TrueTomHarley

41 minutes ago, NoisySrecko said:

Friend, can you clarify if this is your virtue, the way you express yourself toward others conflicts with not only the golden rule, but your application of that rule.

Friend, I’m not aware that it does. But if you will give me an example or two, I’ll take it under advisement.

Isn’t your very moniker, NoisySrecko, an unkind taunt at dear Srecko, who presents himself here as another friend? 

17 minutes ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

I like this, it's direct and honest. I've got the old age bit and death is creeping up slowly.   But knowing truth, death is not frightening. 

We don’t even have a right to ‘old age and death,’ the more I think on it, just death.

What does the verse day? “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men…”

It doesn’t say, “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and old age and death through sin, and so old age death spread to all men….

Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of old age. But it is icing on cake in a world sabotaged by sin, not a right  Just how many rights can you demand from the Devil? But with God you can reliably hope for undeserved kindness.

1 hour ago, NoisySrecko said:

I will agree, friend, such discussions should not sit with the righteous.

Friend, being as righteous as I am able to muster while yet residing in the flesh, allow me to make an observation on

1 hour ago, NoisySrecko said:

BLACK RIGHTS, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Rather than carry on about rights, I prefer to focus on the Golden Rule, to whit, that we ought treat others as we would wish to be treated ourselves.

It preserves all that is noble about human rights while discarding what is pretentious. After all, if they are rights, shouldn’t you be able to do something about it when they are violated?

The only thing we really have a right to in this system of things is old age and death. Everything else is gravy—which we can secure if we can only persuade people to follow the Golden Rule.

16 hours ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

Wow you guys really are 'part of this world'

It’s okay to know things. It doesn’t in itself make you ‘part of this world.’

Some firebrand bro on Twitter tweeted how JWs are NOT interested in politics. Sometimes they are, I said. What they are not is partisan, or non-neutral, but as a field of activity, sometimes they keep abreast of it. He replied once more that JWs are NOT interested in politics. When I answered again, I was blocked.

Granted, one foolproof way to stay neutral with regard to politics is to know nothing about it. I do not criticize anyone taking that route. It’s a practical strategy.

Some people are greatly interested in sports. Some people care not a whit. Some people are greatly interested in cars. Others wouldn’t know a Astin Martin from a Yugo. Some are interested in the human interaction that is politics. Some are not. Not a problem, any of it. It’s all personal choice. The thing that nettles is when people misrepresent their non-interest as piety.

On 11/23/2021 at 11:27 AM, Space Merchant said:

That being said, today's Capitalism is vastly different compared to back then, I believe around the late 17th or 18th century and onward, things took a drastic change, mainly due to applied scientific natural law to economic behavior.

Without peaking, didn’t capitalism get underway when people began pooling investments? With regard to European exploration of North America, expeditions were financed from pooled investors. They were not self-financed. 

On 11/23/2021 at 11:27 AM, Space Merchant said:

In regards to Isabella's thread,

Queen Isabella of Spain is the one to watch in this instance. Expeditions to South America were not investor financed. They could not be, because Spain (and Italy) were solidly Catholic. Catholics considered any kind of investor finance was usury prohibited by scripture. The only one who with deep enough pockets to self-finance a voyage to South. America was the crown. That is why South America was exploited to a much greater degree than North. ‘Grab the gold and go’ was the motto of Catholic Spain and Italy. But investors from England and the Netherlands were not thwarted by usury scriptures that ruled out investing. They had no need for their stake to be paid back instantly.

Does the legacy even remain to this day?

41 minutes ago, NoisySrecko said:

The cops in an upper class neighborhood might spend time defusing a white counterpart to give up and not resist. The same scenario with a black person might not get the same consideration and that cop will be more motivated to shot first and ask questions later, than with a white person.

This is a reasonable point to speculate, however it not only depends upon the specific villain, but also the specific cop. A study of the Philadelphia Police Dept conducted during the Obama years found that black cops were slightly more likely to kill black suspects than were white cops, attributing it to increased “threat misperception.”

18 hours ago, Space Merchant said:

who wanted to stir up a race war

When a reporter asked Trump (this was some time ago) about the spate of black persons shot and killed by police, he responded that police kill a lot of persons, including white persons. If fact, they kill more white persons than blacks. Incredibly, the reporter did not seem to know this. The statement had to be “fact checked.” The next day came the admission that—yes, what Trump said is technically true, but that’s only becasue there are more white people than black people.

