Jonestown

[PD]

It's been now 30 years since the Jonestown tragedy.
http://www.agpf.de/Jonestown-Newsweek1978.jpg
I watched some of the documentaries that have been on this weekend.
It still seems amazing at how people can be such strong "believers" as to kill their kids and drink the "kool-aid" (literally here).

even though we attribute a lot of this to the 60s/70s, Waco and Heaven's gate show that some people still are so desperate to find "meaning" no matter where it takes them.

[TobyWong]

I'm glad there is some notice of this anniversary out there. There are a lot of people who say "drink the kood aid" and have no idea where it comes from.

[biozombie]

Don't forget the Order Of The Solar Temple (Ordre du Temple Solaire) in Switzerland & Canada, one of my personal favorites due to the relative obscurity of the events and the supposed ties to The Knights Templar. I was also a big fan (?) of Aum Shinrikyo & their tubby leader Shoko Asahara, currently on death row in Japan for the 1995 Sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway system. I'm kind of fascinated by the fact they still hang people in Japan, although I'm sure it's somewhat rare.

Oh yeah, and before Jim Jones moved his brainwashed group to Guyana, he was picked up at least once for jerking off in a porno theater in (or near) San Francisco...but they let him go. (according to the book "Guyana Massacre" by Charles Krause)

Anyone got any barbiturate flavored Kool-Aid?

[scottinnj]

I remember I was 10 when it happened, and the news had a helicopter shot of all the dead, and the paper's front page looked like the newsweek cover.

It really was scary for a kid not knowing what or where this was going on.

[paracetamol flanders]

I was also a big fan (?) of Aum Shinrikyo & their tubby leader Shoko Asahara


I have a 7" with recordings from Shoko Asahara. I also have a record of the People's Temple Choir before they got all dead 'n' shit. I also have a record put out by Psychic TV with smuggled recordings from Jonestown. Creeptastic!

[FezsAssistant]

I have a 7"

not bad

[paracetamol flanders]

not bad

Interested in my 7", eh? I am assuming, of course, you've had it in the ear before...

[Nothing Sound]

There are a lot of people who say "drink the kood aid" and have no idea where it comes from.

I have no idea where that comes from, but I do know where "drink the kool aid" comes from.

[biozombie]

I have a 7" with recordings from Shoko Asahara. I also have a record of the People's Temple Choir before they got all dead 'n' shit. I also have a record put out by Psychic TV with smuggled recordings from Jonestown. Creeptastic!

heh, that's some sweet stuff there. I have Shoko's book "Supreme Initiation", complete with a small flyer for the NYC branch of Aum... it's a impossible to read due to the piss poor translation, but at least it has a bunch of full color photos, including one of Shoko w/ The Dalai Lama. I also have the 2 tape VHS set that the Heaven's Gate people filmed just a few days before joined their Elder Members in the great spaceship up in the side. Tape 1 is all Marshall Applewhite, great stuff. Tape 2 is interviews with the rest of the cult, each one saying the same exact thing as the one before for about an hour or so (including Uhura from Star Trek's brother)
Oh yeah, and I have some book written & signed by some guy who was a Branch Davidian but cut out before the shitstorm in Waco (haven't read it, still in storage at my Mom's house)

ah, good times. (wow, I'm a fucking creep)

[Whiskeyportal]

It's been now 30 years since the Jonestown tragedy.
http://www.agpf.de/Jonestown-Newsweek1978.jpg


the chick in the red pants had some nice titties and a nice body too. hard to tell though. she should have died facing the camera more.

[KnoxHarrington]

I have no idea where that comes from, but I do know where "drink the kool aid" comes from.



And it was actually Flavor-Aid, not Kool-Aid.

[yojimbo7248]

how did Jim Jones convince them to kill themselves? Some promise of a nicer Jonestown in the sky?

[KnoxHarrington]

how did Jim Jones convince them to kill themselves? Some promise of a nicer Jonestown in the sky?

He called it an act of "revolutionary suicide." Basically, he told them that after Leo Ryan's murder, the CIA and the Guyanan Army, amongst others, were going to come in and take them all to concentration camps, so they should all lay down their lives in a final act of defiance.

So, no, there was no promise that they would soon all be off to paradise.

[Jughead]

The special this am on TV was ...well not good but informative.....All I could think about were the children .....

[KnoxHarrington]

The special this am on TV was ...well not good but informative.....All I could think about were the children .....

If it was the MSNBC doc, that wasn't all that good. A PBS documentary also called "Jonestown" was far better. Get the DVD version, which is unedited and has a little bit of extra footage.

[TheMojoPin]

He called it an act of "revolutionary suicide." Basically, he told them that after Leo Ryan's murder, the CIA and the Guyanan Army, amongst others, were going to come in and take them all to concentration camps, so they should all lay down their lives in a final act of defiance.

So, no, there was no promise that they would soon all be off to paradise.

There's also the question of how many of the bodies there died of poisoning, and how much of it was voluntary.

[Stankfoot]

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a350/stankfoot/BJM.jpg

[Nothing Sound]

It still seems amazing at how people can be such strong "believers" as to kill their kids and drink the "kool-aid" (literally here).

It's really not that much different than any organized religion out there.
It's a form of brain washing. Tell people what they want to hear and they'll
believe just about any nonsense that you throw at them. Most people, not ALL people.

[keithy_19]

Horrific event. So many people were killed trying to flee. They began to realize this was a death camp.