Right back in this. Back to Jonestown, continuing where I left off lo those many weeks ago. Future updates shall not be so few-and-far-between. (Tail between legs and such.)
III. Jonestown, settled
--by 1973, things were becoming dicey for the People's Temple, so over the following three years Jones arranged for the purchase of 3800 acres of land in Guyana. Because Guyana itself was experiencing a period of shifting politics (leftwards), and because many Guyanese gov't officials were black (mirroring Jonestown's proposed populace), Jones felt this would be a sympathetic place to set up shop.
--unfortch for the People's Temple, the purchased land was not terribly fertile. As mentioned last time, agricultural failures would be a major blow to their efforts at self-sufficiency.
--the initiative was given the name "The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project."
--of course, even for a nation as economically insignificant as Guyana, this whole deal raised some eyebrows within the country, but Jones was able to convince officials that his were good people, and his implication that they'd be investing a significant amount of cash into Guyana greased the wheels. Guyanese officials were said to admire this attempt at creating a "socialist paradise," etc. Oddly, this endorsement was trumpeted by California Lt. Gov. Dymally, who in a letter to Guyana's Prime Minster referred to Jones as "one of the finest people." Um, yeah.
--Money talks. Eased customs restrictions allowed Jones to import all kinds crazy nonsense, including drugs n' guns. Additionally Jones was able to persuade the alteration of Guyanese emigration policy, making it more difficult for Jonestown residents to flee the country, mirroring the restrictive policies of other communist countries.
--1977 marked the first influx of people to Jonestown. Life was hard and seemingly militaristically regimented, with 11 hour workdays in the fields 6 days a week, with much non-work time devoted to viewing of propaganda films education on socialism, and Jones' own sermons on world events and his take on them.
IV. The Worm Begins to Turn
--over the next year-and-a-half, life at Jonestown became decidedly more unpleasant. Radio towers were installed with speakers blaring Jones' increasingly incoherent ramblings day and night; crop failures/miserable living conditions led to widespread sickness; punishment for insubordination became more brutal and bizarre.
--Additionally The People's Temple was embezzling the welfare monies/etc. of the colonists, raising suspicion with the US Social Security Administration. 75 Temple members were interviewed and each reaffirmed that they were there of their own volition.
--"White Nights"- Jones became preoccupied with the CIA's purported desire to squash Jonestown, and as such began conducting precursors to emergency evacuation procedures during which votes were taken regarding the Temple's course in the face of threat/invasion. On two occasions, the vote favored ritualistic mass suicide, and suicide drills were carried out. Yikes.
--A custody suit followed, in which a former Temple member was demanding the return of a child. Instability ensued, with Jones losing faith in Guyanese officials' pledges to not interfere in the goings on at Jonestown. Jones began inquiring as to a mass exodus to various Communist countries.
--The parents involved in the aforementioned custody suit formed a group, "Concerned Relatives," which began to shed light publicly on the wackiness that was going on at Jonestown, and began attacking the People's Temple by legal means. Nearly 100 US Congressmen contacted the Guyanese Prime Minister expressing their concern.
--Despite all this, Jones still had his supporters, notably Harvey Milk, Huey Newton, and many civil rights attorneys. Jones himself by this point was suffering from declining health and abusing drugs daily.
--Finally, CA Congressman Leo Ryan announced that he was going to visit Jonestown for a good ol' fashioned look see.
--Guess what happened next...........................
[to be continued and such]
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Bataan Death March
So, I thought I would take a brief respite from the Balkans and move into another uplifting chapter in history...the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Southeast Asia! I was definitely familiar with the term 'Bataan Death March,' but only as a hyperbolic expression of something that was long, awful, and painful.
It is more. Here goes:
Bataan is a province in the Philippines and was a gasoline storage site for the US in the Pacific War with Japan during WWII; US forces were stationed there under General King.
Japanese forces invaded the Philippines in December of 1941. The American/Filipino troops retreated to the Bataan Peninsula, but were attacked by the Japanese in January 1942. King surrendered after months of siege in April; at the time of the surrender, King commanded 75,000 troops, consisting of 67,000 Filipinos, 1,000 Chinese Filipinos, and 11,796 Americans.
