Once upon a time, not long ago, we had friends of varying religions and political views with whom we could disagree respectfully. We would have lively debates, then hug each other and go have dinner together. Tragically, those days seem to have passed with Covid19. That was when fast friends stopped talking for good, family members stopped seeing each other, and, despite the worn-out cliché “We’re all in this together,” our country became more the divided States than the United States of America.
But really, is this a big shock? King Solomon once said there’s nothing new under the sun. This has certainly happened before. I believe it happened in Jonestown.
What I have to say is not to point fingers at any political party. The reality is, there are extreme views on all sides. This goes far beyond politics, religions or races, but each one has its part to play in a pandemic that goes much deeper than Covid19. Nevertheless, I know that what I have to say will probably offend some people. My hope, though, is that the sting of my message will serve to cleanse a very infected wound to a place where it can begin to heal. I only ask that as you read this, you’ll open your mind to another point of view. If you still disagree with me, the world won’t stop turning, I promise. In fact, if you’re nice, I might even hug you and buy you dinner.
Let’s rewind the infamous Jonestown death tape back to the fateful Saturday evening of November 18, 1978. Within an hour on that night, 918 lives were lost. Mothers poisoned their own babies, guards stood by to insure no one escaped, and people were convinced all of this was for “the greater good.” I still can’t get through that tape without crying. I’m a mother, and imagining my baby as he screamed for his life still hurts my heart. Those children were the unintended victims. They didn’t have choices. In fact, at that point, most of the adults in that pavilion had lost any semblance of choice. It was either taking the poison or get killed, and there were some who were killed.
How did it get to this? It seemed to be such a life-changing place for some people. Like anyone who finds themselves in an abusive relationship, it didn’t happen overnight. Initially, there seemed to be benefits. It was a process. Let’s look at some of the tactics Jones used to systematically destroy so many lives.
For starters, his motives were never pure. Nevertheless, no one could say he wasn’t smart and cunning. He studied his craft early on in life, and was playing pastor since childhood when he was first invited to a Pentecostal church in Indiana. He liked the attention. He liked the idea of having control over a group. He was honing his skills even then, and he got good!
As an adult, he still played pastor. He threw in false miracles for good measure. By the time he stomped on the Bible, even some of the most devoted Christians stayed loyal. This behavior was symbolic of other radical and immoral changes to come.
He defied moral standards that cause people to be secure in marriages and relationships. He made sure families were divided. Husbands and wives didn’t protect each other anymore. Children were adopted by other parents at the order of Jones, and were taught to turn on their parents and other adults. Friends turned on friends. All for a cause. Sound familiar?
Jones brought them to the jungle, where they were alienated from their families and had no safe way out. He used fear tactics. I’ve transcribed several tapes where Jones instills fear into the African Americans – telling them the United States had reinstituted slavery. In reality, the African Americans, along with everyone else trapped in the jungle, were already slaves. Jones read newspapers, and he was their only source of news they could read. Sound familiar?
No doubt, many people questioned Jim Jones, but ultimately ignored any nagging feelings in their gut that what he was doing was immoral and wrong. Why? Because they believed in “the greater good,” or they were just too frightened. Sound familiar?
Now, let’s fast forward to 2020 when a virus called covid19 seemed suddenly to strike the world. At first, some of the safety measures seemed logical enough, but very soon after they began, I became skeptical. I became a full-fledged atheist of this proverbial god we called safety when we were told hospitals were closed down for Covid patients, yet someone took a video on Facebook of an empty hospital parking lot in Los Angeles.
Then came alienation through “shelter in place.” My husband and I refused to comply. We’ve never been home bodies, and that wasn’t about to change. We never saw the logic in staying home for weeks at a time when we weren’t sick at all. We refused to wear masks for the same reason.
Marriages, friendships, families and churches became casualties. I personally know of one marriage that broke up because a wife told her husband she wanted him to stay in his room for two weeks after he had visited a friend in another state. Obviously, there were control issues before, but this was the final straw. He told her he wasn’t going to live in a prison. He never returned. Victims of abusive marriages were stuck at home with the partners who abused them. Children fell behind in school. Grandparents were torn away from their grandchildren, and elders in nursing homes were forced to die alone. Like many people reading this, I lost friends over our differences of opinion. It’s easy to try and comfort yourself with cliches like “they were never friends to begin with,” but it still hurt.
