Learning Lessons From The Jehova's Witnesses

[shadowed by the secret police]

I'm not a religious person but I've often observed with envy how indefatigable the Jehova's Witnesses are in their perennial pursuit to win converts to their irrational faith. They habitually roam through neighborhoods visiting people, passing out literature, trying to engage in dialogue and establish study groups. How magnificent it would be if the left would adopt such zeal! You know the Jehova's Winesses are in the neighborhood by the way they dress and how they walk in groups. You've got to admire their efforts.

[Janus]

But how many new recruits do they get? It seems that membership growth has actually been declining over the past few years so this method might not be as effective as one may think. After all, I think that political and religious attitudes must be developed over time and I would think that most people would be annoyed if they were constantly badgered by someone thrusting communist literature in their face. The dedication is certainly admirable but I think that the best approach is to provide the literature and target the section that we think will be most sympathetic to our goals rather than go around everywhere knocking on doors.

[Question everything]

people already hate communists :( the last thing we need is to have people hate us 'cause we knock on their door every 2nd week :angry: asking if they would like to buy a communist manifestio :P


But how many new recruits do they get? It seems that membership growth has actually been declining over the past few years so this method might not be as effective as one may think.

I'd probably quit, if each week I had to put up with what some of them do...

[Whitten]

go round pushing some leaflets through letter boxes if you feel it will accomplish something other than getting youself beat up by nazi or overly patriotic republicans or libertarians.

[Fawkes]

People hate Jehova's just because of the fact that they are so annoying about spreading their beliefs.

[MrDoom]

Heh, my brother fell into their lot after experiencing a brief period of mental illness. I'm still waiting for him to attempt a conversion, if he'll even associate with us anymore.

We don't need nor want blind followers joining us just because we went around in pairs shoving books in their face and preying on their ignorance and weaknesses. People's dinners get cold that way.

[shadowed by the secret police]

Yes, but people in the Third World go around organizing under worse conditions than we in the "free world" experience. In the Third World they have death squads and other evils and still they orgnanize. AmeriKa should be the organizer's heaven.

How do you know who is going to be receptive to socialism?---just by looking at them?

[RedAnarchist]

Here in Britain I don't think JW's even try anymore, and I live a few hundred yards away from one of their churches - we used to get them all the time. I don't think it's an effective method of "spreading information" about communism, as people just don't like cold calling, whether its at the door or on the phone.

[Janus]

How do you know who is going to be receptive to socialism?---just by looking at them?
No, but you have a better chance and opportunity at leftist hangouts, events, etc.

[NZ_Commie]

Classic :P

I was born and raised a jehovas witness, and sure, you are covering such large areas of territory, talking to SO many people you are bound to find SOME recpetive people. And litreture isnt always necessarily sold...its a bit of a detterant, your supposed to gauge the situation from how receptive they are.

BUT...we leftists do do this, to some extent. Maybe we are a bit more targetted about it though. Standing in the bitter cold outside a mine handing out bolshivk leaflets espousing revolution polarised workers to the revolutionary left, selling workers papers on city corners during general strikes informed the public etc etc

If anything, the left beat those nutjobs to 'evangelising'

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

I was raised one, too, and I was very good at it!

We used to do a similar sort of door-to-door work in the UK-SWP at certain times (of hightened class conflict, and only in working-class areas), and we always got a good reception. The exact [i]opposite of the one I got as a JW!

It got us nowhere, but it did break us from the old routine, and it raised our profile.

Apart from that, it was a monumental waste of time!

[Honggweilo]

Originally posted by shadowed by the secret [email protected] 29, 2007 08:02 pm
I'm not a religious person but I've often observed with envy how indefatigable the Jehova's Witnesses are in their perennial pursuit to win converts to their irrational faith. They habitually roam through neighborhoods visiting people, passing out literature, trying to engage in dialogue and establish study groups. How magnificent it would be if the left would adopt such zeal! You know the Jehova's Winesses are in the neighborhood by the way they dress and how they walk in groups. You've got to admire their efforts.
In east-groningen, going door to door that is, alot of our members do the same with our newspaper, sometime with succes, but we get the door slammed in our face also quite often :rolleyes:.

