Despite the promise of utopia, Jonestown was clearly no utopia. The organizational structure of the Temple was in fact a hierarchical with four distinct levels. Jones was at the top, followed by an inner circle known as “angels”. These angels dealt with the media and were responsible for Temple finances. They also served as the muscle. Underneath the inner circle was the planning commission, responsible for managing the Temple and enforcing some of the more simple rules. At the bottom was the general membership. (Asher) The white male population had certain privileges not afforded to others. They had access to money, ate better, worked less and served as the armed guards used to intimidate and control the others. Many of the “privileged” were …show more content…
The people were forced to work 16-18 hours per day, required to live in cramped living quarters separated from their families, and were poorly fed. They were physically and mentally exhausted through malnutrition and all night lectures called “White Night” where Jones would preach for hours to exhausted followers in preparation for mass suicide. In Jonestown, Paradise Lost, January 15, 2007 Directed by Tim Wolochatiuk, Jones called for White Nights consistently in the week preceding the massacre. The people were woken during the night and forced to stand for hours while an obvious drug intoxicated Jones preached at them, preparing them for mass suicide. There were allegations of beatings, forced drugs, sensory isolation, and medical and physical experimentation. The result, sophisticated brain washing. The brain washing was so complete, that Vernon Gosney left his young son behind believing that as a bi-racial child he would be more at risk in the United States than staying in Jonestown. (Paradise …show more content…
From a sociological perspective there was no other way to believe and resistance was not possible. From a sociological perspective, in order to survive the person downplays and rationalizes the situation. (Osherow). As Jones began to increase the oppression of his regime, the member’s motivation to justify their commitment to the group also increased. This process is referred to as self-justification and the theory of cognitive dissonance. (Osherow). Osherow defines cognitive dissonance theory as a method whereby people seek to justify choices and commitments. This was the condition of the Temple members as Congressman Ryan began his investigation and his planned visit to Jonestown. In 1977, many concerned family members approached the media and local politicians voicing their concerns that their family members were being held against their will in Jonestown through systematic brainwashing. Arguably, the most deviant preaching of Jones was the idea of revolutionary suicide. Jones would often share his belief that you were “better off dead and protest the unjust conditions of the world than to get destroyed by the hands of their enemies by murder and incarceration.”
A dress-up party in Texas turned deadly when the host of the party, dressed as Santa Claus, began shooting at his guests. By the end of his shooting spree, he had killed one person and injured three others.
...t its operation. Jonestown, after the termination of the project, was thought to have been a test site for mind control and mental experiments under MKUltra due to the mass suicide that took place there that became known as the Peoples Temple mass suicide and the formation of the Jim Jones cult in that town. Further, Leo Ryan was murdered in Jonestown by the Peoples Temple members when he was investigating numerous reports that were claimed to have happened in that area. Besides the Jonestown theory, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was believed, by Lawrence Teeter, to have been a work of the techniques used in the Project MKUltra. Moreover, the attorney believed that Sirhan Sirhan, was under the influence of hypnosis when he murdered Robert F. Kennedy. Nevertheless, he was found guilty of first degree murder and six days later, was executed in a gas chamber.
One of the darkest times in American history was the conflict with the natives. A “war” fought with lies and brute force, the eviction and genocide of Native Americans still remains one of the most controversial topics when the subject of morality comes up. Perhaps one of the most egregious events to come of this atrocity was the Sand Creek Massacre. On the morning of November 29th, 1864, under the command of Colonel John Chivington, 700 members of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry raped, looted, and killed the members of a Cheyenne tribe (Brown 86-94). Hearing the story of Sand Creek, one of the most horrific acts in American History, begs the question: Who were the savages?
On the 29th o April, 1977 Captain Cook, commander of a British fleet, landed on the eastern shore of Australia, in an attempt to claim the land under the name of Britain. The land was to be claimed by Britain as a land where the British government could send convicts; in an attempt to ease the struggle in the over flowing prisons. Upon Cooks arrival, he was ordered to follow three rules of claiming a foreign land. They were;
of the rape of a 14 year old girl by twenty GIs ... in front of the
The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores'; (Mahin 1). A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.
Have you ever heard the term, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid?” or “You have drank the Kool-Aid.”? Well, ”Drinking the Kool-Aid” means you have done something that others have told you to do or did yourself. This saying comes from the cult society led by Reverend Jim Jones, named Jonestown. Jonestown was a small community in the jungle of Guyana, South America. After getting word of people coming to investigate the society, Jones had committed a mass suicide by poisoning Kool-Aid and giving it to the people of Jonestown.
