I was also informed that I should send an order for magazines for the sermon. The Watchtower never incurs losses in connection with its publications, since it has a secure market. With each new book, each new essay, it was announced at the Kingdom Hall, and each member bought it for himself and for his friends. At the same time, not one copy was bought per family, which would have been four or five times less profitable for The Watchtower, but one for each, including children. As for the magazines, the system was even more cost-effective. Almost all of the Witnesses subscribed to The Watchtower and Awake!, and if their income was insufficient, The Watchtower encouraged every activist to order sets of magazines for which they had to pay in advance. Whether they were sold or not did not matter, for it was the preacher (the seller) who was losing, not the Watchtower. Hence the need to sell their copies as soon as possible, because it was inadmissible to offer old magazines. Thus, it was not uncommon for activists to accumulate dozens of copies that they had not been able to sell to get their money back, but for which The Watchtower had received in full a few weeks or months earlier. Since each branch of the organization bought magazines for itself in advance, it sometimes had more copies than could be distributed among its members, and then resorted to a system called the "magazine tour." This happened on a weekday, when a sermon was not read, but everything had a completely commercial purpose. The magazines were sold to members at a discounted price so that everyone could buy them, and then they were offered to their homes without a second visit. According to the members who took part in the "tour", in this way it was possible to sell a good hundred copies in a very short time.

Such a pyramidal system of selling publications was the most unfair, because the piety and naivety of the weakest were most exploited. In the first place, The Watchtower sold its publications to associations at prices and in quantities that it found suitable and reasonable; In turn, the association, which needed to return its money, sold this number of copies to its members. Naturally, he succeeded, and sooner or later he reimbursed all his expenses, even if he resorted to a "magazine tour". Finally, the preachers tried to accommodate them, but their success or failure meant little, for the Watchtower's economic interests had already been respected.

In order to better organize this entire system of production and commerce, the Watch Tower Society has various methods at its disposal. First of all, the payment of its employees is minimal: food and an apartment plus a small amount "for pocket expenses". Their situation is similar to that of medieval serf slaves: payment for work in kind without any of the social benefits inherent in the twentieth century.

Because The Watchtower prepares and prints its own works, its income is very high and is reinvested at great profit.

At the same time, the pyramidal structure of the Watchtower makes it easier to have complete control over the sale. The minister who is engaged in literature encourages the members to multiply their monthly orders, being himself encouraged to do so by the elder or senior in the congregation, who in turn is encouraged by the "itinerant minister" who regularly attends the assemblies.

At group meetings of the youth each Thursday, they were taught various techniques, such as putting their foot in the door or complaining about the cold or heat to be able to enter the house 9. There were also monthly sales of literature at a reduced price, which had to be carried from house to house.

A Wandering Minister10

I mentioned the "itinerant minister" above. Indeed, I met him first. His arrival was an event for the community. They began to prepare for it many weeks in advance, arranging so that the itinerant minister could stay with various brothers, for whom it was a kind of privilege, or go to the preaching with different brothers. He usually spent one week at a local association, during which he exhorted him to call for new activists and sell more and more publications in this way. He checked the accounts of the community, and from 1975 onwards, those who were to be made priests or deacons were presented to him.

I remember that people usually felt a reverence for him close to idolatry, relating, however, not so much to him as to the mission that he carried out. The first time Janie spoke to me about the itinerant minister, she spoke with such admiration that it seemed to me that it must be a very exceptional being. When I met him a few weeks later, he seemed to me like any other presbyter I had ever known, and I could not understand what was so special about him. Even today, I cannot explain it otherwise than as a cult of personality fomented by the Watchtower for the purposes of commerce and marketing: to use us as cheap performers and convinced that we have nothing better to do.

Chapter 5

Theocratic Organization