Remembering Paradise Lost

article on Jonestown tragedy

Remembering Paradise lost

As one great furnace flamed, yet from those
flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
- Paradise Lost 1, 62-63

Remembering Jonestown after these 37 years, the memories lead us to that old dark jungle, where once, some 1000 innocent Americans were lead to, in the dream of building a paradise. After many years of November 18 massacre a steel drum was found in the premises of Jonestown which had been engulfed by jungle by then, a drum that might be used during the meal time and later used for mixing the poison. Apart from our memories certain questions are raised in our mind. Who was Jim Jones? What was the real motivation behind such inhuman act? What are the morals to be learned from such an incident?

Despite of his father’s attachment with Ku Klux Klan movement, Jones hated racism and he with his wife Marceline became the first couple to adopt a child in Indiana. I think he was rather a socially frustrated person than a reverend, frustrated at the discrimination towards the black and the nation’s failure to maintain a socialist culture throughout. He was mislead, may be by the other side of Marxism and mistook Socialism and Utopianism. His mind setting might be an outcome of a common radical in a prosperous country in 60s and 70s with sound technology and high living standards comparatively. If your country feed you every day for free you will think beyond the facts and even beyond the society. That was the matter. In order to achieve his life goal, no matter how correct it was, he used religion and cult and attracted people’s support. He was nothing more than like one in our friends circle who wants to be the centre of attraction by telling funs or doing such things or even going to the extend of acting bizarre things. The innocent Americans both whites and blacks were totally brainwashed. They got impressed by the vibrant words of this guy about equality socialism and religion.

A majority of victims were poor blacks. I observe that a good percentage of impoverished blacks came to Jonestown in the expectation of better life which is free from poverty, racism and discrimination that prevailed even after the success of Rev. King’s “I have a Dream” speech in America and at the same time affluent whites because of their ideology and love for a Utopian state. They liked Jones who considered everybody alike. He himself moved to Jonestown in the summer of 1977 after the increasingly raising allegations against his own congregation, The Peoples Temple .His idea of constructing a utopian community in the remote jungle was utterly a Himalayan blunder. It was a folly that he tried to connect Socialism, communism and Utopianism altogether. By instinct, human beings are not socialists, but they like freedom instead. If a Utopian state persists ever in the world, the most prevailing character of the same will be the freedom of the mind. How can a Utopia be possible with a human being as its centre of attraction and whose odd choices and interests are to be imposed upon others? I strongly believe that a charismatic person can never shine in Utopia. So I advocate for Utopianism of individuals rather than the same of a commune, a Utopia of ones own with kindness, purgation of conscience, mercy and quest for peace.

Moreover, with a human being in the centre, who has power in his hands over others but the uncertainty in mind of that power, a Hitler chemistry will be followed. The human being will become a dictator and paranoid. The goodness and faith will be sacrificed in such a paranoiac condition. That was what happened in Jones. He was a Reverend. He said he was the reincarnation of Gandhi, Buddha and Lenin. He even put his son’s name as Stephan Gandhi Jones. Later he hated Christianity and became drug addicted and a paranoid. After the assassination of the congress man Leo Ryan at port Kaituma airstrip he knew that the sole responsible person behind it would be himself but not those 1000 people around him. His decision of committing a mass suicide (mass murder) despite of an early protest of some people members was completely selfish. Most of them must have thought it to be another white night.

I keep a two folded observation on the massacre. Primarily, Jones as a completely broken down person, a person who held some social ideas but got degenerated after succumbing to drugs and paranoia and secondly, the commune with lack of democratic character and its state of being brainwashed by a wicked charisma. If the innocent mothers were not fatally brainwashed they would not send their infant children to the hands of death. On the other hand it might be possible that they could do nothing in front of armed guardsmen still afraid of killing children. They were forced to death either physically or mentally .Further, if Jonestown was of a little democratic character, I believe such a massacre would not happen or at least the number of victims would be less.

Well, I am frequently being criticized for citing Jonestown massacre for advocating my views of negation of a third party intervention in our relationship with God. Still I argue that if you believe in God, believe in him but don’t believe anybody else in between. You don’t need a person to keep your ultimate faith in God. I would like to say an interesting thought. I have been periodically receiving mails from banks telling not to reveal any of my personal information and PIN to anybody. The banks never demand such confidential information. Like that religion never demands your death. It wants you to be purified day by day. If you believe in God, you believe in humanity, not its destruction. I would rather believe in religion and God if they lead me to humanity. In other words I believe in humanity more than I do in divinity.

One interesting fact to be observed on Jonestown tragedy is that I hardly hear any praise to God in the so called “Death Tape” which was purposefully recorded just before the incident. They didn’t pray to God but they did it as a revolutionary act against the US government, old defectors and concerned relatives. That means it was revenge than an act before God. They could do nothing with a God of hope but with Jim’s charisma. They lost the faith in God for their leader Jim Jones who had been given up Christianity long back by then.

Years passed but still those helpless cries from jungle echo in our memories. The jungle in Guyana reclaimed the whole Jonestown location. Investigations were done by both Governments and only one was sentenced to jail. Some of the survivors are still alive. For them, Jonestown remains to be a dark prologue which arises some painful memories. For me too. It constantly makes me think about enjoying the freedom of ones own thoughts, like one can be naked in his own thoughts. It demands me to tell the world that you don’t have any claim over your breath. It’s beyond society, beyond law. It’s up to nature, to God. It’s simply transcendental.

Thanks & Regards
Harish Babu.
November 2015.
Mumbai