I found it alarming how many people quickly accepted the “New Normal.” There was absolutely nothing normal about it. Like Jones, the government and media attempted to normalize practices that are not normal under any circumstances. Social distancing when people weren’t even sick was immediately accepted without question, and in fact, continued long after it was necessary. Hugging or shaking hands was frowned upon. Neighbors snitched on neighbors when they saw people going into a house. If you dared stand up and throw the bomb of logic into their emotional cause, you were shamed.
How did we come to this in such a short period of time? I believe the media, along with the government, created a concoction of fear. Then they used verbiage designed to make us believe this was going to draw all of us together in some loving community. In reality, it was anything but loving. People were downright disrespectful of the opinions and feelings of others. Admittedly, I disrespected too. I was known for making smart-alek comments on ads where people were told to wear masks. I don’t believe disrespect wins anyone over, no matter what side of the fence it is; but everyone had let their emotions get out of hand by then.
How does this relate to Jones? He used many fear tactics ranging from telling everyone slavery was back, to White Nights, to threats of murder. People were trapped there and had no freedom to get out. In 2020, similar fear tactics were used. people feared dying if you so much as touched them. People feared losing their livelihood. Despite the fact that requiring vaccines and masks was not the law, no one was counting on being questioned. That was how Jim Jones thrived. He shamed those who asked questions or challenged him in any way, and encouraged his followers to do the same.
When the vaccines came out, I was mocked for refusing to take them. Some of those mockers are now tragically dead. We suddenly lost our pastor to a stroke. He was in otherwise relatively good shape. That was just one of several people I lost.
We’re seeing men and women in their thirties having strokes and heart attacks. We hear of seventeen-year-olds dying of strokes. This is not normal. This is not safety or protection. This was a sinister experiment. These measures weren’t taken to protect our health any more than Jones controlled everyone for the cause of socialism. He was a sick, delusional, arrogant man who wanted only to be worshipped. He wanted to see how far he could go, and he went too far. The so-called New Normal of 2020 went too far, too.
Mixing truth with fiction is a very old form of manipulation. Just throw a little truth in there, and people won’t question the lies. Some accused me of not believing Covid was real. I have no doubt of its reality. People got it worse than I did. Some couldn’t breathe, and yes, some even died without the vaccine. Usually, those were the people whose immune system had already been compromised. For those who are truly sick, they should stay home. That’s what most sick people want to do anyway. But the fear tactic “You may have it and not even know it,” was used to keep some “in place,” preferably without questioning.”
Some people have come to me and admitted I was right about these measures. Better late than never, but it saddens me so many had to die first. Others try to sweep it under the rug. Some are just so tired of it all they just want to move on. I can’t say I blame them. Still others vehemently deny that vaccines are killing anyone, despite the glaring evidence. Those are the people I’m most concerned about.
It’s easy to play the blame game. We can point fingers at presidents, the government, the doctors, or each other, about whom we can do very little. Or we can look at ourselves, and ask what part we’ve played. Just as victims of abusive relationships should examine their own part so they can take control of their lives, so should we as survivors of 2020. The circumstances are similar. We’ve been gaslighted, bullied, and intimidated; but we don’t have to be victims. We don’t have to take the word of so-called experts. We can research. We don’t have to accept just one news source. We don’t have to give way to fear tactics. Most important of all, we don’t have to shame someone who might just see something we’ve missed. We can learn from Jones not to go through life without asking the tough questions.
I can’t help but wonder if more people said no to Jones much earlier in the game, would he have gotten as high on his own power? Even if he did, perhaps he would have taken a lot fewer people with him. Sadly, when we say yes to an abusive system over and over again, our choices seem to get lost in the shuffle. Will we do that in the next social experiment, because there will be another, and another.
I close with one final thought. Christine Miller was the only individual who stood up and questioned why everyone had to die, especially innocent babies. She expressed how hard they had all worked, and asked why they would throw it all away. Though others may have concurred, she was the one who stood up. She did not represent the majority. In fact, she was shamed for being one voice who spoke up. Nevertheless, she was right, despite the bullying and pressure of her well-groomed peers. If more people had stopped shaming her, and gone with the questions they themselves had, perhaps more would be alive today. If nothing else, we can learn one thing from Jones. No one is “the king” unless we put him on the throne. Not a president, not an institution, but most especially, not our emotions. The history lesson Jones has taught us is that we do have choices. We should make them with a clear head before it’s too late.
(Nicole Bissett is a freelance writer who lives in San Diego, California. She is a Stephen minister, recording secretary for her local chapter of the American council of the Blind, and facilitates a Christian book club. Her previous article in the jonestown report is The Other Side Of The Story. She can be reached at bissettproductions@gmail.com