still_in74: Yep, I agree. They seem to have hoped that they could keep the growth of 1980-2000 just by continuing to say the same things over and over. Since that hasn't been working, they just get more intense with the crazy cultish control. Now, just to be lazy, I'll paste in a PM I sent another member for my further observations:
After the Awake went to once a month, the whole 2 WT & 1 Awake was a disaster in the field. The Awake really didn't improve in quality, but it reduced expenses from Art to Translation to Printing. So, this year's WT split similarly reduced expense, but hasn't improved quality. Overall, the message has deteriorated badly and the material is increasingly produced with cult spin. As you said, removing the study articles from the general public makes them "Kool Aid" for increased mind control.
I'm a few years out now, so I'm not sure of the latest developments among the departments. I may be off-base now, or maybe I'm not. Writing Department were such perfectionists that they considered all others to be unsophisticated idiots, especially the Teaching Committee. Teaching made a lot of stupid mistakes, were late on deadlines (like this year's District Convention theme, no doubt), and were not technology saavy. Jaracz didn't like computers or Writing. He clearly believed that everyone should just read the Bible and they would all automatically agree with him. I didn't deal with Service Department directly. In my experience, they tended to be reaction-driven, behind the curve, relied extensively on form letters, and really didn't seem to understand the statistics and information that was coming across their desks. That's the way things used to be, anyway.
I suspect that among the current GB, there is a lack of direction. What I knew of the new members, they were followers, not leaders. Jaracz doesn't have any forward momentum to be a leader, he struck me as a 'keep doing more and more of what we've been doing' type. The result? Stagnation. Pubs are pressured to do more and more of what is not effective. Worn out old lessons are re-hashed, like studying the Revelation book again, and WT lessons that are nothing more than re-compiled KM articles. I suspect that Writing Department has been given some weird direction like stating the things about oral sex, but hiding it an article about conscience. Also, the wording of the 1935 and generation explanations, but burying it in less obvious paragraphs.
Anyway, the more I found out about the inner workings, the more I realized that God wasn't driving this organization. In the last few years of Bethel, I found the 'weirdness of things' going way off the top of the charts.
