...On November 18, 1978, in what is known as the “Jonestown Massacre,” more than 900 members of an American cult died in a mass suicide-murder under their leader Jim Jones. The mass suicide-murder took place at the Jonestown settlement in the South American nation of Guyana. James founded what turned into the Peoples Temple. Jones moved to Guyanese jungle where he made the Peoples Temple into what was supposed to be a real life paradise. Who would've thought that a gift from Heaven would later on turn out to be a gift from Hell in 1978. Jim Jones began his own religion at a young age and he often visited different churches in his area. As Jones’s knowledge grew on religions he began taking what he learned and going to houses preaching and he also preached to younger children. He was no normal teenage boy he wasn’t so much into sports, he believed to be sinful, he liked to drink and dance. After he had gathered a good amount of followers he had developed a church of his own. Jones was the leader of his church named, “the Peoples Temple” and he demanded loyalty and preached sacrifice. He believed the American Capitalism was the reason for unhealthy balance in the world. The rich had too much money and the poor worked to hard to try to get money. The Peoples Temple helped people find jobs and was suppose to be fair. Jones church was growing and was very successful, until investigations began and Jones decided it was time to move the Peoples Temple to a different location. Jim Jones...
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...Inside Jonestown The tragedy that occurred in Jonestown in 1978 may seem impossible to happen today but when many of the things that happened prior to massacre are looked at, it begins to seem plausible. The Peoples Temple had beginnings that were fairly similar to that of the early Catholic Church. It had common factors that would even appeal to people now. However, it ultimately proved to take a turn for the worst and head in a much different direction than the Catholic Church. One extremely important factor that is important in establishing a church or major organization such as the People’s Temple and the Catholic Church is a strong leader. In the early Catholic Church these leaders were the apostles, especially Peter, and in the People’s Temple it was Jim Jones. They were both very persuasive and passionate about what they believed, which they showed through preaching. However, the positions of these leaders and how they thought of themselves is very different. The Apostles saw themselves as servants of God and Jesus, which can be seen in in Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians when he states “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God……We who know Christ should view ourselves as His servants and our aim should be to be faithful...
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...Jim Jones formed The People’s Temples that had hundreds, even thousands of followers from a large range of religious and social backgrounds. It was a mystery on how he was able to manipulate and brainwash so many people to follow him and portray himself as their saviour, let along make them do a loyalty test by telling them to drink poison. Many people have different opinion regarding the massacre that occurred in Jonestown on November 18th 1978. This is one of the biggest mystery related to the Jonestown. Was the massacre a suicide performed by the group members to show their loyalty towards Jim Jones or was it cover up for murder? There was a lot of supporting evidence to show that this was an act of murder which was tried to cover...
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...Jonestown Section I: The Event One of the more disturbing incidents in American History is the Jonestown Massacre that occurred on November 18th, 1978 in Georgetown, Guyana. It was the largest loss of civilian life in a non-natural tragedy until the attacks of September 11th, 2001. 909 lives were lost under the hand of Jim Jones who had cultivated a following of people over twenty-plus years. Jim Jones started his first church, named The Peoples Temple, in the mid-1950’s in Indianapolis, Indiana (I). From the beginning, he preached a message of socialism and communism. Upon scrutiny of his tactics and teachings, he moved The Peoples Temple to Redwood Valley, California in 1965 and shortly after headquarters were set up in San Francisco. The Peoples Templecame into the public eye when eight defectors and negative media spoke out against the church. Jim Jones decided at this point to move his church to Georgetown, Guyana where the chilling events of November 18th would eventually unfold. To better understand how such a tragedy could occur it is important to understand the background of Jim Jones. Jones was born in Indianaand from an early age expressed interest in socialism and communism, studying the works and lives of Stalin, Marx, Gandhi, and Hitler among others. As he grew older, he became more and more politically involved in the communism movement, joining the Communist Party USA in 1951 (II). Jones was surprised with the reaction he received from Americans when he...
