The Berkeley Rep is showing The People’s Temple, and it’s really well done – they de-mystified it without either overly demonizing or romanticizing it. The KKK did shoot bullets at them; and they were Truly Paranoid. They did deceive people with chicken liver cancer healings; and they did pay for lots of real medical and social services for really poor people. The people there really loved each other; and they were incredibly cruel to each other…
However heroic, foolish, or evil some of the people there might have been, and for whatever emotional extremes of joy and fear they might have created, I don’t get the sense that many of laughed that much, and wonder if a better sense of humor might have prevented that tragedy.
Once you dig into it, the pathologies there aren’t unique, just more extreme. There’s a long description of Jones’ attempts to shut down stories about himself and the Temple; last month Steve Jobs was desperately trying to shut down the publication of a biography he didn’t like.
Charisma can be a dangerous gift…I wonder how much richer the bay area would be if those 914 people were still living.