Thought Provoking TV

It's a compelling story. It's also gruesome. It's the story of Jim Jones, and Jonestown.

I have no idea why I find this so very fascinating, but I do. Cult leaders in general just fascinate me. Don't get me wrong - I do not condone what they do in any way, shape, or form, but we studied serial killers and cult leaders in Abnormal Psych, and I am just absolutely riveted at their ability to get inside of people's heads and make them blindly follow. The mindset and methodology that they use is amazing, as many are uneducated or learning disabled, but will hatch elaborate plans. The scholar in me just can't turn away - I have to know more about this. I need to analyze it. I need to find out what went wrong and why, in the hopes that in the future, people like this can be caught or stopped.

I don't know why Jones just rivets me. Like others, he started out with good intentions, and for all appearances, enjoyed the power that came with it, and power can and often does corrupt. Combine that with mental instability and rampant drug use, and it's a powder keg that will eventually blow up and take a lot of innocent people with it. I know I'm not alone. Almost 30 years later, they're still talking and analyzing. In a demented way, he's probably somewhere (albeit very warm) enjoying that people still talk about him.

Lately, there's been a number of specials on television about Jones, The Peoples Temple, and Jonestown. Most are documentaries, and analyze what happened. The fact that Jones filmed or recorded most of what he did makes it easy to reconstruct a lot of what happened, but other things, like how many people willfully took the poison and how many resisted and were injected will never be known. In the end, it doesn't really matter. There are 908 people - 300 of them children - who gave their life either voluntarily or involuntarily for this man, and nothing will bring them back.

Earlier this week, I taped a special that aired on The History Channel called "Jonestown: Paradise Lost". I watched it last night. It was two hours long, and differed from the others in that it combined interviews, and used recreated footage, reconstructed with eyewitness testimony and actual footage. The actors did a good job, and there were some different viewpoints presented from other shows I've seen. This was the first time that I had heard Jim's son speak. He was not at Jonestown that day. His father demanded his return, but he refused, as he saw his father as having gone over the edge, and knew something bad was happening. He provided some fascinating insight in to the whole situation, and his father.

For anyone who is interested in this piece of history, I highly recommend this show. The History Channel is airing it again January 20 at 8pm EST, January 21 at 12am EST, and January 27 at 5pm EST. I would not recommend viewing for the squeamish, or anyone under the age of 15 or so.