But if anything, ex-jehova's make great leafletters and rethoricans if they turned to the right cause :lol:

[Bright Banana Beard]

To Spread Leftist, we must buy package full of Communist Manfesito, other leftist book, and put it to every mailbox, they don't need to pay. We have to do that to spread about the revolutionary and we must include about the true side of imperialism. But we must set a date when to start in secretly, for right now I don't have any money but I will do this if someone would buy me the package, I will do this when the date is set to spread.

[Question everything]

I printed my edition of the computer

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/61

why not just distribute this?

[Janus]

why not just distribute this?
Sure, but it's kind of a hassle printing off dozens of copies and handing them out to random people. It's best to give them to people whom you know will read it and may not have Internet access.

[Question everything]

you're right I looked over the calculations and even printing off enough to distrube to my entire street is annoying, 390 pages, and the time to print... I might still give it a shot but maybe we should distribute single sheets instead, like that "what is communism E-zine sheet, that makes much more sense

[Janus]

but maybe we should distribute single sheets instead, like that "what is communism E-zine sheet, that makes much more sense
That's probably the better and more feasible alternative. Best thing to do is probably post them in areas where you know people will look to such as at mailboxes (if you live in an apartment complex),etc. rather than on people's homes. The latter is more likely to anger some people.

[Wanted Man]

As ddxt said, we sometimes work door-to-door with the newspaper. It's not extremely efficient, but it beats going around with completely useless leaflets, or pushing books into people's faces right away(as some people in this thread are suggesting :huh: ).

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

They once managed to give my mom a bunch of pamphlets. I think that if leftist groups had better, flashier, more convincing leaflets, like the Jehova's Witneses, that would help. Less wordy newspapers. More colorful brochures.

[seraphim]

If you really wanna annoy them next time tehy come to your house invite them in make them a cuppa let them rant on for an hour or so. Eventually they'll come out with the mirical figure, the number of places in heaven for the Jehovas! Wait a little while longer then ask 'so how many places are there for the Jehovas in heaven' and when they reply say 'well if you don't stop recruiting aren't you gonna lose your seat?' I can assure you they will never darken your door again!

[Guerrilla22]

I don't think we can learn anything from them, except how to annoy the hell out of people, get laughed at and despised by most of mainstream society.

[Coggeh]

BUT...we leftists do do this, to some extent. Maybe we are a bit more targetted about it though. Standing in the bitter cold outside a mine handing out bolshivk leaflets espousing revolution polarised workers to the revolutionary left, selling workers papers on city corners during general strikes informed the public etc etc


It doesn't have to be spontaneous , you have to create the conditions of the revolution not wait for the conditions to make themselves . Thats what defines an armchair revolutionary to all out companero of the revolution . I call on every member of Revleft to get active otherwise leave the site . "boredom is counter-revolutionary"

[freakazoid]

They once managed to give my mom a bunch of pamphlets. I think that if leftist groups had better, flashier, more convincing leaflets, like the Jehova's Witneses, that would help. Less wordy newspapers. More colorful brochures.

Yes, short and to the point.

I just recently finished reading the Communist Manifesto and I did not care for it. It is to long for our purpose. Something else is needed

[Question everything]

I know how you feel, it was pretty confusing :unsure: I think the scariest thing is 200 years ago that was how people normally talked :lol:

[Janus]

It is to long for our purpose.
The Communist Manifesto is probably one of the shortest political books out there. If you felt that it was too long then you might not wanna bother with Marx's other works.

[freakazoid]

I know how you feel, it was pretty confusing unsure.gif I think the scariest thing is 200 years ago that was how people normally talked laugh.gif

Yeah, same thing when I read either Thoreau or it was Emerson, I don't remember which person it was. Although I found Leo Tolstoy easy to read, he would repeat things in a different way so that you would understand what he was talking about.



The Communist Manifesto is probably one of the shortest political books out there. If you felt that it was too long then you might not wanna bother with Marx's other works.