The March: Began on April 10, 1942, it was 61 miles (some sources say 70), from Mariveles (on the tip of Bataan) to San Fernando. If you tarried or fell behind, you were executed or left for dead. Prisoners were beaten, denied food and water and allowed little time for rest or sleep. One account has several prisoners who stopped to fill their canteens being shot immediately by their captors. For part of the march, the prisoners were crammed into boxcars and many suffocated, but the rest was on foot--and completed in a week. 54,000/75,000 troops made it to the destination.
The villain: Lt. General Masuhuro Homma. Basically, he decided that, because more men surrendered than he had anticipated, most of them would just have to walk. He was later tried, convicted and executed for his role in the March.
Aftermath: this is sweet/creepy--apparently groups ranging from the Boy Scouts to the National Guard arrange 'death marches', honoring those who survived/died at Bataan. It's like a Race to End MS, but, er, more macabre...
It is more. Here goes:
Bataan is a province in the Philippines and was a gasoline storage site for the US in the Pacific War with Japan during WWII; US forces were stationed there under General King.
Japanese forces invaded the Philippines in December of 1941. The American/Filipino troops retreated to the Bataan Peninsula, but were attacked by the Japanese in January 1942. King surrendered after months of siege in April; at the time of the surrender, King commanded 75,000 troops, consisting of 67,000 Filipinos, 1,000 Chinese Filipinos, and 11,796 Americans.
The March: Began on April 10, 1942, it was 61 miles (some sources say 70), from Mariveles (on the tip of Bataan) to San Fernando. If you tarried or fell behind, you were executed or left for dead. Prisoners were beaten, denied food and water and allowed little time for rest or sleep. One account has several prisoners who stopped to fill their canteens being shot immediately by their captors. For part of the march, the prisoners were crammed into boxcars and many suffocated, but the rest was on foot--and completed in a week. 54,000/75,000 troops made it to the destination.
The villain: Lt. General Masuhuro Homma. Basically, he decided that, because more men surrendered than he had anticipated, most of them would just have to walk. He was later tried, convicted and executed for his role in the March.
Aftermath: this is sweet/creepy--apparently groups ranging from the Boy Scouts to the National Guard arrange 'death marches', honoring those who survived/died at Bataan. It's like a Race to End MS, but, er, more macabre...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Sowing the Seeds of Ethnic Clashes: Hungarian Stormtroopers???
From the last two posts on the Balkans, you can see that the region is terrifically diverse, both ethnically and religiously. Now that the ethnic and religious divides have been loosely spelled out, the next step is to try and highlight some of the specific historical events that sowed the seeds of division and all-out rancor.
WWII
In the early part of WWII, the Balkans were relatively unaffected, and, until 1941, the only violence the region experienced was a war fought along the Greek/Italy border. However, before Hitler dispatched his troops on their grand, ill-fated march up to Russia, he ordered the securing of the Balkans. This was not a tall order, given the decentralized nature of the region and its corresponding lack of military might; the campaign ended around the same time it started, with a few more feathers in the now-overcrowded Nazi cap.
This left the Balkan states with essentially one of three fates:
(1) Get directly in bed with Germany/Sell soul, etc.
(2) Squirm, but ultimately surrender, as the puppetmaster pulls the strings on your sham gov't
(3) Run for the hills and serve out ineffectual existence in exile
(a): spearhead guerrilla insurrection all but destined for immediate and total suppression by Nazis
Bowing to the Nazis
Bad options all, but the more, shall we say, pragmatic favored the short-term bliss of surrendering to their Nazi bride...and lived to regret it. This group included Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
Perks: regaining lands lost in Treaty of Versailles through partitioning of Czechoslovakia (Hungary); strength of Nazi state at your back (all)
Downsides: being forced to dispatch troops for German-led campaigns in the horrific wars on the Eastern front with the creatively brutal and macabre Russian troops (Hungary); losing lands/being used as a pawn between Russia and Germany (Romania); lasting stigma/fallout of alliance with Nazis (all)
Yugoslavia
Initially, Yugoslavia's leader signed an alliance deal with the Nazis, but was overthrown by lusty freedom-fighting Serbs. However, the Germans did not countenance this for long: Yugoslavia was soon invaded and partitioned. Croatia, including Bosnia, was placed under puppet rule; Serbia was under German military rule; Macedonia was given to Bulgaria.
