No more hand claps, please

by coolhandluke 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Valis
    Valis

    *claps for coolhand...*

  • Gopher
    Gopher


    The last talk of the summer convention was the worst. Starting midway through the talk, it seems as though there is a torrent of applause for each little "encouraging" thought.

    Then the speaker would ask rhetorical questions extolling the organization / Jehovah / publications / whatever, like "Isn't it grand to belong to the ONLY true brotherhood in the whole wide world?" -- questions designed to bring applause from the audience.

    This reminds me of the word CLAPTRAP.

    Claptrap is defined as "pretentious, insincere or empty language".

    An older meaning of claptrap is "a theatrical trick to win applause".

    The captive audience is caught in a clap trap.

  • mrsjones5
    mrsjones5

    The clapping game

    As a child sitting through conventions got pretty boring. My siblings and I noticed that the audience would clap at almost anything especially a pregnant pause. So we decided it would be fun to see if we could provoke the audience to clap at almost any pause the speaker would make. All it took was a well placed clap. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it didnt. I'm amazed we never got caught by my mother.

    Josie

  • misanthropic
    misanthropic


    This reminds me of the word CLAPTRAP.

    Claptrap is defined as "pretentious, insincere or empty language".

    An older meaning of claptrap is "a theatrical trick to win applause".

    The captive audience is caught in a clap trap.

    I'm glad you clarified this....as I have heard this word used in different context

  • Shania
    Shania

    When you do the fade, and you are at one of these conventions, you listen like you never listened before.....and you are amazed at what people are clapping for. I out and out boycotting clapping, and I certainly got noticed for not doing it...........but to my amazement I was sitting with a cool group, by the afternoon session none of them were clapping like seals anymore..........after I talked with a few of them sitting around me and come to find out they are doing the fade........and said "we couldn't applaud for some of that crap.........we don't agree with it"..............so the feeling is mutual among many....

  • coolhandluke
    coolhandluke

    I'm with you Shania. There were times that I wouldn't say Amen after a prayer. My mother would ask, "Did I hear you say Amen? I'd tell her that she hadn't because I couldn't agree with the prayer. So be it did not apply. I didn't want the genie to grant that wish. I think she respected that

  • damselfly
    damselfly

    As a kid I used to just mouth amen while saying a different word in my head.

    Dams

  • coolhandluke
    coolhandluke

    Ooo Ooo Ooo, what word?

  • damselfly
    damselfly

    I could also clap without making noise. Unless we were at the assembly then I would try to be the last one still clapping.

    Dams

  • jayhawk1
    jayhawk1

    On a slightly different topic, the President's State of the Union speech would only be about 10 minutes long if it wasn't for all the clapping. Believe me, I try every year to set through that speech, only to give up shortly into it.

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