Never underestimate the power of "Peer Pressure".
If everyone you are close to is POSITIVE that the "Great Tribulation" will arrive ON or BEFORE 1975 and they are older and more knowledgeable than you, what would you think?
I was a freshman in HS in 1966. The hype was beginning then. Each year after that, the anticipation intensified. The Rank and File did not start it. The Writing Committee headed by F. Franz Started it all by SAYING IN PRINT how close the end is and specifically naming 1975 as a MARKED YEAR in mankind's history. Did it stop there? absolutely NOT!
Circuit Servants (as they were called then) came every 6 months and gave talks OUTLINED by WTBTS telling JWs we had only months to preach and study with people before the end. When the TRUTH BOOK was released 1968 we were soon instructed to drop a Bible study in 6 months if they weren't close to Baptism because the time was too short to waste on those who couldn't make up their mind.
Between 1968 and 1975 The Magazines, Kingdom Ministry, Assemblies, Conventions, Special Speakers, the ENTIRE CULTURE was centered around "THE END" being MONTHS away. In 1972 my then husband who was a Ministerial Servant built a small, modest 2 bed house. He was counseled before the elders for "Living as though the end is not near", thus, setting a "bad example."
Every aspect of our lives were scrutinized by everyone else in the congregation with the added pressure of "Talking the talk". Things like, We're planning a vacation this summer, unless of course, the End comes" Every assembly ended with that as well. We are moving to where the "need is great" was often said. "You will probably not finish High School, let alone College" Said to me and my peers. Endless Pressure, endless talk by LEADERSHIP. No wonder I tuned out of High School and married at 17.
Was the teenager I was at the time "Running ahead of the organization? Or were WE as members encouraged and rewarded by the leadership to 'PUT KINGDOM INTERESTS FIRST" ? Meaning Pioneer, skip College, skip marriage and children if you can. etc. Were my young JW peers who dropped out of school to pioneer or pioneered right out of High school counseled or praised? I'll give you one guess! Who were used as examples on Service Meeting and Assembly parts? Those MOST EXTREME in their field service, lifestyle and language!
Were COs and DOs chastised for stirring up this HYPE from the "Society"? What do you think? When it came to comments from the audience at ALL the meetings, was anyone corrected for saying the end is Sure to come by 1975? HELL NO! Remember I was there, I was listening to every word, and I was 23 in 1975.
I was there when the Watchtower study article in 1972 stated that failing to Pioneer this close to the end is: TANTIMOUNT TO MURDER. It's in print, we studied it. WE didn't write that Sh**, THEY DID!!!
Only when 1975 came and went and then it was the 1980's did anyone in Management stop saying the stuff that caused the hysteria in the first place.
