On the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre, let's remind ourselves of what and how it happened, and the possibility of it happening again.
This is an introduction to a short series on the Jonestown Massacre of 1978.
Jim Jones: credit APPHOTO
True believers
“Drinking the Kool-Aid.”
How many times have you heard that phrase? There is a dictionary definition for it:
To support or believe in something in a blindly enthusiastic way
We've all met people who fit this definition: a true believer in a cause or idea, even though it would probably end in tears.
So where does the phrase come from?
On 18 November 1978, the Rev Jim Jones ordered over 900 Peoples Temple members to commit suicide by drinking a Kool-Aid-like drink laced with potassium cyanide.
Today, 18 November 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the event.
The Jonestown massacre was, before 9/11, the largest single incident of intentional civilian death in American history. The death toll of over 900 people included many children.
In many ways, the Jonestown massacre marked the end of the idealism of the 1960s and the radicalism of the '70s. It ushered in the cultural change of the 1980s to greater conservatism and materialism. Revealingly, the Peoples Temple was admired by leftwing icons like Angela Davis and Harvey Milk and had the support of groups like the Black Panthers.
This affinity with the Black Panthers eventually meant that two two-thirds of Jonestown’s victims were Black.
Member of Peoples Temple at 1977 rally in San Francisco
In the next three posts we will examine:
- Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
- The rise of a cult
- The Jonestown Massacre, and
- Cult behaviour and its dangers
References
https://criminal.media/jim-jones-and-the-jonestown-massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
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