Q422 Summary

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

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FBI Catalogue: Unidentified Individuals Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled in part

Date cues on tape: None (made during the life of Jonestown between September 1977 and November 1978)

People named:

Public figures/National and international names:

Bible verses cited: None

Summary:

(Note: This tape was transcribed by Vicki Perry. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)

An unidentified woman in Jonestown reads an article which excoriates rock n’ roll and other manifestations of pop culture, and which laments the increasing lack of appreciation for opera and classical music. The origin of the article is also unknown, although a note accompanying the tape describes it as “Soviet Journal.” While the article includes some of the rhetoric of other Eastern bloc nations which filled other readings from the Jonestown radio room, the subject of the article is more cultural and less overtly political than most. In addition, since Jim Jones is not the reader, there is less commentary.

The article describes and then characterizes the purpose of rock n’ roll – in the persona of the Rolling Stones and more specifically, Mick Jagger – as bringing about “soothing passivity” among the young. The glorification of sex, alcohol and drugs in modern music numbs youth to the need for social and political change and even to the virtues of honest labor. It accomplishes what propaganda is designed to accomplish: it “attracts the imagination of young people like a magnet and which demoralizes their creative energies, reverting them into an abstract, enhanced safe protest. … Only this kind of protest does not threaten the pillars of the western world. The western world is not afraid of a physical assemblage as free individuals. What it does fear is a unification of individuals into a revolutionary force.”

In this way, the article continues, “the phenomenon of pop music itself has become a powerful tool for confusing the younger generation.… In this sense, the revolutionary Rolling Stones are a godsend for western propagandists.”

The article extrapolates from rock music to other aspects of pop culture, from glossy photo magazines that lionize celebrities to horoscopes, all of which is accompanied by the unrealistic desires and expectations of advertising. The concluding message is one that would find resonance with the Jonestown community: “The main aim of advertising is not to popularize the commodity, but to condition mentality, desire and need.”

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 6/25/79

In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.

On June 6, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B100-27. This tape was found to contain the following:

Discussion of Western Propaganda (phonetic) by unidentified female individual who was introduced by JIM JONES. The discussion specifically concerned MICK JAGGER, The Rolling Stones, and Pop Culture.

Differences with FBI Summary:

The summary is accurate – although the male making the short introduction may not be Jim Jones – and meets the FBI’s purposes.

Tape originally posted January 2012