He Wore His Sunglasses Indoors For Heaven's Sake

Is that man on the cover page Roy Orbison? No, that’s James Warren Jones, ordained minister of the “Disciples of Christ” Christian Denomination, highly regarded political figure and humanitarian, and megalomaniacal mass-murderer. Despite the fact that, in retrospect, Reverend Jim Jones seems parsecs away from the type of person one would expect to be the leader of a widespread socio-political religious movement, we are forgetting that it was the 1970’s, and the Jonestown mishap was the first of its breed. Yet, anyone with brains ought to have noticed that good ol’ Jim was a little light in his loafers, right? Well, sit down, make yourself comfortable… have a glass of Kool-Aid: this is a sociological study of the unwitting adherents, the enigmatic figurehead, and their concurrent descent.

Jones was born of lowly origins in Indiana at the height of the Great Depression. It is speculated that his father belonged to the Ku Klux Klan. His mother, who raised him single

These were normal American people.

Nine hundred and thirteen: a statistic to be filed and forgotten.

His strategy as a leader was generic: to ensure that the members of his group were utterly dependant on him for their social, emotional, and material needs. Once the IRS started hounding Jones and he convinced the majority of his followers to relocate to Guyana, he took that strategy to a whole new level. If he, in fact, incorporated “brain washing” techniques into his strategy, it was quite unnecessary. He had drawn them to him initially with his charismatic persona and the promise of racial equality and religious truth, then severed their ties to the outside world. They were absolutely dependant on him for food and ‘protection against the government’. He bound them to each other and to himself with the concept of community. They had been induced to invest their money, time, and energy into the creation and maintenance of Jonestown. He systematically demolished every aspect of their autonomy, conditioning and constantly reinforcing

Some topics in this essay:
Jim Jones’, Socialist Communist, San Franciscan, Jim Jones, Klux Klan, Christian Denomination, Warren Jones, Heaven’s Sake, Roy Orbison,