Recognizing Villians
In the old cowboy movies the villain always wore a black hat; the hero white. This projected the simplicity of morality and the choices of whom to follow. The idea is a favorite of the watchtower.
Yes, you're either a good friend or a murderer. Those are the stakes of human interactions according to the watchtower and you're not equipped to figure this out on your own. Notice how they attack both the intellect and intuition of "Sarah." They paint her as a person completely unable to comprehend basic language. That she didn't even know what was meant by "values." They go on to denigrate her instincts by making the case that how she feels about this new friend is the only criteria she may be using to determine the make up of their character. Besides being insulting, this framing of their adherents is thought impregnation in action. This is the watchtower telling the rank & file members that they are intellectually incapable of deciding whether a person is good or bad. So, they must decide for them.
It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.”—Jeremiah 10:23
Human beings have survived as a social species due to our ability to spot and avoid predators. The watchtower seeks to suspend our instincts and defer our decision making to them. It may sound like I'm giving them more credit than they deserve. After all they are just like us. They are the final evolution of a Jehovah's Witness. The ultimate indoctrinant. While that may be true, there is this.
"Be careful, going here and going there." There is all this stuff out there, all we can do is admonish. All we can do is warn you. Some of this stuff can seem so innocent.
Stick with what we've authorized and you'll be safe."
Anthony Morris III
Credit where credit is due.
They are the arbiters of good and evil. There are things "they" authorize. As with all things to do with the watchtower, this particular theft of decision making works as long as you never meet anyone who falls outside of these narrow categories.
Not being able to pick your friends is a huge problem. It pummels our individuality to the enth degree. It also leaves us completely vulnerable to all sorts of predators. Many of whom are members of "Jehovah's organization" and this is no accident.
The watchtower's need for unity, forces its members to suffer all kinds of destructive relationships - Including murderers.
"13 Consider the example of Uwe. In the past, he tended to let the imperfections of fellow believers upset him. Then he decided to use the Bible and Insight on the Scriptures to study the life of David. Why David? Uwe explains: “David witnessed the unscriptural behavior of some fellow believers. For example, King Saul tried to kill him, some of the people wanted to stone him, and even David’s own wife mocked him. (1 Sam. 19:9-11;30:1-6; 2 Sam. 6:14-22) But David never allowed the conduct of others to dampen his love for Jehovah. Also, David had a merciful heart, something I needed to cultivate. What I learned through my study changed my view of the imperfections of fellow believers. I no longer keep a chronicle of mistakes. Rather, I strive to contribute to the unity of the congregation.” Do you likewise have the goal of promoting unity in the congregation?"
Yes, you read that correctly. There is a context in which the watchtower thinks friendship with murderers is perfectly acceptable. That context is unity.
During the Douglas Walsh trial of 1954, Fredrick Franz (3rd president of the watchtower) when asked about whether jehovah's witnesses must believe false prophecies famously admitted:
Q. Unity at all costs?
A. Unity at all costs, because we believe and are sure that Jehovah God is using our organisation,the governing body of our organisation, to direct it, even though mistakes are made from time to time.
Yes, you're either a good friend or a murderer. Those are the stakes of human interactions according to the watchtower and you're not equipped to figure this out on your own. Notice how they attack both the intellect and intuition of "Sarah." They paint her as a person completely unable to comprehend basic language. That she didn't even know what was meant by "values." They go on to denigrate her instincts by making the case that how she feels about this new friend is the only criteria she may be using to determine the make up of their character. Besides being insulting, this framing of their adherents is thought impregnation in action. This is the watchtower telling the rank & file members that they are intellectually incapable of deciding whether a person is good or bad. So, they must decide for them.
It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.”—Jeremiah 10:23
Human beings have survived as a social species due to our ability to spot and avoid predators. The watchtower seeks to suspend our instincts and defer our decision making to them. It may sound like I'm giving them more credit than they deserve. After all they are just like us. They are the final evolution of a Jehovah's Witness. The ultimate indoctrinant. While that may be true, there is this.
"Be careful, going here and going there." There is all this stuff out there, all we can do is admonish. All we can do is warn you. Some of this stuff can seem so innocent.
Stick with what we've authorized and you'll be safe."
Anthony Morris III
Credit where credit is due.
They are the arbiters of good and evil. There are things "they" authorize. As with all things to do with the watchtower, this particular theft of decision making works as long as you never meet anyone who falls outside of these narrow categories.
Not being able to pick your friends is a huge problem. It pummels our individuality to the enth degree. It also leaves us completely vulnerable to all sorts of predators. Many of whom are members of "Jehovah's organization" and this is no accident.
The watchtower's need for unity, forces its members to suffer all kinds of destructive relationships - Including murderers.
"13 Consider the example of Uwe. In the past, he tended to let the imperfections of fellow believers upset him. Then he decided to use the Bible and Insight on the Scriptures to study the life of David. Why David? Uwe explains: “David witnessed the unscriptural behavior of some fellow believers. For example, King Saul tried to kill him, some of the people wanted to stone him, and even David’s own wife mocked him. (1 Sam. 19:9-11;30:1-6; 2 Sam. 6:14-22) But David never allowed the conduct of others to dampen his love for Jehovah. Also, David had a merciful heart, something I needed to cultivate. What I learned through my study changed my view of the imperfections of fellow believers. I no longer keep a chronicle of mistakes. Rather, I strive to contribute to the unity of the congregation.” Do you likewise have the goal of promoting unity in the congregation?"
