Jonestown (Option B) by Brendon Trinh

Events to look at

hcpsgrushkajz — 2025-01-29 14:34:19 UTC

Watergate scandal
Vietnam War
Energy crisis
Iran hostage crisis

Cult research

hcpsevanssw — 2025-01-29 14:35:36 UTC

“In the 20th century, there was a watershed moment that really erupted in the ‘60s. But it goes back a decade before that, when in the midst of really great national success, at least for white folks, there was the idea that there was a rising middle class, that one could achieve the American dream, that there was education, and that poverty was being slowly alleviated.

The children of these groups [said], ‘Oh, see, I can go to college, I can get a house. I can have two children, a white picket fence, a dog, and have a good job. But is that all there is in the world?’ And we start to see breakaway cultural movements, starting with the beatniks, then t the hippies, the broader counterculture, and a lot of these end up coalescing into intentional communities.

Think of some of the classic groups that are around then. The Hari Krishnas, for example, coming out of the 1960s and 1970s. Mostly it was college aged kids that look around and say, ‘We've been handed the world the silver platter, but we don't want it.’ And they were attracted instead by this alternative model coming out of India. Some of the most long lasting intentional communities are linked to individuals who looked East … and they embrace this Asian spirituality that often led them to try to create alternative intentional communities, communes, and cults.”

Cuban missile crisis

hcpswillials3 — 2025-01-29 14:40:02 UTC

It led to the evacuation of Jim Jones leading to his new location to open up in California where the missiles took fire, a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. He moved into a small cave to take cover amongst the missiles, as more people gathered, that led to his decision to create the people's temple church

The Moonies:

hcpswillials3 — 2025-01-29 14:42:40 UTC

It began in the late 1950s and early 1960s when missionaries from South Korea were sent to America by the international Unification Church's founder and leader Sun Myung Moon. It expanded in the 1970s and then became involved in controversy due to its theology, its political activism, and the lifestyle of its members.

Leo Ryan (U.S. Congressman)

hcpstrinhb1 — 2025-01-29 14:52:39 UTC

Leo Ryan was a California Representative who went to Jonestown and investigate Guyana to make a report on the abuse of the people who were there

hcpsevanssw — 2025-01-29 14:53:31 UTC

As the 1970s continued, a new political movement known as the “New Right” emerged. This movement, rooted in the rapidly growing suburban Sun Belt, celebrated the free market and lamented the decline of “traditional” social values and roles.

New Right conservatives resented and resisted what they saw as government meddling. For example, they fought against high taxes, environmental regulations, highway speed limits, land policies in the West (the so-called “Sagebrush Rebellion”), affirmative action and school desegregation plans. The repudiation of so-called alternative lifestyles and religions found renewed purpose after the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, when over 900 followers of preacher Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple—based in San Francisco—committed mass suicide.

1920's and the early great depression crisis/ Women suffrage/Cultural groups

hcpswillials3 — 2025-01-30 14:14:06 UTC

During the 1920's the expansion of usages of technology, the creation of cares, more rights for women as they continue to fight for their freedom. The creation of jazz music as it was an opportunity for African Americans to create music in small clubs where people could attend and opened peoples eyes as to racial discrimination in a world that should terminate it. The creation of bands, groups to come together and protest or find new members to join in. Some groups that were created to help spread positivity are, Flappers, who were young women, known for wearing short dresses and bobbed hair and for embracing freedom from traditional societal constraints. Flappers are predominantly associated with the late 1910s and the '20s in the United States, and Prohibition groups against alcohol

Societal effects that led to cults flourishing

hcpsevanssw — 2025-01-30 14:14:07 UTC

In the 1970’s new religions started to emerge many people flocked to new ideals and beliefs seeking a higher enlightenment. As a result of people searching for the meaning of life or a higher power, religious cults became prevalent in American society in the 1970’s.

Woo!

hcpsgrushkajz — 2025-01-30 14:15:02 UTC

Lots of events happening at the time caused a lot of people to lose faith in America which Jones took advantage of and he promised them a better life in Jonestown where they can live in a socialist utopia. Additionally, he staged fake cancer healings so he seemed like a god. Essentially, Jones exploited the weaknesses in people to manipulate them into praising and worshiping him.

Rise of the Hippie Movement and influence of psychedelic drugs

hcpsevanssw — 2025-01-30 14:16:48 UTC

In the 1960s, the young people of America found themselves revolting against the current political status quo and the social climate in the country. This time was marked by numerous protest marches against the Vietnam War, racial segregation, and overall establishment of the contemporary society. Moving towards a different counter-cultural mentality, many young Americans were forming communities in an attempt to follow a lifestyle that took them away from the mainstream society. LSD was first introduced in 1961, and along with a common usage of cannabis and other psychedelic drugs, by the mid-decade coastal California turned into the epicentre of the gathering hippies in search for alternative paths. In 1967, a very-well known cultural phenomena The Summer of Love occurred in San Francisco, when more than 100,000 young people gathered together, inspired by the “idealistic Utopian vision for world peace, love and anti-materialism” (Varga, 2017, para. 12). This event had spiked controversial opinions and was regarded either as a celebration of unity and hope for the new generation or as a psychedelic trip, full of mass-hedonism, near-anarchy, and rock music.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

hcpsevanssw — 2025-01-30 14:17:55 UTC

For the conventional society, hippies or the youth attracted to their lifestyle presented a counterculture, moved by non-traditional and dangerous ideas. Many of them rejected mainstream religion, which drew them into the search of alternative belief systems and forms of spiritual experience. “Disenfranchised with conventional Judeo-Christianity, they sought alternative theologies that reflected contemporary attitudes and a sense of spirituality and connectedness” (Smith, 2021, para. 6). Some of these youth turned to the paths of the Zen Buddhism, Hare Krishna, and Hindu, as those were the religious movements brought from the East. The “New Age” movement was specifically popular among the hippie culture, as it blended in its principles Eastern philosophy in the context of an American society.

Hippies

hcpstrinhb1 — 2025-01-30 14:20:23 UTC

Through the mid 60s to 70s, being a hippie was a part of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated from the U.S but it continued to spread into other countries like Canada and Great Britain. The movement was part as a opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Many hippies were not actively involved with politics unlike their counterpart as the "Yippies."