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...Social psychology examines the influence of groups on the developing self as well as the influence that an individual has on group. Although those with those with good intentions should use power with virtue, many of the world’s most powerful people use power in ways that purposefully harm other people. Social power refers to the force available to the influence in motivating change A power- abusing “religious” leader is Reverend Jim Jones, born 1931 in Crete, Indiana a rural community (Wikipedia). Jones was a voracious reader as a child studying Joseph Statin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adlof Hitler (Reiterman, Tim and John Jacobs).He studied each carefully, noting their strengths and weaknesses. In psychological term this is referring to as behaviorism According to his childhood acquaintances, they recalled Jones as being a “really weird kid” who was “obsessed with religion….obsessed with death…” (Catherine Wessinger). In human, awareness of the fact that one is acting deceptively often leads to telltale signs of deception. Therefore, if self-deception enables someone to believe their distortions, they will not present such signs of deception and will therefore appear to be telling the truth. As known in psychology this referred to as Delusional Disorder, it was note that he might have this disorder. “Individuals with delusional disorder are not always dangerous, but they can be when they act on their delusions” (B.Lahey). “As a young man Jones...
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...BUS381 Solutions Focused Leadership Laura Schade Dr. Marjorie Lott Argosy University – Inland Empire Analyzing Jim Jones as a Leader When analyzing what is determined as a good leader, one must think about what leadership really is. According to our text, “leadership is a complex phenomenon involving the leader, the followers, and the situation.” (Chapter 1) A leader is someone who is able to influence others to attain goals. “Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes whether religious or political or social…an essential element that all leaders share whether for good or evil goals is vision.” (Mosley, 2009) Jim Jones had a vision of making the world a better place. Or at least that was what he wanted people to believe. In Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, an article by Jennifer Rosenberg, she says that Jim had one child and adopted several children of different ethnicities. He was proud of his “rainbow family” and tried to encourage others to adopt interracially. He was against segregation which was not a popular idea in his time. He started his own church in 1956, the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana. Most churches were segregated at that time, but Jim Jones offered a utopian view of what society could become. He was a charismatic man who demanded loyalty and preached of sacrifice. His church established soup kitchens and homes for elderly and also helped people find jobs. In 1966, he moved the church to California because it seemed more open to an integrationist...
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...within the community. But by and by people came to know about his true nature. He was of a very arbitrary nature & was not interested in the religious activities of the church. In fact his real motive for founding the church and starting a new religious order was a very selfish one. At some of the services of the church people were subjected to physical abuse and he derived sadistic pleasure in amplifying their sounds by microphones. He convinced members to give their property to the church and even forcefully took away the six-year old child of a family. He moved the church to Guyana, claiming it as an ideal place for finding love, peace, happiness and wellbeing but the people found out it to be a façade. This settlement was called Jonestown. There the followers were ill treated by him and his assistants. They were made to...
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...At first, I thought I would only be interacting with other teenage volunteers, but I was introduced to the supervisor for my shift, a college student studying public health, the security guard, a Guyanese man who lives in Pennsylvania, and the other volunteer, an immigrant from Mexico. Two hour shifts at the front desk became a classroom where I experienced first-hand stories from the others present. From the Jonestown Massacre to stories about the streets of Thailand, I learned about the wonders this world has to offer. It is their diversity that ignites this passion in me to learn more about their experiences. In addition to discovering the wealth of knowledge the staff had to offer, I also learned from my interactions with patients and visitors, even using my knowledge of Chinese to help an elderly couple find their son’s room. Sitting behind a desk in the lobby of a hospital, I expected to stare at the computer screen the entire time; instead, I have unearthed a hidden vein of erudition. At WashU, I seek to continue to celebrate the diversity of the student body through a commitment to bettering the world around...
