective on the manner in which religions wither away.

  I think the JW's will re-organise as they have been doing to make their money stretch. They won't just fold up. But the cut backs will no doubt have a psychological effect on members because these sense the expansion is over & the glory days are behind them. This is surely taking place already & it leads to apathy which makes people leave at a faster rate.

  Many adherants will never leave no matter what & so it will just be a matter of waiting for them to die - watching that demographic bubble slowly move down to the end and drop away.
• 

  ttdtt

  smiddy3 - Actually you should thank T. S. Eliot.
  
  That line comes from his Poem "The Hollow Men"
• 

  shepherdless

  Cobweb: I seem to recollect seeing on one of slim's collapse threads some demographic data showing jw members by age range.

  That may have been from one of the threads that I started:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5260866569109504/jw-decline-additional-data-from-aust-2016-census

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6298997348106240/aust-2016-census-observations-jws-getting-older-more-kids-leaving-30-group-arent-returning
  

  Basically, the demographics show that the number of people who call themselves JWs in Australia has started to decrease by nearly 1% a year, and that decrease will get bigger. Given that other aspects of the data seem to match the US Pew survey, I think it is a safe bet to say that what is happening in Aust, is happening throughout the the West.

  At this stage, you would have to project that in somewhere around 30 to 50 years, the religion in Aust will be about half the size. If you find that hard to believe, go back and read the charts.

  Of course, most of this data is historical. In recent times, the perception of Watchtower has become a lot worse, congregations have merged, Kingdom Halls sold, etc. These are separate factors that are too recent to be a significant factor in the data. It is possible, even probable, that these factors, and the others listed by SBF, will accelerate the decline.

  I see decline becoming more and more obvious in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how JWs rationalize it.
  
• 

  cobweb

  I apologise for the mistake & not crediting you Shepherdless. It was indeed your very well researched threads that i was recalling. Your threads had a lot of impact on the subject for me.