Jonestown mass suicide

billzhao

$ e8 k9 q# `& j1 N3 \5 K/ Zhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HTtLHgU9tY

- `/ l2 Y0 n4 O; t8 Q9 d
CNN documentary
3 I! K( l, c* v8 o$ Z
. E4 t" a# h( P* H/ ^* QNew documentary explores Jonestown mass suicide
; W% K# I$ I' ]$ \
Twenty-eight years later, what's left to say about Jonestown? Nine hundred members of a religious cult followed their fanatical leader to Guyana and willingly committed suicide by drinking a Kool-Aid-like mixture laced with cyanide.
: l) P$ w9 N5 I# G
% v  M5 r& U! \4 T* A+ NWhat more could there be to the story? Plenty, it turns out.
I watched an advance copy of the new documentary, "Jonestown," by filmmaker Stanley Nelson on Sunday, and found myself drawn deeply into a macabre tale that I had little prior knowledge of.
$ ?- ^' q* o5 M9 ^- M5 W
& {9 r0 ~, M# A) i3 J& X& g. aNelson interviewed more than two dozen former members of Jim Jones' controversial Peoples Temple, including some who survived the Jonestown mass suicide -- which, by the way, looks more like mass murder now. And Nelson has unearthed dramatic video and sound recordings -- never seen or heard before that shed new light on the establishment, development and downfall of the Peoples Temple, right up until the moment Jim Jones passes out the cups.
3 U; t. R4 n' }- a
The most chilling part of the film is the audio tape of Jones urging his followers to choose death over persecution. I heard, for the first time, the emotionally-pitched debate between Jones and parishioners who would rather live than die in the South American jungle. It was like a scene out of Apocalypse Now, only this time, the killing was real.
/ {9 w* @: R" l5 C
I also learned that Jim Jones didn't suddenly take a hard left onto the highway of darkness. He was deeply disturbed from childhood, and is even suspected of abusing animals, something many experts believe is a hallmark of an emerging psychopath.

What's most tragic though is that Jones' followers don't come off as a cult of religious deviants. They were -- for the most part -- earnest people, attracted to the Peoples Temple for the sense of community they couldn't find in their own lives. It gave them a feeling of belonging, though as the years wore on and Jones' insanity escalated, membership came at an ever-increasing, and in the end, ultimate price.
5 a5 m' Z" A6 k5 [1 V