This is the third post in the series which began
here.
The background material, to support this post's following narrative, comes from
About dot com,
Wikipedia,
Psychology Today, as well as contextual links throughout the post.
In
the previous post, I indicated that we would consider the
psychological evolution of
Jim Jones as an adult, while comparing that evolution with the evolution of U.S. government after
it began to govern the most powerful polluter in the world.
Jim Jones, the leader of the church called "
People's Temple," as well as early Americans, both had a vision for a better world.
Both the
People's Temple and
We the People's Constitutional Government were formed to help make that better world happen.
Unfortunately, due to
the toxins of power, both eventually became unstable personalities and institutions.
That eventuality happened because
the toxins of power overcame both individuals and governments, when they failed to stay sufficiently aware of those toxins of power.
Jim Jones eventually lost touch with the earlier principles, and so, became responsible for the deaths of over 900 church people. That "Christian church" eventually committed "revolutionary suicide" and mass murder at their Jonestown compound in Guyana.
The U.S.eh? government eventually attained economic, social, and then military power, to thereafter become
a military empire,
after having fought war after war, of course.
Yes, the concept of
peace above all else waned in both Jonestown and the U.S.eh?, even after
they had been warned for decade upon decade about the consequences of so doing.
Eventually, about 50 years ago, a
military-industrial complex formed, then evolved into
MOMCOM, which is now on a path to eventually become responsible for millions or billions of deaths, due to the prospect of
revolutionary ecocide, or perhaps
mass suicide-murder by way of a nuclear holocaust.
Jim Jones was born in the small town of Crete, Indiana, while America was born within the minds of statesmen who wrote down their vision, their insightful words, yes, wrote it down on small pieces of paper, calling the results the
Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution.
Jones' father was injured in World War I, so he could no longer work. America's founding fathers, in terms of ideology now lost in endless wars, no longer seem to be able to work either.
So, like Jim's mother Lynetta, who supported the family, MOMCOM is now the 1% provider in what is the
American Plutocracy, the 99% having a tiny share by comparison.
While working in a hospital as a teenager, Jones met Marceline Baldwin, and they were married, while MOMCOM met Uncle Sam just after the time of the industrial revolution, when
Sam became enamored of oil. Eventually love set in then grew to become a
suicidally-hooked-on-dirty-oil relationship, to the point
it is now firmly embedded in the nation's DNA.
The U.S.eh? political debate during this presidential cycle seems to be about the evil of contraception, the good of vaginal probes (mandated by "small government"), and the "
hoax of global warming". Evidently because that is what the GOP candidates say their god tells them.
Jones and Marceline had one child together, and also adopted several children of various ethnicities, while the U.S.eh? similarly opened arms to all nations saying "
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of you teamming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!".
Jones was proud of his "rainbow family", like the U.S.eh? was, as it struggled to eventually cast off slavery, while
both urged others to adopt inter-racially.
Despite an extremely difficult marriage, Marceline, Jim's wife, stayed with Jones until the end, and even though America had a "civil" war, the states were forced to stay "united".
As an adult, Jim Jones wanted to make the world a better place, working to help his church and family prosper, as did America, prospering so well that it became an empire, then took the lead in the world, voicing ... and more,
a desire to make the world a much better place.
At first, Jones tried to be a student pastor at an already established church, but he quickly quarreled with the church's leadership, likewise, those who became Americans quarreled with
The Church of England, to the point of eventually leaving Britain to form their own religious freedoms elsewhere.
Jones, who believed strongly against segregation, wanted to integrate the church, which was not a popular idea at that time, much like America that could not shake slavery at its inception, but eventually became a voice against racism in the world, and eventually shook off slavery.
Jones soon began preaching specifically to African Americans, while America passed the
Civil Rights Act and the
Voting Rights Act, allowing all races and genders to have a part in governing.