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...English has come a long way since it first started to crop up as a language. Many words have been borrowed from pervious and concurrent languages in the beginning and still are to this day. English is an ever evolving language. Even now, new words and phrases are being adding to it. What will the English language look like in 500 years? We can look to the past and present for clues to how the language will evolve over that time. The English language as it is known now will not exist in 500 years. The difference between English at the beginning of its usage and English in the modern day is astounding. It has come a very long way from how it used to be. This is due, in part, to the fact that English speakers are constantly adding new words and phrases. These days, it is common to see people texting on their phones and chatting on social media sites. To decrease the amount of characters they have to type, many use abbreviations or acronyms. Abbreviations and acronyms make it faster and easier to share information. They have become very prevalent in modern society. Acronyms like YOLO, which means “You Only Live Once”, have become so popular in writing that they have become commonly used while speaking. This form of speaking has become very popular among young people. In years to come, it would not be improbable if this acronym or acronyms like it became actual words. This would not be the first time an acronym has become a word though. The word laser was an acronym for Light...
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...On 18 November, 1978, 910 members of The People’s Temple, a religious sect led by its charismatic leader, the Reverend Jim Jones, committed mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, in South America. Fearful that he would be arrested and implicated in the killings of U.S. Congressman Leo J. Ryan and others, Jones gathered the entire community of followers and issued an edict for each person to commit suicide by drinking from a vat of strawberry-flavored poison. Compliantly, the majority of his followers systematically took turns drinking from the poisoned vat. A few who dissented were held down by others and forced to drink, children weren’t spared the same fate, as their parents force-fed them to consume the deadly concoction. It took approximately four minutes for each follower to die in convulsions. A few escaped, and as one escapee put it, “they were drinking the poison like they were hypnotized or something” (Cialdini 152). Commonly referred to as “The Jonestown Massacre,” the events at Jonestown sparked an international interest in a more general type of organization called a cult. A cult by is an organization that uses intensive indoctrination techniques to recruit and maintain members into a totalist ideology (Crawley 1). Almost everyone is susceptible to the influence of a cult and members are usually intelligent and idealistic. Typically associated with unorthodox religious groups, the definition of a cult can pertain to any group, including military organizations, governments...
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...On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple cult, ordered all his followers living in his Jonestown compound to drink poisoned grape-flavored punch in order to commit mass suicide. On that day, 912 people (including 276 children) died in what has become known as the Jonestown Massacre. How could one person convince over 900 others to commit suicide? Well, Jim Jones had been planning to carry out this "revolutionary act" of mass suicide for quite some time. To ensure full compliance, Jones had staged practice runs, called "White Nights," in which he would order everyone to drink what he told them was poisoned punch. After everyone had stood around for about 45 minutes or so, he would then tell them that this had been a loyalty test. The Dots in Pac-Man When the Pac-Man video game was released in 1980, it quickly became an international sensation. As kids and adults alike moved the pie-shaped Pac-Man character around the screen, they tried to eat up lots of dots without themselves getting eaten by ghosts. But how many dots were they trying to eat? It turns out that each level of Pac-Man had the exact same number of dots -- 240. Lincoln Logs Created by Frank Lloyd Wright's Son Lincoln Logs is a classic children's toy that has been played by millions of children for decades. The toy usually comes in a box or cylinder and includes both brown "logs" and green slats for roofs, which children use to build their own frontier house or fort. Despite playing...
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...Abstract Extreme cases of social roles or influences usually need treatment. Such as in the case of social influences and altruism were in the extremes it is necessary to correct behaviors that occur. However, choice is the clear decision maker in determining actions, whether good or bad, correct or incorrect, education needs to be available for people to make the right decision. Social Influences on Behavior Paper By examining the basic concepts and of human interaction in social situations and the way behavior changes by examining altruism and social influence we can get a better understanding of these concepts through a psychological perspective. What happens in these situations and if the effects of the situations require treatment or if the behaviors require correcting. Altruism is “behaving in a way that helps another person with no apparent gain, or with potential cost, to oneself.” (Kowalski, R., & Westen, D., 2009) There are several theories within altruism, there is ethical hedonism, “…asserts that all behavior, no matter how apparently altruistic, is and should be designed to increase one’s own pleasure or reduce one’s own pain.” (Kowalski, R., & Westen, D., 2009) This theory offers that giving money, food, etc. is only done by an individual to compensate for their own sorrow and making themselves feel better. Another theory is reciprocal altruism, “…natural selection favors animals that behave altruistically if the likely benefit to each individual over...
