Many people have heard the phrase “drinking the Kool-aid” but few actually know where the term comes from. The story of Jonestown and the Peoples Temple is a complex one with many different causes and can sometimes be a tough topic to learn about. Nonetheless, there is much to be learned from it, as it shows the dangers of putting too much blind loyalty into a person or cause.
The story of Jonestown began in 1955 when a man named Jim Jones Started a Religion called Wings of Deliverance. The group was very active with civil rights and equality, which is something that some groups at the time looked down on and also part of the reason why Jones started his own church. Jones and his wife were the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black boy, and because of his advocacy for racial equality Jones was appointed as chair of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission in 1961 (Ksander).
The church, now known as Peoples Temple, started to gain a following and continued to be very active in the community, starting a soup kitchen and caring for the elderly. However, as time went on negative reports on Peoples Temple started being released. There were many saying it cut people off from their families and isolated them in a cult-like way, not allowing them to leave (Wunrow). Because of the bad publicity, Jones planned a mass exodus to a settlement in Guyana. He sent several members to rent out over 3,500 acres of land in Guyana and a small group of members established themselves there. In 1977 he and the rest of the congregation commuted there, isolating themselves further and verifying their cult status even more (WGBH American Experience, a)
Things in Guyana were much different than they had been in the States. The settlement had armed guards posted at all times and only ever let people out to conduct business for Peoples Temple. Jones’ control increased more and more as he tightened his chokehold on the members (Nelson).A woman named Deborah Layton managed to escape from Jonestown before the harrowing end and in talking about life there she described something known as “White Night”. “Jones began ‘White Night’ drills in an attempt to further weaken our will. A siren would come over the loud speakers at 1 or 2 in the morning waking us from our abysmal sleep. Jones’ voice screaming ‘hurry hurry children, run to the safety of the Pavilion.’ We could [hear] gun fire in the jungle, so we knew there were mercenaries out there. No one knew that in fact Jones had different young men on different nights — unbeknownst to each other shooting off their guns. We would be kept hungry, thirsty, tired, defeated in this Pavilion until Jones determined we were safe again” (Layton).
Over the course of a year after moving to Guyana, things only continued to worsen. A U.S. Congressman named Leo Joseph Ryan had heard several accounts that Guyana was not the utopia that Jones and some members claimed it was. He and a few of his entourage decided to visit the settlement and see what the circumstances were. The next day, as Ryan and his crew were preparing to fly out on the air strip, a member of Peoples Temple shot and killed them all. This lead to the final events in the settlement at Guyana, and to what would come to be known as the Jonestown Massacre (WGBH American Experience, b)
In this event on November 18, 1978, Jones gathered everyone in the community into the pavilion and explained to them what was happening in his own twisted way. He told them that the outside world had turned against them and was going to come in and take their lives from them. He insisted that the only way out was to end their lives on their own terms. He explained that the Kool-aid was laced with cyanide and they would all drink it as a “revolutionary act”. (McCormick).
After the mass suicide event at Jonestown, an audio recording emerged that captured nearly the entirety of the occasion. Throughout the tape you hear many voices speaking up thanking Jim Jones for giving them peace and saving them. Most of the voices heard are in support of Jim Jones, but there are a few who speak out against him. One particular woman named Christine Miller argued with him that “as long as there’s life, there’s hope. I look about at the babies and I think they deserve to live.” However, her cries for a more logical solution were drowned out by Jones and his followers. Jones goes as far as saying “Without me, life has no meaning. I’m the best thing you’ll ever have,” prompting more cheers from his followers (McCormick).
Christine Miller isn’t the only one to ever speak out against Jim Jones. Deborah Layton, mentioned earlier, escaped from Jonestown by pretending to be in full support of Jones, gaining his trust. When Jones sent Layton to Georgetown to chaperone a youth group she escaped and moved back to the United States in hopes to get someone’s attention before something drastic happened at Jonestown. (Cova). She penned an affidavit exposing the proceedings at Jonestown and gained a great deal of attention, but it was too little too late, and the event she was afraid of (the mass suicide) took place.
It may seem absolutely preposterous that almost 1000 people followed a preacher to Guyana and ultimately ended their own lives because of what he told them, but that’s not how it started at all. As mentioned previously it started as something that people joined to engage in service and to be a part of a community. “Jonestown [was] a living and vibrant community with children who played, adults who worked on the land, care homes for the elderly and entertainment. But Jones had problems that most members knew nothing about. He became increasingly paranoid and irrational, due in part to heavy drug use” (Skoglund). The followers didn’t see the negative things going on, and chose to follow their leader to the bitter end. After all, pure obedience and loyalty is something that is frequently linked with success in movies, media, scripture, and in the home. Most often kids are raised on the fundamentals that following their parents with exactness will get them farthest in life. While this is true to an extent, applying that type of of allegiance in other areas can be detrimental and sometimes dangerous.
