A World so different to the one I grew up in.

by fulltimestudent 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  fulltimestudent

  In the early 1950's I changed my life. I started to study the bible with a JW. Big mistake!

  We were, I learned, living in the very last days of the last days of this old world. A New World would soon be here.

  "When will the end come?" I asked the father (a 'servant' in the Sydney cong. I attended) of the young brother who studied with me. He replied, "I think it will come very soon," he replied. "Within the next 5 years." he added. Well the years rolled by and he came to the end of his life. I attended his funeral with his family. It should have be a red flag to me. But saturated with bible teachings I made excuses.

  Not long ago, I saw his son's pik on FB, He's old now - just like me. And. its quite clear to me, not just that the end of the world is NOT coming, but also, that YHWH and his sidekick Jesus are figments of men's imaginations.

  And this world goes on. changing all the time, as it has done for all of time. In the city this morning, there were two things that flagged two of those changes to me.
  

  This is the first. Its Sydney Town Hall:

  

  And the flag is the Gay and Lesbian rainbow flag. Its flying on the Town Hall in recognition of the fact that this is Mardi Gras month (something like Gay Pride in other countries). Who could have thought when I was young that this could ever happen?

  But it has! And as Australian's know, in a plebiscite last year 62% of Australians voted to approve same sex marriage. Approved in the face of a nasty struggle by many churches to maintain a ban on same sex marriage.

  The other big change was at Circular Quay - a city hub, where the first white settlement was established. Here's what I saw.

  
  

  As well as Mardi Gras month, its also Chinese New Year Time (or, the Spring Festival, if you prefer). It was inconceivable in the early 1950's that China would ever be, Australia's largest export market, or that more Chinese students would study in Australia, than students from any other country, or that China would have become internationally important.

  But that's what one can see at Circular quay this week. Colorful lanterns from China, all around circular quay. to celebrate CNY, along with a big delegation of performers, all from China.

  Unimaginable all those years ago.
• 

  Wasanelder Once

  With the passing of my father (80) recently, it has become plain to me that we fall like dominoes. One generation after another and along comes another with its quirks and societal idiosyncrasy's. There is nothing unique to any generation, its all variations on a theme. One thing that doesn't change is the older generation becoming the dirt which the next generation grows their vegetables. ...and so it goes. (Vonnegut reference).
  
• 

  fulltimestudent

  Unimagineable also, is the reduction in extreme poverty. The Wt and Awake kept us asleep to real world efforts to reduce poverty. We were all going to starve to death in the view of the Awake.

  But recent figures show the opposite. Not that third world poverty is no longer a problem. But the facts show a reduction in extreme poverty.

  This issue of the Economist demonstrates the progress made:

  Quote: "Until recently the world’s poorest people could be divided into three big groups: Chinese, Indian and everybody else. In 1987 China is thought to have had 660m poor people, and India 374m. The concentration of destitution in those two countries was in one sense a boon, because in both places better economic policies allowed legions to scramble out of poverty. At the last count (2011 in India; 2013 in China) India had 268m paupers and China just 25m. Both countries are much more populous than they were 30 years ago."

  The Chinese government though suggests the real figure for extreme poverty in China may be about 50 million, and is conducting a current campaign to eliminate the last pockets of poverty in the nation.

  How different to the early 1950's .- In those years, China had a population of 400 million and 80% (over 300 million) lived in extreme poverty.
• 

  moreconfusedthanever

  I was just saying to my husband today that we are just a part of the circle of life. Just like the rest of the Earth's creatures. We live we multiply and we die and that's it.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  Sorry - I was just interrupted, so posted my last comments before I'd finished.

  The article I quoted from was the Economist of March 30, 2017.

  Link: https://www.economist.com/news/international/21719790-going-will-be-much-harder-now-world-has-made-great-progress

  It also pointed out that,

  "This is impressive and unprecedented. Economic historians reckon that it took Britain about a century, from the 1820s to the 1920s, to cut extreme poverty from more than 40% of its population to below 10%. Japan started later, but moved faster. Beginning in the 1870s, the share of its population who were absolutely poor fell from 80% to almost nothing in a century. Today two large countries, China and Indonesia, are on course to achieve Japanese levels of poverty reduction more than twice as fast as Japan did."

  I do not want to claim that the fight against poverty is over. That may never happen as there are many factors involved in poverty. But what we are seeing is something we should feel pleased about.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  Wasanelder Once: ith the passing of my father (80) recently, it has become plain to me that we fall like dominoes. One generation after another and along comes another with its quirks and societal idiosyncrasy's. There is nothing unique to any generation, its all variations on a theme. One thing that doesn't change is the older generation becoming the dirt which the next generation grows their vegetables. ...
  and
  moreconfusedthanever: I was just saying to my husband today that we are just a part of the circle of life. Just like the rest of the Earth's creatures. We live we multiply and we die and that's it.

  haha! an acquaintance of mine loves telling people we should all be composted when we die. He's not popular at dinner parties.
  
• 

  Xanthippe

  The Chinese government though suggests the real figure for extreme poverty in China may be about 50 million, and is conducting a current campaign to eliminate the last pockets of poverty in the nation

  Thats good news, no one should have to live in poverty. However I have to say it's about time. The Chinese invented paper in the fifth century and gunpowder in the ninth century. I believe they also invented printing about five hundred years before Europe. Their insistence on isolating themselves from the rest of the world for centuries has been blamed for their previous lack of economic growth after being way ahead with scientific inventions.
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  scratchme1010

  Unimaginable all those years ago.
  

  Yes, that is what we call progress. Unfortunately, many people love to give those things a negative tone, especially religion.

  I don't lament my JW past, nor do I celebrate it. It just is. Since I left I am in sync with the world and all it changes, the good ones and the bad ones.

  I hope you can embrace the world. It's not pretty all the time, but it's the only one we have.
  
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  eyeuse2badub

  Yes there are so many of us on this forum that are now in the autumn of our lives. I'm 71 and have the benefit of being able to look back to see to folly of being a jw (or any religion for that matter). Ah yes the circle of life!

  I cannot complain too much because my life has not been racked with too much in the way of extraordinary pain and suffering. However, like so many here, there has been much in the way of unfilled dreams and aspirations that we gave up to be 'good' jw's.

  Life is not over and living happy successful lives for the remainder of what we have left is the truly refreshing and liberating!

  just saying!
• 

  fulltimestudent

  scratchme1010 : "I don't lament my JW past, nor do I celebrate it. It just is. Since I left I am in sync with the world and all it changes, the good ones and the bad ones. I hope you can embrace the world. It's not pretty all the time, but it's the only one we have."

  Thank you for your advice! I did not have a 'bad time' as a JW either, in fact had some good times (though based on a silly illusion). That is, until the parting of the ways, when, of course, anyone leaving will be denigrated.

  My reflections on yesterday's two signs of change were positive - unlike some, I long ago realised that change is part of life, whether its the physical changes we undergo as we age, or the changes in the world as communities age.

  eyeuse2badub: "I cannot complain too much because my life has not been racked with too much in the way of extraordinary pain and suffering. However, like so many here, there has been much in the way of unfilled dreams and aspirations that we gave up to be 'good' jw's."

  Even those unfulfilled dreams and aspirations can be met. I honestly do not know what kind of life I would have had, if I had never had anything to do with the YHWH/Jesus mob. But sometime soon I will go to my graduation, and get the scrap of paper (a BA with a major in ancient history and a minor in Japanese history) that is my reward for spending 10 years roaming through time and space and countless books to understand Asia's key role in the human past and probable future.