Jones mostly wanted to help the underprivileged, but misused "healing" rituals to attract new followers, meanwhile America began to use
deceit and propaganda to attract new "followers." These highly staged events claimed to heal people's illnesses, anything from eye problems to heart disease, even as many Americans resisted "health care for all", but embraced jingoism.
Jones eventually had enough followers to start his own church, and American thinkers had enough people willing to set sail for a new beginning. By selling imported monkeys as pets to people door to door, Jones had saved enough money to open his own church in Indianapolis, Americans sold slaves at first, to help "grow the economy." America eventually expanded from coast to coast too, then, set up hundreds of military bases around the world.
In 1956 Jim Jones started a racially integrated church in Indianapolis, a church that focused on helping people in need. At a time when most churches were segregated, the
People's Temple offered a very different, Utopian view of what society could become. It was so American (after
Brown v Board of Education anyway).
Jones was the charismatic leader of the church involved with helping others, but began to
more and more demand loyalty as he preached sacrifice. His vision, to some, was seen at best as socialist in nature.
America extolled the virtues of "the public welfare", "the public good", and even thought privately "we take care of our own." This, oddly enough, happened as the military was growing increasingly large, and with the help of
McTell News, it came to be seen as
the most competent institution in America.
In earlier times, Jim Jones believed that
American vulture capitalism would cause an unhealthy balance in the world, whereby the rich would have too much, and the poor would have to work too hard to receive too little.
Today this is seen by many to have been an accurate observation, at least as far as the nation's fair minded economy and government did eventually begin to evolve into the
American Plutocracy, fueled by the
American Plutonomy.
Through the
People's Temple, Jones preached activism, through the People's free press, America preached activism so as to bring democracy to all in the world. Although just a small church, the
People's Temple established soup kitchens and homes for the elderly and mentally ill. They also helped find people jobs. It was so American.
As the
People's Temple grew increasingly successful, the scrutiny of Jones and his practices grew as well, likewise the American Free Press discovered Watergate and took down President Nixon. When an investigation into Jones' healing rituals was about to begin, Jones decided it was time to move away from those reporters. Similarly, a few American corporations bought up the free press to make it their own, to later more and more remove the long-term interests of the people from the news.
"In 1966, Jones moved the
People's Temple to Redwood Valley, a small town just north of Ukiah, in Northern California. Jones picked Redwood Valley in particular because he had read an article that listed it as one of the top places least likely to be hit during a nuclear attack. Plus, California seemed much more open to accepting an integrationist church than Indiana had been. About 65 families followed Jones from Indiana to California."
"Once established in Redwood Valley, Jones expanded into the San Francisco Bay Area. The
People's Temple once again established homes for the elderly and the mentally ill. They also helped addicts and foster children. The work done by the Peoples Temple was praised in newspapers and by local politicians." Eventually
the military turned the free press into a vast propaganda engine, which increasingly taught that war is an art, not a disease.
People in the church inexplicably trusted Jim Jones and the U.S. government, believed that they had a clear view of what needed to be changed in the U.S.eh? and the world. Yet, many did not know,
or did not want to believe, that Jones and America were
subject to corruption.
With help from the evolving main stream media, from the outside, Jim Jones and his
People's Temple, like the U.S.eh? and its
vast classified imperialistic operations, looked like nothing more than an amazing success. Yet on the inside, the church and the nation were transforming into cults centered around Jim Jones and MOMCOM, with an economy centered around wealthy corporations owned by the 1%.
Corporations that were eventually called "people", and a pastor Jones who was eventually called a god. Corporations sold themselves as the
People's Temple on Wall Street.
After the move to California, Jones changed the tenor of the
People's Temple from religious to political, while American politicians and churchmen eventually sought to
blur those lines too.
Members at the top of the church's and nation's hierarchy had pledged not only their devotion, but had also pledged over all of their material possessions and money "to causes." Some members even signed over custody of their children to Jones, and others to wars.
Jones and
people in government become infatuated with power, through the surreptitious workings of
the toxins of power. Jim required everyone to call him either "Father" or "Dad", even as the national psyche evolved to a place where citizens
consider the government to be a parent.