If you follow the news of police shooting as reported by media, you might think that the very purpose of police was to kill black people. I wrote my proposed solution in ‘No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash’ (since withdrawn for rework):

In the course of their job, police shoot hundreds of people per year. How should one report this? Put all shootings on TV. All of them. Run them 24/7 in the order in which they occur. Create a dedicated channel: The Shooting Channel. Make it freely available. Give every network a cut so no one will complain about ratings. Promote “The Shooting Channel” heavily. Ban shootings on any other channel.

Put white-on-black shootings on. Put black-on-white shootings on. Put black-on-black shootings on. Put white-on-white shootings on. Put Hispanic-on-Methodist shootings on. Put Buddhist-on-nudist shootings on. Put redneck Alabama white-on transgendered Vietnamese shootings on. Put them all on. Let viewers decide for themselves which shootings are significant and which are yawners. Otherwise, the newspeople will cherry-pick their favorites and start a race war. 

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

I have a feeling that Rittenhouse might have been far too anxious to give the impression that he was an important, heroic good-guy protecting a "white town" from BLM overreach.

I did learn from my experience that much is generational. Those of my generation are not the slightest bit shocked that during a time of unrest, ordinary people should assemble so as to protect livelihoods at risk. But there is a younger generation that thinks first of how when someone shouts “Fight!” people who just love to fight on any pretext will come running to extract their pound of flesh, and bring their guns with them. I have to admit, if you viewed in that way (which I don’t in this instance) it does change your view of the outcome.

I even triggered the remark that I am out of touch with the thinking of the current generation. Tell me something I didn’t know.

1 hour ago, Space Merchant said:

An example, JWI Insider, Arauna, Thinking, TrueTomHarley, NoiseySrecko, Anna,

I had a very brief and blunted “sharp outburst of anger” with someone over Rittenhouse. In the process of restoring peace, I observed they shouldn’t put trials on the media anyway. To get the populace all worked up when they can’t know more than 1% of the facts? It’s just done for ratings. 

The only people who (hopefully) know it all will the the 12 of the jury. Let them decide it. Or, if you are not going to let them decide it, send them home. Nobody wants to serve jury duty anyway. Broadcast the entire trial on social media and decide the outcome by ‘likes’

16 minutes ago, xero said:

Awesome

I worry about this video and the last, for fear I could get hooked on them and never come up for air again in my life. They are very well done.

7 hours ago, Pudgy said:

And the Honorable part about it is that he was innocent of any real wrongdoing

It is the first time since 2017 that a Witness has been found not guilty in a Russian court. Good catch.

5 hours ago, Pudgy said:

If one doe not have to show ones' work, I predict the year 2525 ... if man is still alive, they may find ....

Who would have thought it? A true prophet broadcasted daily to one and all for months, with a catchy jingle no less, and we never knew it. Good catch.

47 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

“We know what is best for you”

Better throw in a bone for the dog @Pudgy. I mentioned how I would listen to Rush if driving with the car radio, but otherwise no. However, in my janitorial years, which ended well before my retirement, I used to record and play back his show every night. During Clinton’s presidency (and Clinton seems to have been a reasonably sound president, as presidents go) Rush had some impersonator who would adapt Beatles songs and sing in his booming Clintonesque voice, cracking at the peaks. They were sidesplittingly funny:

I’m a real nowhere man, sitting here in Washington, making all my nowhere plans for you, buddy. Don’t care bout you point of view. I know what is best for you….and so forth. (Sung to the tune of Nowhere Man, of course) Pudgy might even be able to recall all the lyrics.

Also for Pudgy: It is Rush that made me realize that my own Dad never cared for politics. On a trip of the three Harley boys—my dad, myself, and my brother—to visit family in Ohio, my brother and I conspired to play Rush when his show came on. It was no more than 10 minutes, if that, then my dad began to grouse about ‘You like that? All that contention and arguing?’

He didn’t care for politics. All these years I had imagined he did, since at family gatherings politics was a frequent topic of discussion. Turned out that my mom’s dad, a staunch conservative, would carry on endlessly about it, and Dad was just too circumspect and amiable to tell his father-in-law to zip it.