Germany's policies were specifically aimed at denigrating Serbs and, when there were rumblings of armed insurgency, the Germans suppressed them swiftly and brutally.
Life in Exile...
Greece: Greek Royals fled to Egypt, and the remaining Greeks were all across the board in terms of allegiances and alliances. Some communist guerrillas engaged in armed resistance; others were actively involved with British Commandos. There were also some factions who did not recognize the Royal gov't anyway.
Nazi Puppet Strings
Croatia: the Germans set up a government ruled by the Utashe based on anti-Serb/anti-Orthodox sentiments. The Utashe went into Serb villages and forced residents to convert to Catholicism and many enemies of the puppet state were sent to death camps. The Bosnian Muslims were left alone, inexplicably. This is where we start to see the fires stoked even more. Like colonial regimes in Rwanda and Indonesia , ethnic and cultural distinctions were exploited for the overlords' gain (between Hutus and Tutsis and Chinese and Indonesian, respectively), aggravating fault lines that would later be prodded by poorly drawn boundaries or the mere side-by-side existence of these ethnic enemies.
WWII
In the early part of WWII, the Balkans were relatively unaffected, and, until 1941, the only violence the region experienced was a war fought along the Greek/Italy border. However, before Hitler dispatched his troops on their grand, ill-fated march up to Russia, he ordered the securing of the Balkans. This was not a tall order, given the decentralized nature of the region and its corresponding lack of military might; the campaign ended around the same time it started, with a few more feathers in the now-overcrowded Nazi cap.
This left the Balkan states with essentially one of three fates:
(1) Get directly in bed with Germany/Sell soul, etc.
(2) Squirm, but ultimately surrender, as the puppetmaster pulls the strings on your sham gov't
(3) Run for the hills and serve out ineffectual existence in exile
(a): spearhead guerrilla insurrection all but destined for immediate and total suppression by Nazis
Bowing to the Nazis
Bad options all, but the more, shall we say, pragmatic favored the short-term bliss of surrendering to their Nazi bride...and lived to regret it. This group included Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
Perks: regaining lands lost in Treaty of Versailles through partitioning of Czechoslovakia (Hungary); strength of Nazi state at your back (all)
Downsides: being forced to dispatch troops for German-led campaigns in the horrific wars on the Eastern front with the creatively brutal and macabre Russian troops (Hungary); losing lands/being used as a pawn between Russia and Germany (Romania); lasting stigma/fallout of alliance with Nazis (all)
Yugoslavia
Initially, Yugoslavia's leader signed an alliance deal with the Nazis, but was overthrown by lusty freedom-fighting Serbs. However, the Germans did not countenance this for long: Yugoslavia was soon invaded and partitioned. Croatia, including Bosnia, was placed under puppet rule; Serbia was under German military rule; Macedonia was given to Bulgaria.
Germany's policies were specifically aimed at denigrating Serbs and, when there were rumblings of armed insurgency, the Germans suppressed them swiftly and brutally.
Life in Exile...
Greece: Greek Royals fled to Egypt, and the remaining Greeks were all across the board in terms of allegiances and alliances. Some communist guerrillas engaged in armed resistance; others were actively involved with British Commandos. There were also some factions who did not recognize the Royal gov't anyway.
Nazi Puppet Strings
Croatia: the Germans set up a government ruled by the Utashe based on anti-Serb/anti-Orthodox sentiments. The Utashe went into Serb villages and forced residents to convert to Catholicism and many enemies of the puppet state were sent to death camps. The Bosnian Muslims were left alone, inexplicably. This is where we start to see the fires stoked even more. Like colonial regimes in Rwanda and Indonesia , ethnic and cultural distinctions were exploited for the overlords' gain (between Hutus and Tutsis and Chinese and Indonesian, respectively), aggravating fault lines that would later be prodded by poorly drawn boundaries or the mere side-by-side existence of these ethnic enemies.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Muslims and Jews Used to Get Along? Do Tell...
