Expressions of dissent within the Jonestown leadership \u2013 and especially criticisms of Jim Jones \u2013 may not have been encouraged, and certainly were not widespread, but they did exist. Several documents recording minutes of meetings indicate that people in leadership positions raised questions and offered alternatives as decisions were formulated, with results that often varied from the initial proposal on the table, even as the same leaders often deferred to Jones\u2019 expressed wishes.<\/p>\n
But the leadership was not monolithic, and written examples of dissent exist. Several appear below.<\/p>\n
The first is an undated letter from Gene Chaikin<\/a> (likely from the fall of 1977, shortly after the Six Day Siege) in which he criticizes Jones on a number of issues. Chastizing Jones for his handling of the John Victor Stoen custody battle, for example, the Temple lawyer suggests that Jones had overreacted to the summons to appear in a Guyanese court over his refusal to bring the child to Georgetown. There were any one of a number of ways \u2013 which Chaikin spells out \u2013 that Jones could have handled the situation.<\/p>\n However the whole thing immediately rose to the level of hysteria.\u2026 Officials all over the U.S. and Georgetown were importuned; our private affairs broadcast, \u201cultimatums\u201d were presented to government which can only serve to make us look hysterical and immature to government, causing diminished respect and therefore diminished power and influence here; \u2026 the whole project stopped both in U.S. and here all plans halted with resulting lack of time, momentum and money, and in great frustration.\u2026 All of the above totally unnecessary and highly wastefull and destructive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then Chaikin lays the blame directly at Jones\u2019 feet: \u201cA relatively modest and ultimately controllable incident was made, by you<\/em>, into a catastrophy [catastrophe] of major proportions involving the full expenditure of such goodwill and energies as we have available.\u201d<\/p>\n Chaikin also complains about Jones\u2019 treatment of him. \u201cI detest being lied to and manipulated,\u201d the lawyer writes. \u201cHow would you feel if I had ever<\/em> (and I never have) knowingly gave false factual reports or false legal opinions to you in order to manipulate your behavior? Would you find that conduct acceptable in me on the grounds that: (1) my goal was pure (2) the ends justified the means (3) I understood the situation better than you?\u201d<\/p>\n The letter concludes by declaring an impasse in communications between the two. \u201cI obviously can\u2019t trust anything you say,\u201d he says in his final thoughts. \u201cYou leave me little to have confidence in. Your word is no better than the expedience that motivates you to utter it\u2026 I think you and I now have very little to say to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n The second is a two-page memo<\/a> from Dick Tropp following a White Night on May 11, 1978, in which he says he echoes concerns raised by Gene Chaikin “about our structure being self-defeating: do we create situations by our procedures and practices that make us vulnerable?” He questions the need for so much secrecy, pointing out that it plays right into the hands of their critics, and suggests “we learn to operate as if \u2018guests\u2019 were always here to view our public life style.”<\/p>\n The memo continues with a plea to give the community “a sense of a possible future” rather than merely focus on the day-to-day existence of the Jonestown project. Only with planning \u2013 which means setting goals, he emphasizes \u2013 will they be able to motivate and mobilize the community to grow.<\/p>\n The third, a memo to Jones from Harriet Sarah Tropp<\/a>, is also undated, but its reference to the imminent arrival of Hollywood screenwriter Don Freed places it in August 1978. Entitled \u201cThe uglification of Jonestown,\u201d the memo complains that their efforts to improve Jonestown\u2019s appearance have been undermined by Jones\u2019 edicts. The leadership meets with local Guyanese and other \u201cpeople who have lived here for several years\u201d for their advice on how to repair the roads and paths, but then Jones declares \u201cthere must be a way\u201d to do the work the way he wants it done.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, there wasn\u2019t a way,\u201d Harriett Tropp adds. \u201cI think the above just serves to highlight a problem we have in decision making. That is, if you say you want something done, we ignore any advice we\u2019ve been given and we go against our own judgment, and go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n There is an \u201cugly mess\u201d in Jonestown, she concludes, \u201cAnd it was all unnecessary<\/em>, if we\u2019d just followed advice\u201d [emphasis in original].<\/p>\n The fourth entry is from Pauline Groot, who joined scores of Jonestown residents in writing a response to a letter from Dick Tropp<\/a>, in which he said “people like myself should, after they have outgrown their usefulness, be shot.” She used her four-page critique to point out several flaws in Jones’ overall leadership of the community, saying 10 times that he is naive about other people, pointing out “a tactical mistake, telling everybody you don\u2019t understand people like Debbie [Blakey],” and expressing her belief that people are afraid of him. “If you don\u2019t believe me, ask people to write up to you how much of they\u2019re afraid of you. But have the doctor on hand before you read the answers, because the answers will break your heart.” <\/p>\n Undated letter from Gene Chaikin,<\/strong> RYMUR 89-4286-EE-1-C-10 ff. Memo from Dick Tropp, May 1978,<\/strong> RYMUR 89-4286-EE-1-T-64 \u2013 EE-1-T-65 Memo from Harriet Sarah Tropp,<\/strong> RYMUR 89-4286-EE-2-S-13A \u2013 EE-2-S-13B Pauline Groot’s Critique of Letter from Dick Tropp,<\/strong> RYMUR 89-4286-EE-2-f-4a \u2013 EE-2-f-4d Array<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":13225,"menu_order":47,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13101","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13101"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134036,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13101\/revisions\/134036"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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