Recently, now that Pop has died, I accompanied my brother, who is into ancestry. Believe it or not, he tracked down the grave of my great great great great grandfather. It’s off a dirt road drivable only by serious SUV, which is itself off a dirt road. The tiny gray speck at the focal point of the first pic is my brother’s non-SUV car. We had to walk from there.

I’m getting so I like to tell stories, and I do it right here on the old hen’s website, to reward her for being so indulgent with me.

”Making all my nowhere plans for you, buddy!!” I love how that song ends.

47 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

Hey! I saw that!! 😉

So much for my own clandestine smear operations! I will have to better train my own secretive forces—the CTTHIA.

47 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

You might have meant anthracite

Okay okay, so I have not yet read Volume I either.

47 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

Suicide is nothing to squid kid about so I had to scratch my comment about so many also dying from deadly games of red light, green light, etc.

I’ve read that the TV series is instantly soul-draining, that watching it destroys all vestige of humanity. I can’t imagine how you can watch some things and then just go about your daily life mentally unharmed. 

Or am I being old-fartish? I read one shocking review of the show from a source not known for being fuddy-daddy, but after that, nothing but admiration for how well Netflix is doing with its hit series..

47 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

This popularity of communist governments with the people is, of course, why Chinese people (and their government) can claim to have a democratically "selected" government. They would say it is more representative of their interests than the US version of elected, but unrepresentative, democracy.

“We know what is best for you” and therefore it is democracy? The fact that proclamation of the good news usually goes down in the crossfire of these guys makes this sort of “democracy” unpopular with many, though if it brings material prosperity, it may well be the bees knees in an irreligious world. It’s challenging enough when the Christian organization presents itself as a little too smothering for my preference, let alone a government that does consider itself master of your faith and does not confine itself to exhortation.

As Massimo Introvigne put it, China is democratic. All you need do is change the definition of democracy to see it that way.

https://bitterwinter.org/democracy-according-to-xi-jinping/

2 hours ago, NoisySrecko said:

I would suspect an academic view can supersede a private opinion. But thanks for having one. 

You would think so. That makes perfect sense. But there are so many cases in which academics has been purchased so as support whatever is the preferred view. For every case of academics forming the preferred view, there is another in which the preferred view forms academics. See the response I gave you re Pharma and the Brazilian study that has superseded the doctor-patient relationship. Many maintain that the evolution of college and school curricula is another example in which the preferred view molds academics.

To adapt the words of Yakov Smirnoff and satisfy JWI, is this a great [world] or what that can turn soundness of mind on its head? Nor can we look to “academics” for support on the origin of life. Certainly not with regard to any flood. Nor on the utility of blood transfusion. Apparently not with secular dating chronology. And not in what is called social “science,” even gender “science.” Is the foregoing all examples of Jehovah turning the wisdom of the wise into foolishness?

The earthly organization is not blind to academics but it certainly doesn’t allow itself to be shoved around by it, nor even its hand-in-glove “critical thinking” that is all the rage today, which so manifestly can be hijacked by other interests as to be anything but a reliable guide—something to factor in, but no more.

From Day 1 the organization has run experiences to illustrate whatever point they make that will infuriate academic devotees of “critical thinking” and, truth be told, sometimes even some of us. “Consider Danny,” it will say. “He and his wife decided to put God to the test by doing such and such” and it goes on to relate the successful outcome. It’s a single example. What about Sammy and his wife who also did such and such and it turned out horrendously for them? But in fact, as long as you do not claim it as more “proof” than it is, as long as you do not claim it is guaranteed outcome everyone will experience,, I guess you can reason this way. I mean, everyone else does when trying to motivate you into doing something. College recruiters certainly do. So it’s okay. Very few things can be reduced to simple enough terms so that “academics” or “science” or “critical thinking” can be of overriding use.

https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2021/11/a-scientist-pours-one-liquid-after-another-upon-a-duck-placed-on-the-table-his-companion-carefully-calibrates-the-results-on.html

On 11/21/2021 at 12:50 AM, Pudgy said:

and even a blind pig finds an acorn

And sometimes a faithful mutt really proves a good boy. Good catch, Bowser. Have a biscuit. 