Religious/Ethnic Breakdown in the Balkans
Jews
• Sephardic Jews (AKA ‘Spanish-speaking’ Jews)
o these were some of the first Jews who ended up in the Balkans after being driven out of Spain when Isabelle/Ferdinand defeated and expelled the Moors
o They actually emigrated from Spain to the Ottoman Empire because of the relatively high degree of religious freedom enjoyed by its inhabitants, as well as the fact that the ruling Muslims respected the Jewish immigrants' monotheism and piety—the Jews were even granted a degree of independence in the form of self-government
• Ashkenazi Jews:
o This sect came to the region after being expelled from various parts of Western Europe
o Some of the Ashkenazi settled in areas known today as Lithuania and Poland (and were later persecuted by the Russians); others moved into Austria-Hungary
o Enlightenment ideals and toleration decrees under the Hapsburg Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries ensured that the Balkans remained a generally peaceful place for Jews
BREAKDOWN BY BALKAN
• Yugoslav: very small Jewish population
• Greece: large Sephardic population
• Bulgaria: small Jewish population that enjoyed measure of autonomy
• Lasting Impressions:
o Balkan Jews had hand in creating the Israeli state in 1948
o The Balkan Jews were generally thought to be anti-secular and somewhat in opposition to more progressive Jews from Western Europe
Muslims
• The root of Islam in the Balkans is from the long reign of the Ottoman Empire
• Bosnia:
o became a part of the Ottoman Empire in 1463
o When Bosnia was handed back over to the Austral-Hungarian Empire in 1878, they were no longer under Muslim rule and so started the persecution
o Until WWII, when Bosnia became a part of the Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia and, later, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia—eventually Yugoslavia came under control of Orthodox Christian Serbs and Bosnian Muslims were subject to harassment and arbitrary persecution
o During WWII, the region was occupied by Germans, but it was the ultra-nationalist Serbs (who spearheaded a strong insurgency against the Nazis and eventually established communist rule) who oversaw to it that 100,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed during that time
o Many of the Bosnians persecuted during WWII ended up migrating to Turkey
o After the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (basically the Communist answer to NATO), Bosnia declared its independence, but the Serbs remained in power and oversaw the slaughter of over 200,000 Muslims
TO BE CONTINUED....
Jews
• Sephardic Jews (AKA ‘Spanish-speaking’ Jews)
o these were some of the first Jews who ended up in the Balkans after being driven out of Spain when Isabelle/Ferdinand defeated and expelled the Moors
o They actually emigrated from Spain to the Ottoman Empire because of the relatively high degree of religious freedom enjoyed by its inhabitants, as well as the fact that the ruling Muslims respected the Jewish immigrants' monotheism and piety—the Jews were even granted a degree of independence in the form of self-government
• Ashkenazi Jews:
o This sect came to the region after being expelled from various parts of Western Europe
o Some of the Ashkenazi settled in areas known today as Lithuania and Poland (and were later persecuted by the Russians); others moved into Austria-Hungary
o Enlightenment ideals and toleration decrees under the Hapsburg Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries ensured that the Balkans remained a generally peaceful place for Jews
BREAKDOWN BY BALKAN
• Yugoslav: very small Jewish population
• Greece: large Sephardic population
• Bulgaria: small Jewish population that enjoyed measure of autonomy
• Lasting Impressions:
o Balkan Jews had hand in creating the Israeli state in 1948
o The Balkan Jews were generally thought to be anti-secular and somewhat in opposition to more progressive Jews from Western Europe
Muslims
• The root of Islam in the Balkans is from the long reign of the Ottoman Empire
• Bosnia:
o became a part of the Ottoman Empire in 1463
o When Bosnia was handed back over to the Austral-Hungarian Empire in 1878, they were no longer under Muslim rule and so started the persecution
o Until WWII, when Bosnia became a part of the Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia and, later, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia—eventually Yugoslavia came under control of Orthodox Christian Serbs and Bosnian Muslims were subject to harassment and arbitrary persecution
o During WWII, the region was occupied by Germans, but it was the ultra-nationalist Serbs (who spearheaded a strong insurgency against the Nazis and eventually established communist rule) who oversaw to it that 100,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed during that time
o Many of the Bosnians persecuted during WWII ended up migrating to Turkey
o After the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (basically the Communist answer to NATO), Bosnia declared its independence, but the Serbs remained in power and oversaw the slaughter of over 200,000 Muslims
TO BE CONTINUED....
