#tldr: nights comes out as a postmodernist

[rodeodeparis]

recently read a book about peoples temple/jonestown/jim jones here are thoughts etc

for obvious reasons this story always really related to me & my experiences. i've been interested in looking up high-demand groups or just very stringent political ideologies people get themselves caught up in for whatever reason i guess as a way to understand how i grew up.

peoples temple always really resonated because, even though it's always compared to stuff like charles manson's cult, peoples temple had a good public standing, and members were attracted both by their real needs and by their best qualities.  a good portion of those who ended up in jonestown were elderly, widowed black american women who escaped jim crow laws only to live on meager pensions in redlined districts. they came to jonestown because they would be guaranteed the full-time care they needed but were barely able to scrape together back in the states. that's just one example of what peoples temple was to those they served (and all the more reason jones was able to prey on them). peoples temple members who weren't destitute usually wanted a better world through socialism.

but i don't think that this squared with the peoples temple being a cult for most people. today, the popular perception of jones' victims is that they were "brainwashed" and had no choice over their actions, and phrases like "don't drink the kool-aid" reduce what happened to some sort of frivolous joke. there's several conspiracy theories that either the jonestown deaths were instigated by the cia (because the biggest concern of american intelligence at the time was a few random citizens establishing a socialist commune in another country; worth mentioning that the black panthers championed this theory after the events unfolded) or that jones was cia or fbi himself and jonestown was a part of mk-ultra or something similar (you'd think they'd keep something like that more secret, no?), which diminishes those deaths to spectacle even further.

for all i know, jones could've been cia, but does it really matter? peoples temple was a leftist group that appealed to people by operating on christian and leftist principles no matter how you slice it. whether or not jones was serious or it was all just a big conspiracy doesn't erase that it happened and it was real to those who believed in and were served by it. even more, remembering the members of peoples temple primarily through their affiliation with the group and their being victim to jim jones, whether it's out of love or hate, is an affront to their memory.

what draws people to theories like this is a simple, set belief in the way the world works based on personal experience. in this case, it's like something like an opposite of the just-world theory. though that sort of thinking often comes from some sort of real fear, it can just as easily break people down. (that's one of the main points where it ties to my experience - both my parents and a guy i met at a leftist group who i had to explain to that middle eastern jews exist were like this.) the peoples temple really did a lot of good - how could an organization like that not be involved in something so horrible without the involvement of some third party? even if they're still responsible for spreading conspiracy, i don't blame the black panthers for taking that position. it hurts to be taken advantage of like this. but this is also why jones' followers often stuck with him - no matter how much they'd detest the demands put on him, it's all for the cause. none of this would've happened if the us cared more about its own poor citizens and citizens of color. something else - the only other option - seemed better than nothing.

in reality, no idea, mindset, or way of life, even if it has evidence behind it, will absolutely save. nothing's perfect and there will always be problems. some ideas are more exploitative than others, sure, but there's bound to be exploitation in every word of something if you look hard enough. trying to find out which is the best is like chasing your own tail. max stirner said something along the lines of, "i believe in socialism, but not sacred socialism", and i think this is what he meant.

i don't know. it's really sad that this is the sort of thing that's happened to this event. it's just some sensational true crime tale or bullet point to serve whatever agenda now. i don't doubt that most of the laity being black and/or poor had a lot to do with it. it's not the first thing like this to be turned into shock value and it won't be the last, but still...