Hey, guys, want to see Mari getting genuinely freaked out?
I was just watching a documentary about the Jonestown massacre on Dateline...
Guys? I already knew it was a horrible atrocity. I've read about it several times. Apparently, I missed the part where about an hour of it was caught on effing tape.
I tuned in just in time to catch a clip of Jones telling his followers to commit suicide. One woman speaks up, saying that she thinks they should all be able to decide for themselves whether to give up their lives or not. Someone else yells at her, saying that "You're only standing here because he was here in the first place. So I don't know what you're talking about, having an individual life. Your life has been extended to the day that you're standing there because of him.".
At one point, a woman starts breaking down because she's seen her child poisoned, and Jones says "Mother, mother, mother, please, please, please, lay down your life next to your child..."
The most disturbing thing is that he speaks so sincerely. Like I said to Megan, you can TELL he was a minister. You can hear all the verbal cues that you'd look for in a sincere person; if you aren't listening to what the man says, it might as well be a bog-standard sermon. Now, I realize that real cult leaders aren't likely to come off as being dangerous, but it's still creepy as all hell.
JONES: "Free at last. Keep--keep your emotions down. Keep your emotions down. Children, it will not hurt. If you'd be--if you'll be quiet. If you'll be quiet.
(Music and crying.)
It's never been done before, you say. It's been done by every tribe in history. Every tribe facing annihilation. All the Indians of the Amazon are doing it right now. They refuse to bring any babies into the world. They kill every child that comes into the world. Because they don't want to live in this kind of a world...
Adults, adults, adults. I call on you to stop this nonsense. I call on you to quit exciting your children when all they're doing is going to a quiet rest. I call on you to stop this now if you have any respect at all. Are we black, proud, and Socialist, or what are we? Now stop this nonsense. Don't carry this on anymore. You're exciting your children."
Exciting. Your. Children. I'm genuinely befuddled as to whether Jones actually believed what he said, or if he was simply narcissistic on the scale of Hiroshima. Probably some combination of both. Maybe he decided that he wanted to commit suicide and absolutely had to drag his followers down with him. Either way... god. It's unbelievably disturbing. The way he patronizingly tells the adults to stop EXCITING THEIR CHILDREN... you just want to shove him out of a very high window, don't you?
There is a very special place in Hell for people who take people's trust in them and use it like this.
Guys? I already knew it was a horrible atrocity. I've read about it several times. Apparently, I missed the part where about an hour of it was caught on effing tape.
I tuned in just in time to catch a clip of Jones telling his followers to commit suicide. One woman speaks up, saying that she thinks they should all be able to decide for themselves whether to give up their lives or not. Someone else yells at her, saying that "You're only standing here because he was here in the first place. So I don't know what you're talking about, having an individual life. Your life has been extended to the day that you're standing there because of him.".
At one point, a woman starts breaking down because she's seen her child poisoned, and Jones says "Mother, mother, mother, please, please, please, lay down your life next to your child..."
The most disturbing thing is that he speaks so sincerely. Like I said to Megan, you can TELL he was a minister. You can hear all the verbal cues that you'd look for in a sincere person; if you aren't listening to what the man says, it might as well be a bog-standard sermon. Now, I realize that real cult leaders aren't likely to come off as being dangerous, but it's still creepy as all hell.
JONES: "Free at last. Keep--keep your emotions down. Keep your emotions down. Children, it will not hurt. If you'd be--if you'll be quiet. If you'll be quiet.
(Music and crying.)
It's never been done before, you say. It's been done by every tribe in history. Every tribe facing annihilation. All the Indians of the Amazon are doing it right now. They refuse to bring any babies into the world. They kill every child that comes into the world. Because they don't want to live in this kind of a world...
Adults, adults, adults. I call on you to stop this nonsense. I call on you to quit exciting your children when all they're doing is going to a quiet rest. I call on you to stop this now if you have any respect at all. Are we black, proud, and Socialist, or what are we? Now stop this nonsense. Don't carry this on anymore. You're exciting your children."
Exciting. Your. Children. I'm genuinely befuddled as to whether Jones actually believed what he said, or if he was simply narcissistic on the scale of Hiroshima. Probably some combination of both. Maybe he decided that he wanted to commit suicide and absolutely had to drag his followers down with him. Either way... god. It's unbelievably disturbing. The way he patronizingly tells the adults to stop EXCITING THEIR CHILDREN... you just want to shove him out of a very high window, don't you?
There is a very special place in Hell for people who take people's trust in them and use it like this.