While it is short it is to long for our purpose. What we need is something really short and to the point, like a brochure or a pamphlet. Something that can be handed out and the person can read and look over it in just a few minutes and get the idea of what it is that we believe.

[Janus]

What we need is something really short and to the point, like a brochure or a pamphlet.
There are many articles and brochures created by various groups for the purposes of summarizing our goals. However, if you want to study it more in depth, you have no alternative but to read some of the more detailed political works.

[freakazoid]

The purpose isn't for us to study but as a way to help others who have no idea what it is that we truly believe to learn what we believe. Also do you have links to these articles and brochures? I would greatly apreciate it. I am planning on using as much as I can in the near future. http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=60668

[manic expression]

Originally posted by [email protected] 18, 2007 07:23 am
The purpose isn't for us to study but as a way to help others who have no idea what it is that we truly believe to learn what we believe. Also do you have links to these articles and brochures? I would greatly apreciate it. I am planning on using as much as I can in the near future. http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=60668
"The Socialisation of Society" by Rosa Luxembourg is pretty short and might be a good starting point.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1918/12/20.htm

"The Principles of Communism" by Engels might be exactly what you're looking for. It answers basic questions and it's pretty easy to read. It does talk about things that have no relevance anymore, like other political parties of 1847, so you might want to leave that out.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works...11/prin-com.htm (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm)

Those are just a few off the top of my head. I think those would be good candidates for brief introductions, although the FPM/CL's essay "What is Communism?" might also be a good one, and "If America Should Go Communist" might be an interesting piece for people to read.

[freakazoid]

Thanks for the suggestions and links. :D

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Seraphim:


If you really wanna annoy them next time tehy come to your house invite them in make them a cuppa let them rant on for an hour or so. Eventually they'll come out with the mirical figure, the number of places in heaven for the Jehovas! Wait a little while longer then ask 'so how many places are there for the Jehovas in heaven' and when they reply say 'well if you don't stop recruiting aren't you gonna lose your seat?' I can assure you they will never darken your door again!

You cannot have said this, or if you did, it would have been easy for them to have responded: they believe 144,000 will go to heaven, the rest will live forever on a redeemed earth.

Bo**ocks I grant you, but it does not help if you makes stuff up about them.

[I used to be one ages ago; I should know.]

[JimFar]

Rosa wrote:


[I used to be one ages ago; I should know.]

Do tell us more. Why were you and why did you stop being a JW.

[Janus]

Also do you have links to these articles and brochures?
Yeah, here's 2 of them
Communism (http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=62027)
What is Communism? (http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=46927)

[CommonSense]

How much time have you guys put into thinking about how the media has a role in this. It is not a constant truth but a conistent imprint of impressions and half-truths that shape the minds of America. Most people that I know who dislike Jehovah's Witnesses have never a) met one, b) held a real dialogue with one, c) heard an unbiased account of them and d) know what they really believe. This happens for all things and it seems to be apart of the PC movement attacking all apsects of religion and "traditional" beliefs. If that's what you desire, then wield the flood wisely, time and time again the same people who destroy the old society get washed away in it.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Jim:


Do tell us more. Why were you and why did you stop being a JW.

My mother was one, so I had it foisted on me. I gave it up many, many years ago since I saw it was a load of rubbish; soon after I became an atheist and revolutionary.

But the experience inured me to all forms of mysticism, including that found in Hegel, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky (among others).

[JimFar]

Rosa wrote:


My mother was one, so I had it foisted on me. I gave it up many, many years ago since I saw it was a load of rubbish; soon after I became an atheist and revolutionary.

But the experience inured me to all forms of mysticism, including that found in Hegel, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky (among others).

What convinced you that it was a load of rubbish? After all, there are lots of folk who manage to live out their entire lives without questioning such notions. You say that your experiences with the JWs inured you against all forms of mysticism, but it seems to me that for most people, when they become dissatisfied with one brand of mysticism, they simply switch to a different brand. What convinced you that all brands were bad, and to be abjured?