Utopia

The idea of a Utopia traces all the way back to when the Pilgrims boarded to Mayflower. They dreamed of creating a “an imaginary place in which the government, laws, and social conditions are perfect” (Merriam-Webster). Since then there have been many attempts at creating a Utopia. Some have failed and some have succeeded. Examples of two well-known attempts at a Utopia are Jonestown and the Oneida community. They both had convincing and powerful leaders. The leaders of these Utopias, John Noyes and Jim Jones, used their talents of influence wisely and they were able to obtain many followers. In the beginning they both had great successes, in the end one faded away and one had a tragic, disturbing ending.

Jim Jones Utopia was created with the Peoples Temple Church. Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple, has an interesting background. Jim Jones was born Crete, Indiana. Neighbors said that they always though he was a little odd. Childhood friends remember Jim having church services in which he had funeral services for dead animals. Some of the animals he had tortured and killed. When he was a teenager, Jones met Marceline Baldwin. They married and had one child together. Then they adopted several children of different ethnicities. Jones was proud of his family and told many other people to adopt children of different races.

The second Utopia attempt was created by John Noyes. Noyes was born in Brattleboro, Vermont. He was 21 when he started voicing his views about theology. It was in his second year at Yale that he truly expressed his ideas. He was trying to find the date the day that Christ would come again and found it had already occurred. He then became increasingly worried about salvation from sin and with be...

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...onsidered the beginning of the suspicious actions of Jims Jones is when he had his followers practice revolutionary suicide. He told them to drink water, and then he told them they had just drank poison. A little later he told the people it was a test of loyalty, and they had passed. This shows how the people truly followed Jim Jones and were willing to do anything he said. Daily life during Jonestown continued to go down hill.One example of how Jim Jones brainwashed the people was an event that occurred every night. He would go onto the loudspeaker and say, “I'm sending somebody out tonight. Somebody you know. Somebody you trust. And they're gonna act like they wanna leave. But this is a loyalty test, and you need to turn them in.”(Layton) Families would betray each other for Jim Jones and that proves just how influencing he was.

Works Cited

Merriam-Webster