Truth & Lies: Jonestown, Paradise Town

Jim Jones' cult: The Peoples' Temple and their "utopia" Jonestown was shocking and sad. I can't say I blame the people who followed him because, during that period, being integrated with other backgrounds was looked down upon especially in the South. He went against what at the time were societal norms and brought African Americans, Asians, Whites, etc together as equals. Pushing for an integrated society was a very good idea but after that, it just went downhill. 

I kind of feel like he preyed on vulnerable people. I think when people are in a position where they feel "lost" they turn to things they believe as a sort of comfort. For a lot of people, it may be religion, and seeing that he was a well-spoken person especially since during his time, the peace movement was a big thing, he used that to his advantage which made his church grow more and more. 

As things went on, things got worse and worse. He became a lot more aggressive and even beat his followers for disobeying him. While this happened, he'd find enjoyment in those beatings. He'd laugh as his "children" were being hurt. Then when the idea of Jonestown came to life, things got even worse. 

He didn't let his followers interact with each other, there wasn't a lot of food to feed the people who moved to Guyana and the people were fed up and wanted to leave. But when people decided they wanted to leave, he'd threaten them by saying he'd kill them if they ever left Jonestown. The shittiest thing I believe he did was when he did suicide drills. He'd give his followers kool-aid and he'd tell them it was poisoned to see if they were loyal to the cause. It was sad seeing the ex-followers reactions later on. They were obviously scared but they couldn't flat out say it because they didn't know what Jim Jones was going to do to them. 

The whole situation was messed up. The build-up towards the end was so eerie. There was a U.S. Representative who actually did things named Leo Joseph Ryan who went to Jonestown to make sure the people were ok. He went with 2 other people to film and capture the living conditions at Jonestown. When he got there people seemed to be fine but they were far from it. he didn't know this until after his tour of Jonestown. People were speaking out against Jim Jones and someone wrote him an anonymous letter saying they wanted to leave. When he helped people leave Jonestown, Jim Jones didn't protest but the people who went with Mr. Ryan were scared that Jim Jones would go for them which he did. He sent a truck with men in the back holding AR-15s who shot at the people trying to leave Jonestown. 5 people were killed, Ryan, the two people who went with him, and 2 victims of Jonestown. More people got shot at and luckily survived this incident. After this incident, he knew he wouldn't get away with killing an important U.S. figure so he decided to take innocent people with him. He gave his followers 2 options, either drink the poisonous kool-aid or get shot in the back. 913 people were killed and 200 of the victims were children. Such a sad situation. Watching the documentary and seeing footage of the people living in Jonestown made me so sad. You're just left there thinking if there was a way in which things could've been different.