{"id":67526,"date":"2016-10-07T18:08:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T01:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=67526"},"modified":"2016-10-19T15:43:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T22:43:56","slug":"the-c-word","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=67526","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cC\u201d Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I picked up my son from elementary school a decade or so ago, I could tell there was something on his mind. Through the rear-view mirror, I watched him fidget in the backseat, waiting for the right time to tell me what was on his mind. Finally, he announced to me that he knew what the \u201cC\u201d word was. I was taken aback. I naively didn\u2019t realize that Gabriel and his friends had such conversations on the playground at Wonderland Elementary School.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do?\u201d I questioned him very nervously, not knowing where this discussion was going. \u201cYeah,\u201d he half proudly told me. \u201cIt means \u2018crap.\u2019\u201d There was a long pause before I exhaled. I could deal with that conversation. A discussion about the other \u201cC\u201d would have been much harder.<\/p>\n

Today, the \u201cC\u201d word that I\u2019m struggling with is the word, \u201ccult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back when I was studying psychology as an undergraduate, \u201ccult\u201d was a fascinating word. My introduction to Peoples Temple was in Professor Philip Zimbardo<\/a>\u2019s class on \u201cThe Psychology of Mind Control,\u201d during which the word was tossed around carelessly with seemingly little weight or context. It was used liberally with other potentially derogatory terms like \u201cbrainwashing\u201d and \u201cindoctrination.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remember Zimbardo\u2019s multi-point list of warning signs that help determine whether or not you\u2019ve been indoctrinated into a \u201ccult.\u201d Peoples Temple and Jim Jones were used as classic examples to both define and illustrate this list. It seemed so cut-and-dried back then: go down the list, total the score, and if it adds up to 10 or more, voila<\/em>, you have yourself a cult. Listening in a lecture hall, the definition of \u201ccult\u201d provided a somewhat simple and easy understanding of how and why over 900 people seemingly took their own lives.<\/p>\n

Now, after three years of researching Peoples Temple for a documentary television project, reading its history and, most importantly, talking to so many survivors, I\u2019m a bit afraid of that word. It carries so much power by saying it out loud. I know that if I were to mention the word in a meeting with network executives, their eyes would widen with excitement. I also have a prepared thirty-second \u201celevator pitch\u201d that uses the word that I know would be an effective tool. Luckily, I\u2019ve managed to avoid both scenarios because I know it\u2019s a very dangerous word to bandy about, more precarious than any four-letter word I urge my kids to avoid.<\/p>\n

The people of Peoples Temple all had different reasons to be a part of the collective and stay active in the group.\u00a0 There were so many positives associated with the movement that it becomes both unfair and unrealistic to think that a single word can explain the commitment so many individuals had to being a part of the Temple. Many of the documentary projects of the past have fallen short, in my opinion, for oversimplifying a very complicated relationship between those in power and those who were not at Jonestown. Reducing everything to one psychological term seems disingenuous.<\/p>\n

More than potentially inaccurate and unfair, I\u2019ve found that using the word \u201ccult\u201d in relationship to Peoples Temple can lead to dangerous outcomes:\u00a0 a shortcut to understanding, a quick but often inaccurate label, a cloak to hide the truth. I know this word is charged amongst the survivors group, and my goal for working on this documentary project has been to garner greater understanding of all the components that led to the destruction of Jonestown.<\/p>\n

One thing I\u2019ve learned is that the fabric that makes up Peoples Temple is brightly colored with many textures. One word can hardly do it justice.<\/p>\n

(Ken Musen is a documentary filmmaker and Executive Producer at C2K Entertainment. He may be reached at <\/em>ken@c-2k.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I picked up my son from elementary school a decade or so ago, I could tell there was something on his mind. Through the rear-view mirror, I watched him fidget in the backseat, waiting for the right time to tell me what was on his mind. Finally, he announced to me that he knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":67705,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-67526","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67526","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67527,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67526\/revisions\/67527"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}