Will it be that persecution has at last turned a corner? If so, it will be be as Mark Sanderson spoke, in both English and Russian, to the Russian brotherhood back in 2017—that a time of testing was about to commence, but it would be a Revelation 2:10 time, during which “the Devil will keep on throwing some of you into prison so that you may be fully put to the test, and you will have tribulation for ten days.” Ten days is not forever. It seems like it at the time, but it is not.

An end, or even a lull, in an intense time of persecution is a very good thing. The organization is still banned, of course, as is even the preferred Bible. But if the words of the Supreme Court count for anything, authorities won’t be able to beat up on people anymore simply because they are Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

And how have the brothers comported themselves? “There are almost no instances of renunciation of the faith among them,” says Credo Press, Nov 8, 2021, as translated here: When all is done (it is not yet) will this be another instance in which, upon passing trial, the brothers soon gain more members than going in? People take note when plainly innocent persons remain true to their conviction despite unjust trial.

How bad has it become? Says the same CredoPress source of a sentence only days before this Court opinion: “Eight years! In Russia a criminal may receive even less time for murder or rape. Innocent conversations about the Bible are equated with horrible crimes.” It is only the most unhinged crazies that would do such things, and people take note when ones stand fast despite it.

Remember three years ago when Putin said he really didn’t understand why Jehovah’s Witnesses were persecuted? I spun those words into the title of a book. He had been specifically asked about it during a meeting of government ministers. He not only expressed bewilderment but said, “This must be looked into. This must be done.” The brothers were cautiously optimistic, but only cautiously. Don’t Know Why stated: “After all, if you were a Russian cop, would you beat up on one of them after what the President just said?” followed by a later edit reading: “It turns out they would.”

Most things from government move at a snail’s pace. One year after Putin’s remarks, another person called attention to his words. “Two years later, at a meeting of the Human Rights Council, human rights defender Alexander Verkhovsky again pointed out to the Head of State the absurdity of prosecuting believers whose organizations had been banned; as a result, the President issued new instructions to the Supreme Court to prepare explanations regarding the generalization of court practice in cases related to violations of legislation on religious associations.”

That President Putin should express puzzlement over the Witnesses in the first place suggests that he read a few of that flood of letters sent him. I think it was Pudgy’s that did the trick, not necessarily the letter itself, but the half chewed bone he sent with it. Doubtless the President appreciated the earnestness to make such a sacrifice. 

Remember, the stated intent of the letter writing campaign was to provide a witness—to keep this undeserved harassment of peaceful people and the integrity they display on center stage. The letter in which the Governing Body invited members to write those letters contained the following goals:

1. drawing international attention to the situation.

2. giving evidence of one's love for their brothers in Russsia

3. support fellow Christians who face persecution

Thus, everyone who took part in letter writing can take comfort that, even if in a tiny way, they contributed toward this recent favorable development. It sure beats sitting on one’s hands and doing nothing.

A common theme of prior convictions is that the Witness defense would ask of the prosecutor just who was injured by the defendant’s actions—and the prosecutor invariably declined to name anyone. That’s because there was no one. Now they have to name an injured party, says the Supreme Court opinion, and of course, they can’t—because no one is ever injured. It’s just pure religious hatred—in a country that says it has freedom of worship. At last, the contradiction is too blatant to ignore.

Perhaps there will yet be a further victory, hard won though it be, it has happened before. Says the Credo article cited above: “The state should recognize its mistake and …should issue an apology to believers, as was done by Russian President Boris Yeltsin,” for prior years of repression—which were bad, but not as bad as the present in terms of violence. Bro Sivulsky pointed that out. People were arrested back then, but they were not beaten.

Maybe it will even be like when Paul and Barnabas were arrested with much violence and then the next day the authorities wanted to release them quietly. “Paul said to them: ‘They flogged us publicly, uncondemned, though we are Romans, and threw us into prison. Are they now throwing us out secretly? No, indeed! Let them come themselves and escort us out.’” (Acts 16:37)

I don’t think so, Paul said, They’ll release us with as much fanfare as they arrested us. 

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

Now it is blocked

Try https://breggin.com

6 minutes ago, Arauna said:

The problem is this: they think they can control it all - the revolutionary reset of the world....... but the true reset is coming from Jehovah!. 