Slavery has always been viewed as one of the most scandalous times in American history. It appears that the entire institution of slavery has been capsulized as white masters torturing defenseless African Americans. However, not every slave has encountered this experience. In this essay I will present the life of two former slaves Harriet Smith and Mr. George Johnson and how similar as well as different their experiences were based on interviews conducted with each of them. The negative aspects of slave life were undeniably heinous and for that reason especially, it is also important to also reveal the lives of slaves whom were treated with dignity and respect.
According to the textbook who was to blame for the Boston Massacre, several Boston resident were shot and killed by British Soldiers on the night of March 5, 1770, in what became known as Boston Massacre.
The Boston Massacre was and is still a debatable Massacre. The event occurred on March 5, 1776. It involved the rope workers of the colonial Boston and two British regiments, the twenty-ninth and the fourteenth regiments. Eleven people were shot in the incident; five people were killed and the other six were merely wounded. The soldiers and the captain, Thomas Preston, were all put on trial. All were acquitted of charges of murder, however the two soldiers who fired first, Private Mathew Killroy, and Private William Montgomery, the two soldiers were guilty of manslaughter. The causes were numerous for this event. There had been a nation wide long-term dislike towards the British, and a growing hatred towards them by the people of Boston. Even before the two regiments were sent in to monitor Boston there was a growing feud before the two sides.
In 1931, on a freight train bound for Memphis, around twenty-five young men, both black and white, were hoboing, looking for work. The whites began to act spitefully at the blacks, picking up rocks to throw at them, stepping on their hands, and calling them names. The blacks, wanting to keep their pride, came back at them. In the brawl that followed, all but one of the whites were thrown off the train. These whites, sore about being beaten, ran back to the nearest rail station, who phoned ahead to the next station, in Paint Rock, Alabama. A mob of whites were waiting there, armed to the teeth. They took everyone off the train and rounded them up. Nine of them were blacks. These men: Roy and Andy Wright, Eugene Williams, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Charlie Weems, Clarence Norris, and Ozie Powell were brought to the Scottsboro jail, and charged with the rape of two young white women, also hoboing, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates (Patterson 13-17). They were tried for rape, convicted, retried, convicted again, retried again, and convicted a third time (Patterson 9). These trials and retrials of these nine young men, who became know as the “Scottsboro Boys,” were not fair.
The first one would be when Jim Jones made it known after he moved to San Francisco that he was interested in politics, and legal changes strengthened political groups like the temple. In 1975 when George Moscone won the election and appointed Jones as Chairman of San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. The negative impact was when Congressman Leo Ryan and a group of journalist visited People’s temple in Jonestown,Guyana During the Congressman's visit several members of the group wanted to leave with the congressman and on the afternoon of november 18 when they accompanied Congressman Ryan to the local airstrip to leave they were intercepted by a group of temple security guard who opened fire on the group killing Congressman Ryan ,three journalist and one temple defectors a few seconds of gunfire was captured on video by Bob Brown one of the journalist that was killed in the
by Colonel James W. Forsyth. An argument started with a deaf Sioux named Black Coyote. The
On November 18, 1978, a notorious religious organization lead by Jim Jones became international news. As a result of manipulation and isolation, Jim Jones influenced his followers to commit suicide. Not only, but his followers were utterly convinced that what they were doing was for a good cause, specifically, a political movement. With kool-aid and a dash of cyanide, 918 people, adults and children, ended their lives that day. The aftermath of this horrific event resulted in numerous documentaries, on of which being, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Created in 2006, this documentary gives a thorough and accurate account of the events that lead up to as well as occured that day.
The Rape of Nanking, also known as the Nanking Massacre was a six week period when mass numbers of Chinese men and woman were killed by the Japanese. Embarrassed by the lack of effort in the war with China in Shanghai, the Japanese looked for revenge and finally were able to win the battle. The Japanese moved toward the city of Nanjing also known as Nanking and invaded it for approximately six months. Even though the people of Nanjing outnumbered the 50,000 Japanese, they were not as masterful in warfare as their opponents. Chinese soldiers were forced to surrender to the Japanese and the massacre began in which around 300,000 people died and 20,000 women were raped. The Japanese leaders had different methods of killing that were instructed to the soldiers. However, the prisoners of this “City of Blood” soon found their liberation and their justice was served.