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...Runninghead: THE SEVENTIES AND NIXON’S LEGACY The Seventies and Nixon’s Legacy Carlos Michael Padilla HIST145: The American Experience Since 1945 Marvin Frohock March 5, 2008 The Seventies and Nixon’s Legacy “Streaking to the 1970s” was a phrase a group of former high school students made up as they reminisced about the butt dancing, cheek planters, also known as the BBITNs (pronounced BEE-bittens), which meant buffalo buffs in the nude who dashed brazenly, almost daringly across a playing field, the heart of a school campus, and even across a television screen during a major award ceremony. Such was the decade that preceded the conformity and complacency of the 1950s, and the sexual revolution and cultural renaissance that echoed during the 1960s. The decade of the 1970s ushered in the resignation of a president, the ending of a major Southeast Asian conflict, and the birth of two new forms of youth culture identity – streaking and disco. The 1970s began with the Beatles releasing Let It Be, which would be their last album, the Kent State shooting involving the death of the four students, the conviction of Charles Mansion for the murder of actress Sharon Tate, and the conviction of American soldiers for killing entire towns of Vietnamese villagers. This action marked the beginning of the end for America’s support of the American soldier. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War lasted between 1959 and 1975, ending with...
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...Islam, along with Christianity and Judaism is a major monotheistic religion of the world. It was founded by Prophet Muhammad in Arabia, in the 7th century CE. According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, “the Arabic term Islam, literally ‘surrender,’ illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam—that the believer, called a Muslim, accepts surrender to the will of Allah (God)” (Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). In Islam, Allah is considered the only God, and it is believed that humans must submit to his will. The Prophet Muhammad is considered the last Islamic Prophet, and the one to whom Allah had revealed sacred scriptures known as Qur’an. Although Muhammad started with a small group of followers, they quickly grew in number and his teachings started spreading rapidly “through the Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay Peninsula, and China”(Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). Today, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world which makes it 2nd largest religion of the world. However, Islam is perceived to be radical and contradictory religion by many non-Muslims. Moreover, due to the terrorist attacks which had been associated with this “religion of peace,” Muslims call it, Islam had been viewed as a “bad” religion. Since America is the “melting pot” of different cultures and religions, non-Muslims should strive to learn about the Islamic religion, its teachings and interpretations, its differences and similarities with Christianity and Judaism, and how to...
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...Candace T. Cults: A Dangerous Devotion “The most dangerous lie is that which most closely resembles the truth” - Jan Groenveld This quote above is by Jan Groenveld an Australian who has her own experiences as a former member of the LDS Church which deals with Mormonism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses and was featured in Richard Guilliatt’s book Talk of the Devil. Her definition of a cult is any group that has a pyramid type authoritative figure with all teachings and guidance coming from the person at the top. The group will claim to be the only way to God and will use thought reform and mind control to keep their members. Unfortunately, after 15 years in a cult she finally realized that she was being controlled rather than controlling her own life. She wanted to let people know about her experiences in order to help others. She is so hated by the church of scientology for exposing them that her name is not even allowed to pop up under scientology on Google. In the United States, it is estimated that there are 5,000 cults that are actively recruiting people, no matter the age and walks of life. Jan Groenveld made it her mission to help people recognize cults, spiritually abusive behaviors and how to defend them from persuasion. Because the beliefs in cults are so believable people become locked into a “thinking box” which makes them unable to see the world around them. The topic that I chose to analyze is religious cults. I chose this because I thought...
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