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I saw an advertisement for this program coming up on the History Channel Saturday night at 8 EST.
This Jim Jones and the goings on in Jonestown have always interested me. I have always wondered, did they all really commit suicide or were they forced, at the time it was said that Jones himself tried to get away and was forced by some of the followers to drink, who knows.
Because of the bizarre religion I was raised in, cults have always been of interest to me, the psychology behind all the inner workings, the way they control their people and why some people are evidently MORE vulnerable then others.
I thought there might be some here in the History forum who had a similar interest. This show says they have interviews with survivors that will shed some light on what really happened there.
I was a child when this happened but I can remember being horrified. I didn't know what the word suicide meant and clearly my parents didn't stop to think I was too young to be watching the news at such my age. I remember seeing the aerial shots of the people laying face down on the ground, their bodies bloated, even children.
It was Bush's fault. He mixed all of the cocktails. Explains why he quit drinking.
And Cheney's black ops helicopter squadron sprayed the clearing with gunfire to ensure that there were no survivors. After all, several of the cult members were privy to the location of the secret UFO base in the Amazon jungle.
The best movie on this was with Powers Booth - made well over a decade ago. Check it out if you can. Awesome performance by Booth. (Also Ned Beatty is in it if I remember correctly).
Paradise lost? Hardly. Just another Socialist Utopia.
Quote:
He (Jim Jones) began a struggle for racial equality and social justice, which he dubbed apostolic socialism...
He claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, the Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine and performed supposed miracle healings to attract new converts...
Some followers obeyed Jones' instructions to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Flavor Aid...
Jones had borrowed the term "revolutionary suicide" from Black Panther leader Huey Newton who had argued "the slow suicide of life in the ghetto" ought to be replaced by revolutionary struggle that would end only in victory (socialism and self determination) or revolutionary suicide (death).
Living in a commune at the same time as JJ massacre, and always having a vat of kool-aid on the kitchen counter for the kids, we smugly said to each other, "oh, that could NEVER happen here".
Oh yes it could. We were the lucky ones, because it didn't happen to us. And our commune is no more, and I thank God for that. Literally.
The best movie on this was with Powers Booth - made well over a decade ago. Check it out if you can. Awesome performance by Booth. (Also Ned Beatty is in it if I remember correctly).
I am looking forward to them interviewing people who actually lived there. I have seen the movie you refer to, it was VERY interesting.
A very tragic story indeed. It's really very difficult to comprehend why people are drawn into such cults. I mean I can understand it at an intellectual level but emotionally it's still hard to come to grips with - and this is even after personally knowing (though admittedly not very well) a victum of such an incident.
The daughter of a family friend was one of the suicides of the Heaven's Gate cult back in 1997. The girl was a bridesmaid at my cousin's wedding and her mom is aunt's best friend. Very tragic indeed and so very difficult to comprehend.
Groups like these cults tend to attract folks that are "lost" and with little apparent sense of self-worth. As I said, at an intellectual level I understand how such people get drawn in, but emotionally it's so very hard to grasp. I mean the friend of my cousin's was a very nice girl - quiet and shy and I can't help but feel a large degree of rage at anyone who manipulates people like that.
The fact is, there are plenty of evil folks out there looking to take advantage of people like my cousin's friend, folks who are "lost" and looking for someone to make them complete. In some ways I guess, it's not too different from women who continue to remain in an abusive relationship.
Of course, I can't really understand why women remain in that kind of relationship either, so what do I know.
A very tragic story indeed. It's really very difficult to comprehend why people are drawn into such cults. I mean I can understand it at an intellectual level but emotionally it's still hard to come to grips with - and this is even after personally knowing (though admittedly not very well) a victum of such an incident.
The daughter of a family friend was one of the suicides of the Heaven's Gate cult back in 1997. The girl was a bridesmaid at my cousin's wedding and her mom is aunt's best friend. Very tragic indeed and so very difficult to comprehend.
Groups like these cults tend to attract folks that are "lost" and with little apparent sense of self-worth. As I said, at an intellectual level I understand how such people get drawn in, but emotionally it's so very hard to grasp. I mean the friend of my cousin's was a very nice girl - quiet and shy and I can't help but feel a large degree of rage at anyone who manipulates people like that.
The fact is, there are plenty of evil folks out there looking to take advantage of people like my cousin's friend, folks who are "lost" and looking for someone to make them complete. In some ways I guess, it's not too different from women who continue to remain in an abusive relationship.
Of course, I can't really understand why women remain in that kind of relationship either, so what do I know.
Ken
Sadly I believe that some people are more likely to fall for such a story then others. I sprang from the womb a skeptic, I believe none of what I hear and only half of what I see.
For some reason the people at Jonestown have always been of particular interest to me.
I remember the Heavens Gate people as well, I did alot of reading about them as well, when it all happened. Their leader was a real wingnut and him leading those poor people to their deaths was pretty awful.
People need to learn to question when someone tells you things like cults do. I read that the man who was the leader of Heavens Gate, had himself castrated because while he was married to a woman, he had homosexual urges which he felt was sinful and unnatural, castration seemed like that best alternative. How do you close your eyes enough so something like that becomes a reasonable action.
Sadly I believe that some people are more likely to fall for such a story then others. I sprang from the womb a skeptic, I believe none of what I hear and only half of what I see.
People need to learn to question when someone tells you things like cults do.
Yup.
Everyone should have a built-in, automatic cr*p detector.
Ken
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