Yes, you read that correctly. There is a context in which the watchtower thinks friendship with murderers is perfectly acceptable. That context is unity.
During the Douglas Walsh trial of 1954, Fredrick Franz (3rd president of the watchtower) when asked about whether jehovah's witnesses must believe false prophecies famously admitted:
Q. Unity at all costs?
A. Unity at all costs, because we believe and are sure that Jehovah God is using our organisation,the governing body of our organisation, to direct it, even though mistakes are made from time to time.
Q. A unity based on an enforced acceptance of false prophecy?
A. That is conceded to be true."
"Unity at all costs"
An ominous prospect, especially if you consider the potential proximity they all must keep to maintain this unity.
At this moment there is a wife sitting down for family worship with a husband who abuses her. At this moment there is a child going door over door with their molester.
Somewhere in this world there is a person sitting down for a judicial tribunal surrounded by men who are willing to sacrifice that person's well being to maintain unity.
Somewhere in this world and at this moment, someone is breaking free from all this. As it turns out, forced unity has unintended consequences. The most costly of which is severance of the union.
The moment we end our allegiance is a dangerous flashpoint.
A fellow exjw once told me that they woke up during their judicial committee. They recalled entering the room expecting help from the older men. After all, these were their honorary uncles and grandfathers.
However, after a particularly unforgiving line of questioning and almost an hour of hanging their head in shame, they raised they raised their head to see a room full of villains.
The brutality of the ceremony seemed to trigger their primal instincts.
To be fair, it doesn't always happened this way. There isn't always an epiphanous light to expose the predator lurking in the tall grass and upon awakening we enter a wilderness more complex than anything we could ever conceive while a witness.
Analogies about wolves in sheep's clothing are a cartoonish representation of the nuanced villainy we can expect to encounter in our post cult life.
The exjw community with all it's beautiful freedom and triumph is also a wagon train of hurt and loss.
The need for us to reactivate our fiend detectors has never been more important.
Some of us long for the unity we've lost and will cling to anyone who offers a less pious communion.
Our trail of tears is still wet and a storm is always brewing.
We have to be careful not to martyr an illegitimate savior. Also, there are no saviors.
There are good people, bad people and people who are good now who may turn bad later and vice versa. Some people will stay the same and our perception of good and bad will change.
This is fine. We are fine. We're growing. They may be growing as well. We may out grow them. They may out grow us.
The key is how we want to live our lives and the kind of people we choose to share our time with.
We'll have to let go of some. We'll mourn losing them. Some we'll wonder what took us so long to cut them loose.
The likely cause of a delay in moving past toxic people is that we still hear soap box speeches about absolutes ringing in our ears. We may still believe that a person is a hero or a villain based on the hat they wear.
Even as we walk with our newly opened eyes, we'll still be trying to iron people into a patchwork as one of two colors. This kind of thinking is poorly written code and leaves us open to sophisticated hackers.
In the long run we'll do well to understand that things are never as simple as being able to recognize villains.
"Unity at all costs"
An ominous prospect, especially if you consider the potential proximity they all must keep to maintain this unity.
At this moment there is a wife sitting down for family worship with a husband who abuses her. At this moment there is a child going door over door with their molester.
Somewhere in this world there is a person sitting down for a judicial tribunal surrounded by men who are willing to sacrifice that person's well being to maintain unity.
Somewhere in this world and at this moment, someone is breaking free from all this. As it turns out, forced unity has unintended consequences. The most costly of which is severance of the union.
The moment we end our allegiance is a dangerous flashpoint.
A fellow exjw once told me that they woke up during their judicial committee. They recalled entering the room expecting help from the older men. After all, these were their honorary uncles and grandfathers.
However, after a particularly unforgiving line of questioning and almost an hour of hanging their head in shame, they raised they raised their head to see a room full of villains.
The brutality of the ceremony seemed to trigger their primal instincts.
To be fair, it doesn't always happened this way. There isn't always an epiphanous light to expose the predator lurking in the tall grass and upon awakening we enter a wilderness more complex than anything we could ever conceive while a witness.
Analogies about wolves in sheep's clothing are a cartoonish representation of the nuanced villainy we can expect to encounter in our post cult life.
The exjw community with all it's beautiful freedom and triumph is also a wagon train of hurt and loss.
Some of us long for the unity we've lost and will cling to anyone who offers a less pious communion.
Our trail of tears is still wet and a storm is always brewing.
We have to be careful not to martyr an illegitimate savior. Also, there are no saviors.
There are good people, bad people and people who are good now who may turn bad later and vice versa. Some people will stay the same and our perception of good and bad will change.
This is fine. We are fine. We're growing. They may be growing as well. We may out grow them. They may out grow us.
The key is how we want to live our lives and the kind of people we choose to share our time with.
We'll have to let go of some. We'll mourn losing them. Some we'll wonder what took us so long to cut them loose.
The likely cause of a delay in moving past toxic people is that we still hear soap box speeches about absolutes ringing in our ears. We may still believe that a person is a hero or a villain based on the hat they wear.
Even as we walk with our newly opened eyes, we'll still be trying to iron people into a patchwork as one of two colors. This kind of thinking is poorly written code and leaves us open to sophisticated hackers.
In the long run we'll do well to understand that things are never as simple as being able to recognize villains.
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