DRINKING THE KOOL-AID
by Jen Frankel

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DRINKING THE KOOL-AID
Legacy of the Reverend Jim Jones
by Jen Frankel

November 18, 2008 marks thirty years since the Jonestown Massacre, when a self-proclaimed preacher with messianic beliefs convinced almost a thousand people to kill themselves at his community in Guyana. You'll hear a lot about Jones, about his Marxist philosophies, about his charisma and devastating hold over his followers. You'll hear about how in the wake of a visit from a U.S. senator, he decided that it was better to cause the deaths of everyone living in his eponymous settlement of Jonestown than face the possibility of exposure back in the States as the leader of a cult.

What you'll hear less about is the people who followed him to South America, breaking up or uprooting entire families and beginning a life under Jones's eventual iron rule, in the hope of finding a simpler, purer, and more spiritual existence away from America.

And you may hear very little at all about why they went, why they, crudely put, were so willing to drink Jones's kool-aid.

Children died that day, fed the cyanide-laced drink by their parents, comforted as they cried out in pain. Cyanide is not an easy way to die. The poison causes wracking pain and intense spasms, and is not at all quick.

In contrast to the suffering he caused his faithful, Jones himself took a far easier way out, a gunshot to the head either self-inflicted or delivered by a trusted aide.

Looking back at great tragedies, we tend to gravitate toward the center of the storm, toward the charismatic, forceful, driven personalities whose ideas infected and destroyed. We talk about Hitler, Stalin, Ivan the Terrible. We are fascinated by Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy. A new film of Manson for the History Channel is on its way, starring Adam Wilson.

It's easier to look to the person or persons who set the ball rolling. What we don't do nearly often enough, in my opinion, is look at why we follow.

The most frightening person in the world is the true believer, someone who is so terrified to know what is in his or her own heart that they take on not only a strict dogma that admits no other viewpoint, but refuse also to believe that any other truth is possible.

There's a huge push on in schools to teach children self-esteem. The idea is that if kids respect themselves, they won't fall prey to drug pushers, and pressure to have sex before they're ready, or low grades and crime.

But how is this achieved? Certainly not the way it's been attempted so far. You can't tell a kid, or an adult for that matter, to have self-esteem if they don't know what it feels like to respect themselves. You can't create a sense of self merely by insisting that it should be done, and forcing kids to parrot, "I believe in myself."

How does a person end up following a Jim Jones down a path to self-destruction? How does a child end up at a drug dealer, or thief, or murderer?

There will always be charismatic villains and heroes out there, natural and self-made leaders whose ability to mold the behavior of others seems almost supernatural. But a leader is only a leader when others are willing to put themselves under his or her spell. Without willing participants in their plans, a potential cult leader is just a paper tiger.

We follow when we are looking for answers, when we are looking to belong to something bigger than ourselves. But schools don't teach us to be discerning about the beliefs we take on. In fact, schools teach us not to question either the information we are given or its importance. Because this is the curriculum, teachers seem to say, it is the only information that is important for you to know.

If you do not have the facility for critical thought, if you don't know you're supposed to question and weigh the facts given to you, how likely is it that you will on your own pick up the skills needed to protect yourself from the powerful thoughts of those presenting themselves as authorities?

In order to be safe from a Jim Jones, or from a George W. Bush, you must have substance to fill the place in your heart where their words will tempt you. When you become the follower of a cult leader, of a religion, or a line of political thought, you must take the time to understand what it is you are being asked to believe.

And the only way to know if you should accept that belief as your own is to know yourself.

A leader's words can only infect you to cede your own power if there is a place inside you that is empty and waiting to be filled. Fill it with your own ideas, with your own quest for understanding, and no one will ever hold the keys to your soul. No one will ever be able to force any sort of kool-aid down your throat.