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The Fearsome Saga of the Balkans Condensed (Sort of)
If the mention of places like Serbia and Montenegro strikes fear in your heart and blankness in your mind…
When I took on this topic, my ambitions were limited to the Balkan Wars that blared out from the teevee during my adolescence (and those about which I pretended to have a passing knowledge while signing onto resolutions during Model UN). It appears, however, that a workable understanding of the nineties’ Balkan skirmishes must include at least a brief discussion of the wars and territorial disputes during the late nineteenth century and beginning of the 20th century.
What is classified as ‘Balkan’ and why
There seem to have been 3 possible means through which a country became classified as a ‘Balkan’: location on the Balkan peninsula, proximity to Balkan mountain range (ooh side note—Balkan actually means mountain in Turkish!), or countries that were under the control of the Ottoman Empire. ***Don’t feel bad if this is incredibly confusing to you—the term ‘Balkanization’, meaning a disintegration of centralized order or unwieldy/ungovernable group of entities, was coined by cutesy op-eders (and maybe some statesmen) in order to honor the wacky border/territory/allegiance jumping characterized by the region.
In sum…
Balkan = countries on the Balkan Peninsula (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro) + Other Countries Sorta on the peninsula/along the Balkan Mountain Range/otherwise associated (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and Turkey)
Break Up of the Ottoman Empire→Independence of Balkan Nations→WWI→WWII→….
Ok, so the Ottoman Empire is basically what we think of culturally as Turkey, but, at the height of its power, it spanned three continents. Among the territories comprising its vast domain were the Balkan countries discussed above. It had a grand reign blabla, but lost Egypt, Greece, Moldavia, Walachia and partial control of Serbia in (relatively) quick succession during the Greek War of Independence, the two Russo-Turk Wars and the War with Muhammed Ali over Egypt.
So, what was left after this period of war within the Ottoman Empire?
• The Treaty of Berlin in 1878 recognized the complete independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro. Also under the terms of this treaty: established Bulgaria as a somewhat independent state (but still formally under Ottoman control), broken up into 3 protectorates (including Macedonia)-->Slovenia and Croatia + Bosnia/Herzegovina = under control of Austral-Hungarian Empire.
• After the huge territorial losses of the late 19th century, a wave of nationalism spelled the end of the end for the Ottoman Empire (hereafter, ‘The Turks’): the Turks were driven out of Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo. Wait, but the Balkans’ unification was limited to the common purpose of expelling the Turks: the Serbs turned against Bulgaria and occupied Macedonia and Albania.
• ZOMG: so the whole ‘Franz Ferdinand was shot by the Serbian Princip’ event that triggered WWI was because of all of this mess!!!! The Purpose of FF’s ill-fated mission was to quell the unrest in B&H on behalf of the Austral-Hungarian Empire!
Death to the Austral-Hungarian Empire
The Treaty of Versailles rewrote boundaries in the Balkan universe, establishing the ‘Kingdom of the Serbia, Croats and Slovenes.' Turned out that the idea of drawing territorial lines encompassing these three ethnicities under authoritarian Serbs was about as good an idea as naming the new country the ‘Kingdom of the Serba, Croats and Slovenes’—and neither the territorial demarcations nor the name were long for this world. The state’s name was changed to Yugoslavia and its ruler, Alexander, was murdered in an act of defiance on behalf of the oppressed Croats in 1934.
When I took on this topic, my ambitions were limited to the Balkan Wars that blared out from the teevee during my adolescence (and those about which I pretended to have a passing knowledge while signing onto resolutions during Model UN). It appears, however, that a workable understanding of the nineties’ Balkan skirmishes must include at least a brief discussion of the wars and territorial disputes during the late nineteenth century and beginning of the 20th century.
What is classified as ‘Balkan’ and why
There seem to have been 3 possible means through which a country became classified as a ‘Balkan’: location on the Balkan peninsula, proximity to Balkan mountain range (ooh side note—Balkan actually means mountain in Turkish!), or countries that were under the control of the Ottoman Empire. ***Don’t feel bad if this is incredibly confusing to you—the term ‘Balkanization’, meaning a disintegration of centralized order or unwieldy/ungovernable group of entities, was coined by cutesy op-eders (and maybe some statesmen) in order to honor the wacky border/territory/allegiance jumping characterized by the region.
In sum…
Balkan = countries on the Balkan Peninsula (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro) + Other Countries Sorta on the peninsula/along the Balkan Mountain Range/otherwise associated (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and Turkey)
Break Up of the Ottoman Empire→Independence of Balkan Nations→WWI→WWII→….
Ok, so the Ottoman Empire is basically what we think of culturally as Turkey, but, at the height of its power, it spanned three continents. Among the territories comprising its vast domain were the Balkan countries discussed above. It had a grand reign blabla, but lost Egypt, Greece, Moldavia, Walachia and partial control of Serbia in (relatively) quick succession during the Greek War of Independence, the two Russo-Turk Wars and the War with Muhammed Ali over Egypt.
So, what was left after this period of war within the Ottoman Empire?
• The Treaty of Berlin in 1878 recognized the complete independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro. Also under the terms of this treaty: established Bulgaria as a somewhat independent state (but still formally under Ottoman control), broken up into 3 protectorates (including Macedonia)-->Slovenia and Croatia + Bosnia/Herzegovina = under control of Austral-Hungarian Empire.
• After the huge territorial losses of the late 19th century, a wave of nationalism spelled the end of the end for the Ottoman Empire (hereafter, ‘The Turks’): the Turks were driven out of Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo. Wait, but the Balkans’ unification was limited to the common purpose of expelling the Turks: the Serbs turned against Bulgaria and occupied Macedonia and Albania.
• ZOMG: so the whole ‘Franz Ferdinand was shot by the Serbian Princip’ event that triggered WWI was because of all of this mess!!!! The Purpose of FF’s ill-fated mission was to quell the unrest in B&H on behalf of the Austral-Hungarian Empire!
Death to the Austral-Hungarian Empire
The Treaty of Versailles rewrote boundaries in the Balkan universe, establishing the ‘Kingdom of the Serbia, Croats and Slovenes.' Turned out that the idea of drawing territorial lines encompassing these three ethnicities under authoritarian Serbs was about as good an idea as naming the new country the ‘Kingdom of the Serba, Croats and Slovenes’—and neither the territorial demarcations nor the name were long for this world. The state’s name was changed to Yugoslavia and its ruler, Alexander, was murdered in an act of defiance on behalf of the oppressed Croats in 1934.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
THE JONESTOWN MASSACRE/CULT SUICIDE DEALIE
I. Who was Jim Jones?
--white trash from Indiana, his father was reputedly in the KKK.
--"voracious" reader as a child; extensively studied world leaders, demagogues, etc. Obsessed with death and religion at a young age.
--Honors student in HS. Attended Butler College.
--at age of 20 joined Communist Party, although he soon became frustrated with the negative connotation the term "communist" had in the US. (He was a Stalinist.)
--eventually he realized that if he were to espouse a hardcore religious angle, he'd be able to a) reach a wider audience and b) he'd have a steady stream of income from members of a potential congregation. He pinpointed devoutly religious African-Americans as potential members of his "flock".
--After being given a public position on an Indianapolis Human Rights commission (Indianapolis was still heavily segregated at this time), he accordingly set about on a campaign flamboyantly stressing integration. In his personal life, he adopted several non-white children as an emblem of his de-segregationist views.
II. The founding of his temple thingy
--*humorous tidbit* - he sold pet monkeys door-to-door to fund his church.
--he became preoccupied with the idea of nuclear war, and moved to Brazil scouting potential locales for his Temple/ministry while concealing his true, atheistic views.
--by the late 1960s, he was openly sermonizing that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment -- socialism." Jones also began preaching that he was the reincarnation of Jesus, Gandhi, Lenin, Buddha, etc.
--by the mid-70s he began openly admitting his atheism and openly denouncing Christianity. [I'm likin' this guy more and more!]
--1975 Jones was appointed as head of San Fran Housing Commission by Mayor Moscone. This afforded him unprecedented access to politicians/influence. Harvey Milk was an avid supporter of Jones, and he was quite close with Rosalynn (sp?)
--by this point his congregation consisted of ~1000 people. The tenets of his temple seem to have been: communal living; communal raising of children (including ritualistic beatings), humility, open disregard of Christianity, self-sufficiency re farming (the failure of their agriculture was a huge blow to Jonestown later on)
--along with his increasingly visible public profile came increased media scrutiny. Despite his having forged alliances with prominent members of the media, people were beginning to realize that something fishy was going on so he decided to move the whole kit and kaboodle to Guyana.
III. Jonestown settled
--Eventually due to media pressure, Guyana was chosen as the relocation site based (supposedly due to their connecting American big business with "creeping fascism"), but also likely because of the lack of a US-Guyana extradition treaty (?)
--
I. Who was Jim Jones?
--white trash from Indiana, his father was reputedly in the KKK.
--"voracious" reader as a child; extensively studied world leaders, demagogues, etc. Obsessed with death and religion at a young age.
--Honors student in HS. Attended Butler College.
--at age of 20 joined Communist Party, although he soon became frustrated with the negative connotation the term "communist" had in the US. (He was a Stalinist.)
--eventually he realized that if he were to espouse a hardcore religious angle, he'd be able to a) reach a wider audience and b) he'd have a steady stream of income from members of a potential congregation. He pinpointed devoutly religious African-Americans as potential members of his "flock".
--After being given a public position on an Indianapolis Human Rights commission (Indianapolis was still heavily segregated at this time), he accordingly set about on a campaign flamboyantly stressing integration. In his personal life, he adopted several non-white children as an emblem of his de-segregationist views.
II. The founding of his temple thingy
--*humorous tidbit* - he sold pet monkeys door-to-door to fund his church.
--he became preoccupied with the idea of nuclear war, and moved to Brazil scouting potential locales for his Temple/ministry while concealing his true, atheistic views.
--by the late 1960s, he was openly sermonizing that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment -- socialism." Jones also began preaching that he was the reincarnation of Jesus, Gandhi, Lenin, Buddha, etc.
--by the mid-70s he began openly admitting his atheism and openly denouncing Christianity. [I'm likin' this guy more and more!]
--1975 Jones was appointed as head of San Fran Housing Commission by Mayor Moscone. This afforded him unprecedented access to politicians/influence. Harvey Milk was an avid supporter of Jones, and he was quite close with Rosalynn (sp?)
--by this point his congregation consisted of ~1000 people. The tenets of his temple seem to have been: communal living; communal raising of children (including ritualistic beatings), humility, open disregard of Christianity, self-sufficiency re farming (the failure of their agriculture was a huge blow to Jonestown later on)
--along with his increasingly visible public profile came increased media scrutiny. Despite his having forged alliances with prominent members of the media, people were beginning to realize that something fishy was going on so he decided to move the whole kit and kaboodle to Guyana.
III. Jonestown settled
--Eventually due to media pressure, Guyana was chosen as the relocation site based (supposedly due to their connecting American big business with "creeping fascism"), but also likely because of the lack of a US-Guyana extradition treaty (?)
--
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