Senior Citizen Servitude

[Grace Valerie Claire]

4 hours ago, waysider said:

Yes. There was a huge push around the time of the bicentennial. (1975) Supposedly, the communists were plotting to invade us. In FellowLaborers, we had an emergency meeting where we physically destroyed the mimeograph  plates used for the state newsletter (so the enemy couldn't get hold of them and know our identities). We built a root cellar in the side of the hill behind the Ohio BRC. to store food stuffs. We had our own rather large garden plot where we raised vegetables for the groups' consumption. There was a lot of other similar activity. Wierwille had supposedly gotten revelation that something big was about to happen. Of course, the real truth was that Wierwille was reacting to information he was getting directly from extremist groups, such as Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society. Ultimately, our collective believing was effective enough to stave off the evil hoards.  (Does that remind you of anyone?... Hint: the Seekers)

Way, I used your link to look up the Seekers. I never heard of that group before.  Thanks for the information!!

[Bolshevik]

11 hours ago, T-Bone said:

 

Great posts, Waysider !

wierwille was an opportunist (among other things  ) – and was prone to exploit circumstances for his own benefit – in the context of that time, the cold war was the prevalent political atmosphere (the cold war was approximately from 1947 up to 1991…we were WOWs in bicentennial year (1975) – and got such fat heads from wierwille saying we saved the country from being overthrown    !

wasn't wierwille great at blowing "holy" smoke up your a$$

fast forward a few years - remember the movie "Red Dawn"  it came out in 1984 and when we were corps Lightbearers in Chicago in ‘85 I think it was someone local who was corps, had Red Dawn on VHS and played it for us to psyche us up for outreach.

oddly enough I kinda understand where wierwille may have been coming from – if I put myself in the shoes of a cult leader (yikes - now i have stink-foot !). Sometimes war can stimulate the economy (World War II is often credited with bringing our country out of The Great Depression), and fear (whether grounded or not) can stimulate a buying frenzy for essential goods – and even nowadays you can bet a lot of preppers are always ready for World War III…and when you’re talking fear -  I think wierwille wrote the book on fear…

…well…probably plagiarized most of it  ….all kidding aside, though he may have been incompetent academic-wise – but he most definitely was street-smart in how to manipulate folks by fear! So he used the fear of the cold war escalating to sell folks on the urgency of the times – and to motivate people to up their involvement (translation: “now more than ever, we need more of your time, money and resources”) .

 

If you consult the anals of history (that’s a$$holes with a wierwille-centric point of view) you will find it’s always been the prayers…the commitment…the stand of WOWs, Corps, Fellow Laborers, and name-whatever-program-du-jour you want, that have saved our country from takeovers by communists, wrong-seed bunch, Illuminati…..ya know…things would have worked out a whole lot better if I had just heeded Jesus’ words in Matthew 7 – I could have avoided my life being taken over by a cult leader for 12 years.  

Matthew 6 also says to seek something.   So there's a goal in mind.  

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there was a "baseline fear" that was totally reasonable.  The Soviets were a real threat.  Preserving the Nation and culture are important?

Wierwille hyped/exaggerated the fear and gave a solution.

I can only relate post-9/11.  We had to check the local state-funded university for possible materials that a terrorist might use.  So the joke became, as we opened each drawer and cabinet in every room, was to look inside, appear very concerned, and say "Nope, no terrorists in here, next drawer" *marks clipboard* . . . It did remind me of looking for debil spurts.

 Matthew 7 says to be watch out, Matthew 6 says to seek.  Maybe mixing those up is the technique VPW used?

[Rocky]

1 hour ago, Bolshevik said:

Matthew 6 also says to seek something.   So there's a goal in mind.  

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there was a "baseline fear" that was totally reasonable.  The Soviets were a real threat.  Preserving the Nation and culture are important?

Wierwille hyped/exaggerated the fear and gave a solution.

I can only relate post-9/11.  We had to check the local state-funded university for possible materials that a terrorist might use.  So the joke became, as we opened each drawer and cabinet in every room, was to look inside, appear very concerned, and say "Nope, no terrorists in here, next drawer" *marks clipboard* . . . It did remind me of looking for debil spurts.

 Matthew 7 says to be watch out, Matthew 6 says to seek.  Maybe mixing those up is the technique VPW used?

To keep from allowing the Military-Industrial Complex to atrophy, government propaganda strongly suggested that fear was "totally reasonable." In retrospect, and examining historical records, the fear of attack (by force of military might) from the USSR was overblown as Soviet leadership also feared possible M.A.D. outcomes. But as to Kruschev's threats to attack from within... that's been shown -- especially within the last two years -- to be completely reasonable.

[Bolshevik]

4 hours ago, Rocky said:

To keep from allowing the Military-Industrial Complex to atrophy, government propaganda strongly suggested that fear was "totally reasonable." In retrospect, and examining historical records, the fear of attack (by force of military might) from the USSR was overblown as Soviet leadership also feared possible M.A.D. outcomes. But as to Kruschev's threats to attack from within... that's been shown -- especially within the last two years -- to be completely reasonable.

Ok I think I gotcha.

Wierwille was playing on already generated fear.  He was not big enough make it himself.  But he could twist the current structure of the day.

Hilter, for example, did the same thing.  He didn't invent fear or hate of the Jews.  It was already there in the culture.