History Channel: Jim Jones- Paradise Lost: The Mass Murders in Jonestown

Source:The History Channel- Reverend Jim Jones: the leader of The People's Temple in San Francisco, California and Jonestown in Guyana.

“Jonestown, (November 18, 1978), was the location of the mass murder-suicide of members of the California-based Peoples Temple cult at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones, in Jonestown agricultural commune, Guyana. The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 who were age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history… 

Originally from Britannica, but the link was deleted.

“Docudrama, “Jim Jones’ town – Paradise lost,” a gripping look at an abominable cult’s final four days culminating in one of the most infamous mass murders on record. Some suicides, yes—but the simple, ugly reality is that these men, women, and little children were brutally murdered, through mental and physical coercion. Consider the body discovered of the woman with nearly every joint in her body yanked apart in a desperate attempt to escape the grasp of cult thugs poisoning her. Guyana’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. C. Leslie Mootoo, accompanied the teams that counted the dead hours after the massacre. He found fresh needle marks at the back of the left shoulder blades of 80-90 percent of the victims he examined. Others had been shot or strangled. Some of you may have this to compare with the images presented, or reported by some witless film critic, in Director Stanley Nelson’s, “Jonestown: Life and Death of the People’s Temple.” This stark contrast of a film winds down, featuring some poignant music accompanying a narrative of “The Final Note,” written by a doomed cult member—either Dick Tropp or Marceline Jones–on the day of the slaughter of these 913 Americans.”

From the History Channel 

I’ve blogged about this before, but the People’s Temple in the most positive sense and what its legacy is, is a collection of lost souls, who for whatever reason or reasons weren’t making it in mainstream America and were lost. And looking for a direction and a leader to lead them to let’s say the promise land and end their pain and suffering. And to a certain extent and the good side of Jim Jones was that leader that could show people what meaningful life is.

The people of Jonestown thought Jim Jones was the person to show them how to create a world where there wouldn’t be anymore suffering and where all people would live a positive life. Without suffering and where people would live off of each other and live off of the land and literally take care of each other which is socialism at its best. But the problem with the People’s Temple or later Jonestown, is that it was led by Jim Jones.

Jim Jones had a dictatorial evil side to him that was about making people completely dependent on him for their survival. And wanted people to only do his will and serve him. Which is a common theme of dictators, because they are people who believe in absolute power. Which is all about what being a dictator is. Someone who wants to centralize all of the power with them self. And not delegating power to their deputies and people they are supposed to serve. Which is a big reason why Jonestown ended in such tragedy. 

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on WordPress.