This is the problem with a Mercola and Breggin’s books—their limited perspective. They are both sharply critical of the ‘great reset’ but they lose sight, imo, that a reset truly is needed. It is just that you can’t trust man to do it.

17 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

One of these profs points out

Among my greatest surprises is that the philosophical orientation of government doesn’t seem to matter much as regards economic success. I suppose had I lived in Asia, I would have known that long ago. “Freedom-loving” countries of the Western variety succeed, but so do certain “authoritarian” governments. Vietnam remains Communist, yet their economy has boomed (with no apparent efforts of the US to thwart it, contrary to JWI’s thesis). At one time I would have thought that you must have Western freedoms to succeed. Doesn’t appear to be the case.

Of course, when I say “succeed,” I only speak of higher living standards, not necessarily the cost to get there (especially, get there overnight, as many economies have done in recent years). South Korea has an explosive suicide rate among the young.

Like the Autocrat mentioned above, I haven’t reached the lectures of how a communist country loosens up the command aspect of its economy to take advantage of free-markets. The two terms seem to be mutually exclusive, yet they have been combined. But the biggest takeaway in the spiritual sense is that I can see why globalists would go ga-ga over the CCP. They have brought material prosperity to the masses and they do what they are told socially, making it easy to implement climate policy, pandemic policy, and any other form of social engineering desired.

On 11/19/2021 at 10:12 AM, JW Insider said:

I have a feeling that most of those jokes, even though based on local truths, were told in the West to gain camaraderie and approval with their new Western audience

I didn’t get that sense. Rather, it seemed to be more akin to the “gallows humor” cops develop as they resign themselves to the viewpoint that much of their most diligent efforts will be undone by snafus at higher levels. That’s not to say that such jokes would not be wildly popular in the West, but it doesn’t seem they were originated for that purpose.

On 11/19/2021 at 10:12 AM, JW Insider said:

but I don't believe there were any Eastern European communist countries that had not been the victim of Western sabotage. 

The sense I got from two series of lectures is that they sabotaged themselves, making any Western sabotage beside the point. It is the aspect of ‘command economies’ that disincentivize initiative and thereby make trade with outside powers impossible because whatever goods are produced soon fall behind in the quality that competitiveness spawns. I gather that those communist economies had no interest in trade anyhow, except with other satellite countries—and even feared it, since goods could not be imported without the attitudes of entrepreneurship and relative freedoms that enabled them—attitudes corrosive to those communist govennments. Western media was blocked to the extent possible, since when it was not possible, Eastern Europeans saw just how much better Western Europeans lived, and that fostered still more discontent with their governments.  The prof, who has lived and taught in Russia, said the success of the Beatles, along with rock & roll in general, terrified the Soviets because it was a completely popularly driven phenomenon that created huge income with no input whatsoever from any central planning. I took this remark at face value and did not think of it as a baby boomer looking for any pretext he could find to insert his favorite band, as I do with Bob Dylan.

One of these profs points out that the Soviet economy did make reasonable progress after WWII. The country was stable, enabling some patriotism and trust—important to any economy, and it invested in infrastructure and meeting basic housing needs of its people, simply by ‘commanding’ it. But its own inefficiencies and disincentives steadily undermined it. Khrushchev pounded on the table with ‘We will bury you.” He was speaking in terms of steel production, and by quota command the USSR actually did pass by the US in terms of steel, but by that time newer technologies such as plastic made that accomplishment less than it would appear. Personal disincentives at every point eroded the system. The prof tells how restaurants frequently closed at noon, for employees wanted to eat their lunch in peace, and would only open afterwards. Factories with the imposed quota to produce a certain number of shoes might produce them all in one size, as it was easier, and no idea of consumer demand or incentive to meet it had been supplied. There is even an example of one quota being met only with left shoes.

On 11/19/2021 at 10:12 AM, JW Insider said:

I would consider that their [1990s Russia] plunge into capitalism was a deliberate and successful sabotage by the USA to weaken their economy and position in the world.

This makes no sense at all to me and strikes me that you are trying to have it both ways. In the case of a communist, or socialist economy, yes, but Russia at the time was coming over ‘from the dark side,’ into democracy and free market. It was adopting the “right” system of government and it seems far more likely that the US would encourage it, if only in self-interest, just as they did with Germany and Japan after the WWII. 

