0 comment Monday, June 23, 2014 | admin
Over at Moonbattery there is a post about the fact that November 18 is the anniversary of the awful Jonestown events -- whether you call the 900+ deaths suicide (as many do) or a massacre, it was a shocking scene.
Van Helsing at Moonbattery emphasizes that cult guru Jim Jones was a collectivist, a leftist, and not simply some crazed preacher as he was depicted in most of the media coverage. He was, first and foremost, a leftist, not a Christian. There is every evidence that he did not believe in Christianity, or religion in any form, unless he was to be its 'god.'
The Moonbattery piece links to a post by Petr at the old Original Dissent forums; it makes for interesting reading.
I know I've alluded to Jones and his 'People's Temple' in previous blog entries, but it is uncanny how closely his ideology resembled 21st century multiculturalist ideals. I don't say this in a flattering way, but he was ahead of his time. In our time he would not have fled the United States (which he believed was a thoroughly 'racist' country where he and his followers were hunted people). He would have stayed here and found a comfortable niche among his kindred souls on the multicult left. Maybe he would even be the revered grey eminence of that movement.
He was ahead of his time in that his obsessions and fetishes match those of today's cultural Marxists. He preached to his very diverse group of followers that America was a racist country, a fascist regime, in which their lives would be in constant danger. It sounds very similar to what the state media imply in many of their stories about 'racism.'
Jones was obsessed with the idea of 'rainbow families' much as today's trendy liberals are. He adopted 'diverse' children, and he pressured his followers to participate in interracial intimacy, which he told them was an act of love and charity.
He encouraged, shall we say, intergenerational relationships - the young with the elderly. This was recounted in a book written by a follower -- I have it in my possession somewhere, but at the moment I can't cite the name of the writer or the book. It's lost among my stacks of books for now.
The whole disastrous episode which ended in hundreds of people dead in Jonestown is a cautionary tale about the all-too-American tendency to blindly follow charismatic personalities, and to accept what authority figures say without examining it. There is no reason why his early followers, who were Christians, should have followed this deranged pied piper over the cliff. If they had done what Christians should do, and examined his 'teachings' from a Biblical perspective, as the Bereans of the Bible did, they would not have had a tragic end.
Why are many Americans so willing to follow false shepherds, and to uncritically accept the authority of these people? This seems to be a trait that is more common than it should be in our country. And the last couple of years seem to show us that it is ever more common.
What is most appalling about figures like Jones is that their compliant followers come to believe that they are serving 'God' or the cause of 'right' and justice. Totalitarianism in the name of do-goodery is the worst kind.
As I think I said before, Jones is something of a founder of postmodern 'America'; his ideology is the offical one, the default one, the one which most leftists today will fight for and maybe even die for. The leftists' 'America' should be renamed in honor of their inspiration, Jim Jones.
Maybe one of these days he will in fact be revered and his birthday honored. Maybe he will be the co-honoree on that January holy day that honors another leftist.
Van Helsing at Moonbattery emphasizes that cult guru Jim Jones was a collectivist, a leftist, and not simply some crazed preacher as he was depicted in most of the media coverage. He was, first and foremost, a leftist, not a Christian. There is every evidence that he did not believe in Christianity, or religion in any form, unless he was to be its 'god.'
The Moonbattery piece links to a post by Petr at the old Original Dissent forums; it makes for interesting reading.
I know I've alluded to Jones and his 'People's Temple' in previous blog entries, but it is uncanny how closely his ideology resembled 21st century multiculturalist ideals. I don't say this in a flattering way, but he was ahead of his time. In our time he would not have fled the United States (which he believed was a thoroughly 'racist' country where he and his followers were hunted people). He would have stayed here and found a comfortable niche among his kindred souls on the multicult left. Maybe he would even be the revered grey eminence of that movement.
He was ahead of his time in that his obsessions and fetishes match those of today's cultural Marxists. He preached to his very diverse group of followers that America was a racist country, a fascist regime, in which their lives would be in constant danger. It sounds very similar to what the state media imply in many of their stories about 'racism.'
Jones was obsessed with the idea of 'rainbow families' much as today's trendy liberals are. He adopted 'diverse' children, and he pressured his followers to participate in interracial intimacy, which he told them was an act of love and charity.
He encouraged, shall we say, intergenerational relationships - the young with the elderly. This was recounted in a book written by a follower -- I have it in my possession somewhere, but at the moment I can't cite the name of the writer or the book. It's lost among my stacks of books for now.
The whole disastrous episode which ended in hundreds of people dead in Jonestown is a cautionary tale about the all-too-American tendency to blindly follow charismatic personalities, and to accept what authority figures say without examining it. There is no reason why his early followers, who were Christians, should have followed this deranged pied piper over the cliff. If they had done what Christians should do, and examined his 'teachings' from a Biblical perspective, as the Bereans of the Bible did, they would not have had a tragic end.
Why are many Americans so willing to follow false shepherds, and to uncritically accept the authority of these people? This seems to be a trait that is more common than it should be in our country. And the last couple of years seem to show us that it is ever more common.
What is most appalling about figures like Jones is that their compliant followers come to believe that they are serving 'God' or the cause of 'right' and justice. Totalitarianism in the name of do-goodery is the worst kind.
As I think I said before, Jones is something of a founder of postmodern 'America'; his ideology is the offical one, the default one, the one which most leftists today will fight for and maybe even die for. The leftists' 'America' should be renamed in honor of their inspiration, Jim Jones.
Maybe one of these days he will in fact be revered and his birthday honored. Maybe he will be the co-honoree on that January holy day that honors another leftist.
Labels: Authoritarianism, Cultural Marxism, Multicult, Racial Conflict, Totalitarianism