Yes, yes. I know you all have a very valid point. Suing the WTB&TS seems nothing more than a very attractive chimera, and yes, there is a lot more going on here than jerking off. Actually, that reference is to a hilarious scene in "Blazing Saddles" but the humor didn't quite seem to come across, did it?
I was for a time a member of the board of directors of the Children's Rights Council of Georgia. Our mission was to make the domestic law in Georgia more humane. After three years of hearing - over and over and over - stories of the most outrageous, unimagineable, rank injustices perpetrated in the name of the "best interests of the children," of testifying earnestly, but pointlessly, at legislative hearings one after another in committees that seemed determined to perpetuate what passes for justice in Georgia, I had to quit. Injustices, especially those that parade around like a trollop all tricked out in the color of law, seem especially corrosive on the soul, especially so since the incidence of hypocrisy is so high in those instances.
I seem to recall that the only thing that provoked a frank expression of emotion, an outburst of rage, in Jesus was the hypocrisy and injustice of the money changers in the temple. And quite frankly, after four decades of witnessing the injustice, hypocrisy, and lies of the WTB&TS along with the deadly outcomes of their policies - I am from time to time provoked as well.
Still, I think the point is well made that the WTB&TS is afraid of something, as Ray Franz has pointed out, or they wouldn't be taking defensive moves. And one thing is certain, it cannot be predicted with any accuracy what's going to be the final outcome when you go into a court of law. My grandfather used to say if you want to get screwed go to a courthouse; if you want justice go to a whorehouse. The WTB&TS is not invulernable, no matter how feverishly they attempt to portray themselves in that light.
Examine what has happened to the tobacco industry in the last ten years. They have fallen from what was once considered their unassailable position, to now being forced by the courts to choke up billions of dollars. What made the change? A change in the public's perception and attitude, a change of culture, all based on accurate information. And it was the image in the public's mind of that group of tobacco executives testifying together in a congressional hearing, with straight faces, that tobacco is harmless and not addictive. The public just couldn't stomach that brand of sneering hypocrisy and blatant injustice any more.
And as more and more people become informed through the good agency of bulletin boards like this, the more likely it is that - hiding behind the first amendment or not - the WTB&TS is likely to loose in court. Being a "religion" is not a bar to successful prosecutions. Witness what happened to Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, the Rastafarians, and various native American religious groups.
The Borg know they're vulnerable, and it only remains for interested parties to ferret out that crack that so most assuredly exists in their brittle exterior and exploit it - like a vent pipe in a Death Star.
If it is assumed the Borg is invulernable, their very public downfall will never happen. And I'm in favor of greasing their skids as much as possible, of exploiting each and every weakness until a fatal flaw is found. And it's not necessary to win a fantastic sum from them, it's only necessary to expose them to the searching light of truth revealing the dark shadow of evil that's so much a part of their very makeup; to hold them up to the very public ridicule, condemnation, and scorn they so richly deserve.
The Borg's reaction to defection in its ranks has always been to clamp down on its membership - a totally and wholly human thing to do. And the result?
"The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
Francoise
