"Brainwashing" does not exist

by logansrun 55 Replies latest jw friends

  • Brummie
    Brummie

    Actually Logansrun, if you must insist, a literal interpretation of Brainwashing is to place you're brain on the table and pass me the nearest bottle of bleach. If Websters hasnt defined it literally this way then the subject is open for other interpretations.

    Brainwashing, mind control, high controlling, whats the difference when all the subjects are treated unfairly, cruel, harsh, etc, what does it matter? What is being proven other than it doesnt mean scrubbing someones literal brain with a cloth?

  • logansrun
    logansrun

    LOLOL Good point, Brummie.

    Personally, I would call the JWs a high-control group that uses highly coercive and propagandistic (sometimes dishonest) means to persuade their members to think/act/feel in a prescribed way. But the individual JW is an active participant in this process and doesn't have to be persuaded! In fact, many aren't!

    B.

  • Satanus
    Satanus

    I think they are persuaded to do it to themselves.

    S

  • Brummie
    Brummie

    I agree that there is personal responsibility for allowing the WT to control our minds, when I accepted my personal responsibilty I left the WT. I do believe they use all the things you mention Brad but this to me equals brainwashing in my definition of the word.

  • PinTail
    PinTail

    Logan, did you reach the point where you were Ready to Obey"? Like Waco TX or Jones town and all the rest, I am sure there a lot of pin heads in the org who follow them down a toilet if it were possible.

  • Doubtfully Yours
    Doubtfully Yours

    Too unnecessarily deep, too darn unnecessarily deep Logansrun! Are you in your drinking binges again?!

    Why is it that problem drinkers and dopeheads come up with these unnecessarily deep crap all the time???!!!

    Let it go. Resist the temptation to educate us all.

    DY

  • seattleniceguy
    seattleniceguy

    Just a note on definitions.

    Remember that a dictionary serves a historical, not a legislative, purpose. A dictionary is a record of the ways in which a word has been observed to be used, not a set of instructions as to proper use. A word means what people understand it to mean.

    That said, the term brainwashing has problems in that it is so incredibly loaded that it is usually unclear as to the precise meaning intended by the speaker. There are cases in which a word becomes so charged that it ceases to serve a useful denotive purpose, and this is probably one of them. Mind-control is probably closer, but I think it would still need to be heavily qualified. I prefer to call the Witnesses a high-control group.

    Just my two cents.

    SNG

  • zen nudist
    zen nudist

    here are some techniques I have seen JWs use to manipulate people:

    1. invent an ideal fantasy being.... the JW mentioned in the watchtower and awake.... he is everything a JW "should be" and totally inhuman...

    he goes to every meeting, he spends every waking moment either studying watchtower materials or in field service. he does not allow selfish thoughts like pursuing hobbies or a better paying job interfer with his eye on the prize of pleasing Jehovah in everything he does and thinks. He does not party with weaker brothers but encourages them to join him in field service. he is a regular pioneer who lives with the modesty of a monk and works just enough to support his basic needs. He is willing to do anything the elders ask of him with a smile. he is a happy worker drone in the anthill of God.... he questions nothing the society says, ever, but diligently make sure of all things by reading their pronouncements into the bible texts given him.

    this ideal is deeply planted into the pysche by repetitions in all literature and meetings so that everything one does and thinks of doing is automatically compared to this ideal JW and guilt is generated... guilt which makes one feel inadequate and inferior and unworthy, so that no thought of questioning can enter the mind, as this would only come from satanic whispers to avoid what one must do.

    2. just about everything is spoken of in the negative.... do not do this, avoid that, shun this and sprun that.... this technique is very crafty and hard to see as such as so many parents use it and it is found just about everywhere... but here is how it works.... but phrasing things in the negative the only imagery triggered in the mind, the experiences, are those you are being told NOT to think about.... not to act on, not to entertain... like do not think of pink elephants.... it forces you to do the very thing you are being told not to do...its a very subtle trick, as it causes a tremendous amount of guilt as you cannot help but think on these things...and even though you are telling yourself not to do them, the simple act of thinking of them is making them so much more desirable and tempting...as your body tries to follow what you are minding. Just about every parent knows the best way to get their child to do something is to:........ you can all fiinsh that can't you?

    3. the disfellowshipping or shunning combined with the tests to become a JW in the first place make the group look like a very exclusive club which only the "right" people can belong.... over and over the JW is told that they are there because they and they alone have the "right" stuff and that there may be others in the world who are like them and need to be gathered out before it is too late... but that the road to destruction is filled with the rest who do not have the "right" stuff...the weeds, the goats, the resistant [satans]...these are easy to identify and avoid... they are cynical and rebellious and always talking mean and nasty when it comes to God, Jesus, and JWs.... no great amount of thought is required to identify "them" and of course anyone who leaves is anti-christ according to John, they were not of our sort, they were only pretendning, working with some date in mind out of fear, not the love of Jehovah, etc.

  • logansrun
    logansrun

    Good points SeattleNiceGuy. I agree.

    LOL Doubtfully...haha

    Pintail -- No, I would never have done anything "Waco-like" when I was a card-carrying "True Believer" in the JWs. Nor would most JWs stoop to such levels. Nor would WT leadership ever ask them to do that. Over the top, bro!

    Interesting, Zen Nudist.

    ~Bradley~

  • Brummie
    Brummie
    Nor would WT leadership ever ask them to do that. Over the top, bro!

    Ever hear the one about blood transfusion...oh never mind. Whats the difference between having dead disciples and then having disciples that dont breath anymore?

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit