This entry takes a rather unexpected look at the unlikely combination of two authentic American prophets, one legitimately established, the other abysmally failed, and the social experiments in wishful thinking resulting from their efforts. Not that I intend to draw an equivalency of any sort between them, but their comparison will undoubtedly bring their respective experiences into a sharper focus and, hopefully, yield us some fresh insights.
The life and death of Joseph Smith has brought about a thriving new community of Americans, religiously driven and socially active. The life and death of Jim Jones has brought about nothing but a ghastly memory of the worst collective murder-suicide in American history, and not even a perfunctory nod of appreciation from the sole beneficiary of Jones's last will and testament: the Communist Party of the USSR.
But let us not rush our two stories. We shall begin with Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saints religious movement. His critics called him a clever and immoral conman, playing on the religious sensibilities of his fellow Americans, thirsty for a new improved religion. Coming up with the idea that an angel (Moroni) had paid him a visit and led him to the treasure trove of gold plates containing a sacred text was a thoroughly ingenious idea, and, most importantly and improbably, it worked! Although nobody was allowed to see the plates, Joseph Smith was a charismatic young man, and his followers chose to believe him on the strength of his charisma. Throughout the whole risky game, Smith was constantly getting in trouble with the Law, and during one of his imprisonments he was attacked and killed by an angry mob of his detractors. Thus Smith’s new religious movement got itself a martyr-founder, and thanks to the inspired move of Smith’s follower Brigham Young, who, like Moses, led the crowds of the new religion’s adherents away from the populated areas of non-Mormon America to the wilderness of Utah, this new movement was thus allowed to settle, as if in a test tube of the social experimentation, which produced a distinctive Mormon culture, united by religion, a new cohesive cultural tradition, which... well... worked!
Curiously, after Smith’s death, and with no clear successor established, several of his followers claimed the mantle of his successor, but only the Brighamite branch of the movement sprouted a full-fledged culture of Utah Mormonism. I attribute this to the fact that, generally speaking, Smith’s new religion was not much of a religion per se, and it was only under the specific conditions of isolation from the rest of the world that the Mormon culture flourished, and in so doing it had given cultural legitimacy to Mormonism as a religion. As I noted in the Religion section, concerning the Mormons, I believe that outside the proper boundaries of the State of Utah, where it is the dominant religion, Mormonism has no legitimacy anywhere else, be that inside the United States of America or anywhere abroad. But inside Utah, we can rightly observe that the Mormon experiment in wishful thinking, albeit extravagant and outlandish, has survived, taken root, and succeeded marvelously altogether.
The story of Jim Jones (1931-1978) has several totally different aspects from that of Joseph Smith, but in the end, both represent two sides of the same American experience, of the same wishful thinking for better or for worse, on the part of activity-prone, yet unfulfilled citizens in search of a new adventure, and the enterprising power- and fame-hungry men, born with a strongly developed leader syndrome, and applying themselves to the new opportunities, which they themselves had caught while fishing in the social pool of wishful thinking. Unlike the story of Smith (hagiographically written by his triumphant disciples, and virtually uncontested by his detractors, gagged with the surest gag of all: that of political correctness and prohibition of “hate speech” against an established religion), the story of Jones has been written entirely by his enemies, and even though he deserves the historical memory of a monster, the historical circumstances of his rise and fall ought to be treated with great caution and distrust every step of the way.
Now, here is an example of his Wikipedia biography, depicting him as a weird, although precocious child:
“In interviews for the 2007 documentary film Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, childhood acquaintances recalled Jones as being a “really weird kid” who was “obsessed with religion... obsessed with death,” and claimed that he frequently held funerals for small animals, and had, reportedly, fatally stabbed a cat as a young child.
Jones was a voracious reader as a child, and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, and Adolf Hitler carefully, noting each of their strengths and weaknesses.”
Without even knowing anything about Jones, that is, whether he was a saint or a monster from hell, this kind of “biography” can be judged as a pretty unintelligent attempt at crude propaganda, which is bound to raise suspicions about the reasons for such an intense bias, rather than inform the reader about the facts of Jones’ private and public life.
Therefore, leaving this kind of biography aside, we can only assume the basic facts in evidence, that Jones had emerged as the charismatic leader of a survivalist cult, had a considerable following, and even political endorsement from such prominent California Democrats as George Moscone and Willie Brown. Whether or not he was calling himself a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, the Buddha and Lenin, among others, is just another unsubstantiated tidbit that we ought to throw away. His quasi-religious organization Peoples Temple was founded in 1955, and was later headquartered in San Francisco. Touted as a socialist commune, it thrived in several California locations, enjoying support of several mainstream politicians and even personally of the First Lady Rosalynn Carter and indirectly of President Carter and his Vice President Mondale. In other words, for a weirdo who allegedly killed pets, admired Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, and called himself an incarnation of Jesus Christ, that was perhaps too much establishment recognition, wasn’t it?
The building of the utopian socialist commune of Jonestown in Guyana began in 1974, but by 1978 it came under intense scrutiny for the alleged human rights abuses of its members. Jones claimed interference and espionage by several United States Intelligence agencies, but it had become clear by then that the commune was about to collapse. And collapse it did, in the infamous murder-suicide of 909 commune members, Jones included, on November 18, 1978.
No matter what, even if the ensuing official propaganda offensive must have distorted many facts, there can be no justification for the tragedy of Jonestown, and there can be nothing short of astonishment at how this whole affair of the Jim Jones enterprise had been allowed to proceed with the vocal and tacit approval from the foremost names of American politics!
And yet, we shall hardly ever learn the whole truth...
Here in this entry we have brought together two bizarre social experiments in America: one, Joseph Smith’s, a demonstrable success, the other, Jim Jones’s, a demonstrable debacle, and there is little else to be learned about the birthing details of each enterprise, as history, in both cases written by the victors, cannot be trusted in either case, despite the outer appearances of historical objectivity.
The life and death of Joseph Smith has brought about a thriving new community of Americans, religiously driven and socially active. The life and death of Jim Jones has brought about nothing but a ghastly memory of the worst collective murder-suicide in American history, and not even a perfunctory nod of appreciation from the sole beneficiary of Jones's last will and testament: the Communist Party of the USSR.
But let us not rush our two stories. We shall begin with Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saints religious movement. His critics called him a clever and immoral conman, playing on the religious sensibilities of his fellow Americans, thirsty for a new improved religion. Coming up with the idea that an angel (Moroni) had paid him a visit and led him to the treasure trove of gold plates containing a sacred text was a thoroughly ingenious idea, and, most importantly and improbably, it worked! Although nobody was allowed to see the plates, Joseph Smith was a charismatic young man, and his followers chose to believe him on the strength of his charisma. Throughout the whole risky game, Smith was constantly getting in trouble with the Law, and during one of his imprisonments he was attacked and killed by an angry mob of his detractors. Thus Smith’s new religious movement got itself a martyr-founder, and thanks to the inspired move of Smith’s follower Brigham Young, who, like Moses, led the crowds of the new religion’s adherents away from the populated areas of non-Mormon America to the wilderness of Utah, this new movement was thus allowed to settle, as if in a test tube of the social experimentation, which produced a distinctive Mormon culture, united by religion, a new cohesive cultural tradition, which... well... worked!
Curiously, after Smith’s death, and with no clear successor established, several of his followers claimed the mantle of his successor, but only the Brighamite branch of the movement sprouted a full-fledged culture of Utah Mormonism. I attribute this to the fact that, generally speaking, Smith’s new religion was not much of a religion per se, and it was only under the specific conditions of isolation from the rest of the world that the Mormon culture flourished, and in so doing it had given cultural legitimacy to Mormonism as a religion. As I noted in the Religion section, concerning the Mormons, I believe that outside the proper boundaries of the State of Utah, where it is the dominant religion, Mormonism has no legitimacy anywhere else, be that inside the United States of America or anywhere abroad. But inside Utah, we can rightly observe that the Mormon experiment in wishful thinking, albeit extravagant and outlandish, has survived, taken root, and succeeded marvelously altogether.
The story of Jim Jones (1931-1978) has several totally different aspects from that of Joseph Smith, but in the end, both represent two sides of the same American experience, of the same wishful thinking for better or for worse, on the part of activity-prone, yet unfulfilled citizens in search of a new adventure, and the enterprising power- and fame-hungry men, born with a strongly developed leader syndrome, and applying themselves to the new opportunities, which they themselves had caught while fishing in the social pool of wishful thinking. Unlike the story of Smith (hagiographically written by his triumphant disciples, and virtually uncontested by his detractors, gagged with the surest gag of all: that of political correctness and prohibition of “hate speech” against an established religion), the story of Jones has been written entirely by his enemies, and even though he deserves the historical memory of a monster, the historical circumstances of his rise and fall ought to be treated with great caution and distrust every step of the way.
Now, here is an example of his Wikipedia biography, depicting him as a weird, although precocious child:
“In interviews for the 2007 documentary film Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, childhood acquaintances recalled Jones as being a “really weird kid” who was “obsessed with religion... obsessed with death,” and claimed that he frequently held funerals for small animals, and had, reportedly, fatally stabbed a cat as a young child.
Jones was a voracious reader as a child, and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, and Adolf Hitler carefully, noting each of their strengths and weaknesses.”
Without even knowing anything about Jones, that is, whether he was a saint or a monster from hell, this kind of “biography” can be judged as a pretty unintelligent attempt at crude propaganda, which is bound to raise suspicions about the reasons for such an intense bias, rather than inform the reader about the facts of Jones’ private and public life.
Therefore, leaving this kind of biography aside, we can only assume the basic facts in evidence, that Jones had emerged as the charismatic leader of a survivalist cult, had a considerable following, and even political endorsement from such prominent California Democrats as George Moscone and Willie Brown. Whether or not he was calling himself a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, the Buddha and Lenin, among others, is just another unsubstantiated tidbit that we ought to throw away. His quasi-religious organization Peoples Temple was founded in 1955, and was later headquartered in San Francisco. Touted as a socialist commune, it thrived in several California locations, enjoying support of several mainstream politicians and even personally of the First Lady Rosalynn Carter and indirectly of President Carter and his Vice President Mondale. In other words, for a weirdo who allegedly killed pets, admired Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, and called himself an incarnation of Jesus Christ, that was perhaps too much establishment recognition, wasn’t it?
The building of the utopian socialist commune of Jonestown in Guyana began in 1974, but by 1978 it came under intense scrutiny for the alleged human rights abuses of its members. Jones claimed interference and espionage by several United States Intelligence agencies, but it had become clear by then that the commune was about to collapse. And collapse it did, in the infamous murder-suicide of 909 commune members, Jones included, on November 18, 1978.
No matter what, even if the ensuing official propaganda offensive must have distorted many facts, there can be no justification for the tragedy of Jonestown, and there can be nothing short of astonishment at how this whole affair of the Jim Jones enterprise had been allowed to proceed with the vocal and tacit approval from the foremost names of American politics!
And yet, we shall hardly ever learn the whole truth...
Here in this entry we have brought together two bizarre social experiments in America: one, Joseph Smith’s, a demonstrable success, the other, Jim Jones’s, a demonstrable debacle, and there is little else to be learned about the birthing details of each enterprise, as history, in both cases written by the victors, cannot be trusted in either case, despite the outer appearances of historical objectivity.
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