Jones also took large quantities of drugs, even as
Big Pharma evolved to saturate the U.S.eh? with pills that were designed to cure everything.
Anti-biotic pill production went rogue, even though the people were biotic.
At first, it might have been
to help the Jones' stay up longer, so that more good works could be done, but eventually the pills caused major mood swings, health deteriorated, and it increased wide-spread
paranoid jingoism in Sam.
No longer was Jones just worried about nuclear attacks, he soon believed that the entire government, especially the CIA and FBI, were after him.
The government likewise started a war on terror, and increased domestic spy agencies a thousand fold, encouraging the people to spy on each other then report suspicious activity (like paying for coffee at an internet café with cash).
In part, to escape from this perceived government threat, and to escape from an exposé about to be published, Jones decided to move the
People's Temple to Guyana in South America, as the mainstream media morphed into
McTell News, so as t
o help the south in America rise again in the U.S.eh?
Jones convinced many of the
People's Temple members to move, to what was supposed to be a Utopian commune in the jungles of Guyana, and
McTell News convinced everyone it could in the U.S.eh?, to move to the right.
Jones' control over his members became extreme, meanwhile the national security engines in the U.S.eh? increased surveillance throughout the nation, in a hope for a domestic control that would better the nation.
It was apparent to many that there was no escape from Jones' control, meanwhile the U.S.eh? began to put more and more Americans in prisons.
Finally, having only 5% of the world population the U.S.eh? imprisoned 25% of the world's prison population. The living conditions at the
People's Temple became horrible, the work hours were long, and Jones had changed for the worse, even as millions in the U.S.eh? lost homes, jobs, and health care. As the 1% got richer and richer.
When rumors of the conditions at the Jonestown compound reached relatives back home, concerned relatives put pressure on the government to take action, even as
The Occupy Movement sprung up around the U.S.eh? to decry the
status quo which was causing them to suffer.
When
Congressman Leo Ryan took a trip to Guyana to visit Jonestown, the trip ignited Jones' own fears of a government conspiracy that was out to get him, while U.S.eh? homeland security became afraid that
The Occupy Movement was a terrorist attack. Thus they responded with coordinated militancy, and a spy effort to infiltrate and crush it.
To Jones, greatly addled by drugs and his paranoia, Ryan's visit meant Jones' own doom, while MOMCOM felt
The Occupy Movement was subversive.
Jones launched an attack against Ryan and his entourage, and in so doing used that fake "attack" to influence all his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide", even as the forces of MOMCOM in turn, shot, beat, pepper sprayed, and jailed members of
The Occupy Movement.
"
While most of his followers died from drinking cyanide-laced grape punch, Jim Jones died on the same day of a gunshot wound to the head. It is still unclear as to whether or not the gunshot wound was self-inflicted."
Many fear the U.S.eh? is dying of a self-inflicted wound, as MOMCOM rises up, increases
damage to the Earth's environment with
poisons, increases wars, and plunders the people's treasury to satiate the lust and greed of the 1% Plutocrats.
Now in the U.S.eh? the
warnings of scientists, even
republican scientists, are beginning to be violently
resisted by the right wing of MOMCOM, while being muted by
McTell News.
The cries of the
warmonger engendered homelessness sufferers, the hungry, and the poor are blamed on them, blamed on their own character flaws.
Even as religion becomes the dialogue of the right wing politicians, who want more power, so they can take more from those poor, then give more to their rich 1% cronies who haven't needed it for decades.
'
Hood Robin' has replaced Robin Hood, even as MOMCOM has replaced America.
And
did I mention torture? Yeah, Jim and Sam developed a thing for that too:
“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
Studies show that there are a higher number of psychopaths both
in government, and
in business, than there are in the general population.
The next post in this series is
here, the previous post in this series is
here.
In the first post of this series, on this very date years ago (in fact it was over 1,300 posts ago), Dredd Blog discussed one famous case written down in the annals of American jurisprudence. 
