Remembering The Jonestown Massacre

The day was the 18th of November,1978 when Rev Jim Jones, the leader of an American cult in the Guyanese jungle, made his followers to kill a US congressman and several other journalists and then commit a mass suicide by drinking a fruit punch containing cyanide. Before the attacks of 9/11, the Jonestown massacre was the largest single incident of intentional killing of civilians in American history. A total of 918 people died on that day including that of women and children. Furthermore, it even created a devastating trauma among the other fellow Americans. The incident was the end of the last strains of the old idealism and the 1970’s radicalism. The legacy of Jonestown lives on its ironic phrase called “drink the Kool-Aid”.

Who Was Jim Jones?

Though later popularly known as the symbol of a very dark side of the west coast counterculture, Jim Jones was born in a very poor family in Indiana. During his childhood days, he was described as a strange but intelligent child. He was initially attracted to several religions such as old Christian traditions and Pentecostalism. Once he had even cut his tooth being a street preacher and he was even a passionate advocate of racial equality. Jim’s idiotic blend of evangelical Christianity, radical social justice, and even new age spirituality attracted several enthusiastic followers. He used to call his burgeoning…