Now, trying to sabotage a communist economy seems more likely to be a goal, and thus China presents a better target than Russia. Yet, there is reasonable, even thriving trade between the two countries—each constrained by neither wanting to import the ideology of the other—but growing nonetheless, so I think you overplay the sabotage case in the above instances. 

With small economies it is a different matter. Several examples are offered of the US thwarting the economies of South American economies when they chose the ‘wrong’ government, even when they did so democratically. 

You must understand that I’ve only made so much progress in my course auditing. I am like the Autocrat of the Breakfast table who tells of a fellow boarding house guest that appears to know everything there is to know about anthromorphic coal. On and on he speaks of it. But when conversation turns to bituminous coal, he strangely knows nothing. Turns out he has subscribed to one of those encyclopedias that used to come out in a series, and he had received and devoured only the A volume.

On 11/19/2021 at 3:35 PM, Matthew9969 said:

That totally nails the governing bodies attitude.

Exactly. There are no bad things happening anywhere. What are they thinking?

Didn’t I just read somewhere that reading the Drudge Report was like reading the Book of Revelation?

On 11/19/2021 at 3:11 PM, TrueTomHarley said:

Great. Just great. Think how THAT will look on his FB page, Brother Sensitive.

My initial response is to begrudge any video inserted in a comment. It’s generational, ‘talkin bout my generation,’ and doesn’t apply to younger people, who are used to them.

I ask, How much time is demanded? 2 minutes? or 2 hours? I have to click to find out. At least when JWI lays 30 pages on you, there they are. You can see at a glance that they are thirty pages.

Assuming I get past this, then I must hunt up a set of headphones unless alone, for fear others in the house may not want to hear the unknown stuff, as I myself am not sure I want to hear it.

Anyhow—at last I watched this video from College Humor, which I like a lot. But it is not really PSomH. The ding dong in the video has had nothing happen to her but identifies with calamity nonetheless. PSomH has had plenty of CSA calamity (before he became a JW, and assuming he is Butler, as many have said). Xero might not know this, as Butler revealed this long ago. Some experiences are so horrific that they warp your judgment forever more.

1 hour ago, xero said:

Reminds me of the chronic whiners.

 

Great. Just great. Think how THAT will look on his FB page, Brother Sensitive.

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

How much they are actually reduced is a matter of debate.

Just received an update notification from Robert Kennedy’s website:

“Thank You for Making My Book the #1 Overall Bestseller on Amazon!”

The book is entitled, “The Real Anthony Fauci.” I probably won’t read it. I’ve read enough of this stuff. But his website is excellent. He is among the aggregators of information I spoke of.

He is the son of Robert F Kennedy, the Senator assassinated in 1968. As an attorney he was for many years the darling of progressives for uncovering environmental dangers. Then he decided that one of those dangers was vaccines, after which he became their pariah.

30 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

Another reason is that CNN is very jealous of people like Joe Rogan who isn't even that smart (my opinion) but can garner an audience even larger than CNN among demographics younger than 65.

Rush used to say (no, I was not a regular listener, but if I was driving somewhere, I would often have him on the car radio) that the mainstream media types seethed with jealousy over Trump because he could do what they could not.

He could hold an audience at rapt attention for hours, speaking entirely extemporaneously. ‘Do you know how hard that is to do?’ Rush would say. They, in contrast, were so tedious that attention to them waned in no time at all.

By the way, he’s got his own makeshift network, which somehow snuck onto Twitter the other day. Using the Geico lizard (which I assume he has permission to do) he texted: “Save 15% on anything with Trump.”

The guy just won’t go away. To those who carry on about the ‘dignity’ of government, his conduct is deeply offensive. But to those who think such dignity was discarded long ago, it is side-splitting hilarious.

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Clever professor.

I think it is more in the line of stating a universal truth that applies everywhere.

It is seen among our own people. Nobody would ever say that being a Witness does not entail sacrifice. A legitimate concern therefore becomes how do you not undermine people’s resolve to stay steadfast and continue to make them. Hence, the constant admonition to stay “upbuilding.,” sometimes to the point where it can seem forced. Others will think that if the friends can yuk it up here and there, it serves as a relief valve to the discipline and self-sacrifice Christianity implies.