I found the Bad Ideas podcast to be very informative about Jim Jones and the life he led, especially with the Peoples Temple and Jonestown. I did not know that Jim Jones was so influential in Indiana in terms of his social work with desegregation and really making an effort to end the stigma that was then placed around African Americans. I found it very interesting how Jones was able to enact such great change, and then turn his power into something that was detrimental to people. At a time, the press loved what he was doing, and he could have continued down that path, still having power, but been a great social activist. I found that the description of how Jones came to be known as the cult leader was very similar to a charismatic leader.
Jones played into people’s fears and made them all feel loved and accepted which is how he got such a large following. I think that Jones also was extremely manipulative in the way that every move he made to get people to believe he was a miracle worker was calculated. I was also reminded of the leader follower relationship dynamic when listening to this podcast, it sounds like in the beginning the Peoples Temple was a place of temporary inequality where the leader would enlighten the subordinates to become like them, but in this case, Jones got power hungry. Another thing that I found really intriguing was the fact that they said that Jones was obsessed with Hitler and that is where he partially got the suicide pact idea from. I think that this is very contradictory of his socialist and utopian beliefs. This does make sense when comparing Jones’ leadership style and what his wishes for Jonestown were.
I agree that Jones’ admiration for the Nazi regime was a great contradiction of the values he promoted in his temple commune. His heavy drug use does not excuse, but can perhaps help explain his ideological contradictions that lead to the deaths of so many. This relationship of temporary inequality changed to become permanent when he started to proclaim himself as a divine figure.
It is true that Jones was manipulative in making everyone think he was a miracle worker. They mention in the podcast that he knew exactly what he was doing at this point, it’s not like he was delusional and truly believed in his “healings.”
I agree with your statements about how surprised I was to find about his activist past. I think it is so easy for people to look back in history and say “wow that was dumb” not realizing that these leaders were incredibly smart in playing on people biggest fears and offering some sort of hope.