“Despite a popular conception of governmental and corporate crime as stemming either from rampant greed throughout the ranks, or from the solitary crimes of a few misfits, in my experience unethical behavior in organizations almost always is caused by belief in and too much loyalty to a “great leader” who turns out to be morally compromised” (Irwin). The members of Peoples Temple were typically hard-working people looking for something that would bring them fulfillment. Because of this, they joined Peoples Temple and followed Jones unwaveringly. However, Jones was not the great man that he claimed he was. He was deceitful and narcissistic, but since the members followed blindly and without question he was able beguile them further
There are a myriad of other stories about people following a certain leader into violent or foolish circumstances. A great number of religious movements dating back hundreds of years have incited violence based on what their leaders or scriptures have told them. It’s something that is still prevalent in modern times, with people committing heinous acts of terrorism in the name of their beliefs. Mass suicides, like the one that happened at Jonestown, have also happened in the past. One cult called Heaven’s Gate committed mass suicide so that they could “leave the earth through their suicides so that their souls could go on a journey aboard a spaceship” (Umansky). Rarely do any of these instances make any logical sense to people looking in, but the members often use fanciful explanations to rationalize things that don’t make sense. This is why confirmation bias plays such a huge role in cults such as Peoples Temple.
Confirmation bias is when a person looks at evidence only in a light that supports what they currently believe. It’s a large reason why many people are able to rationalize following certain religions and political movements even when there is ample evidence against them. In Jonestown it was no different. The members joined the cult and from then on were in complete support of it, no matter what negative reports were put out. “These types of belief systems are coherent and logically consistent when you are inside them. It is not until you step outside the group and gain a different reference point that the coherence and logic vanishes” (Shermer). Had people taken a step back and looked at Peoples Temple objectively, they may have seen the damaging parts of it and gotten out before it was too late.
In current times it’s easier than ever to access information on a plethora of subjects such as religion, politics, and government agencies. If individuals can take a step back and look at all of the information with an open mind and a fair share of critical thinking, incidents like the Jonestown Massacre can be limited or even avoided completely (Crocket). Furthermore, on a smaller scale, applying the same reasoning to all aspects of life will keep people grounded in things that are beneficial and healthful to them and everyone around them. Before following a cause and “drinking the Kool-aid”, consider reading the label first.
References
Cova, A. D. (1998, November 18). Twenty years after Jonestown, a survivor looks back. Retrieved March 20, 2017, from http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/guyana/survivor.htm
Crocket, L. W. (2016, December 29). The Importance of Teaching Critical Thinking. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/the-importance-of-teaching-critical-thinking
Irwin, J. (2014, December 17). Loyalty to a Leader Is Overrated, Even Dangerous. Retrieved March 21, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2014/12/loyalty-to-a-leader-is-overrated-even-dangerous
Ksander, Y. (2007, June 25). Jim Jones. Retrieved March 15, 2017, from http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/jim-jones/
Layton, D. (2014, February 18). IamA Jonestown survivor/whistle blower. I was a trusted aide to Jim Jones and am the author of Seductive Poison. AMA! • r/IAmA. Retrieved March 13, 2017, from https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1y9f2s/iama_jonestown_survivorwhistle_blower_i_was_a/cfixab0/
McCormick, M. (1998). “Suicide Tape Transcript”. Retrieved March 13, 2017, from http://employees.oneonta.edu/downinll/mass_suicide.htm
Nelson, S. (Director). (2006). Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple[Transcript]. United States: Fireflight Media Inc.
Shermer, M. S. (2008, November 18). Powerful pull of belief. Retrieved March 22, 2017, from http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/18/opinion/oe-shermer18
Skoglund, A. (2014, October). 35 years after Jonestown – two survivors speak out. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=61692
Umansky, N. (2013, November 20). 9 Freakiest Mass Murder-Suicides that Will Leave You Stunned. Retrieved March 22, 2017, from http://www.oddee.com/item_98772.aspx
WGBH American Experience (a). Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/jonestown-guyana/
WGBH American Experience (b). Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/jonestown-bio-leo-ryan
Wunrow, R. (2014, August 25). The psychological massacre: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple: An Investigation. Retrieved March 15, 2017, from http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29478