the peoples temple

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When New West began to investigate The Peoples Temple, it shook the members of the group and they attempted to fend it off by messaging the media group with several letters and calls saying “We hear New West is going to attack Jim Jones in print; don’t do that. He’s a good man who doesn’t good works.” After a bit of time passed, ex-members of The Peoples Temple Lee 7 came forward and had meetups with the media and stated “Life inside Peoples Temple was a mix of Spartan regimentation, fear and self-imposed humiliation.” The fear factor came into play by Jones forcing his group to attend orchestrated events and those who misbehaved slightly, were humiliated by being hit by a large wooden paddle and were forced to box with opponents chosen by Jones himself. These boxing matches would usually end in knockouts and being humiliated in front of your own “people” (Kilduff & Tracy 34). Humiliation was not a rare action in The Peoples Temple, many other ex-members spoke out about it including Elmer Mertle. He states that he quit his job as a chemical technician at a company and sold his house in hopes of finding a better live with Jones in Redwood Valley. At first, he saw that Jones was compassionate and caring, but slowly, Jones became a monster and inflicted fear and humiliation heavily onto his family. The punishments his family went through were first mental, then moved onto phyiscal as time went by. Jones would humiliate these people in front of the crowd in hundreds and lectured them saying it was going to be okay because after this punishment, they are now trusted and became a better person because of it. Public spankings were also a form of humiliation used and the Mertle family received hundreds of spankings by belts and even la... ... middle of paper ... ...le in that, Pack of young fools." Once Warner, a respected man of the village responded, Adams stopped talking and conformed with the rest of the village to fit in. In Jonestown, Christine Miller spoke out after realizing a mass suicide was not the brightest idea, “When we destroy ourselves, we’re defeated. We let them, the enemies, defeat us. I look at all the babies, and I think they deserve to live.” After her statement, a unidentified man responded with “Christine, your life has been extended to today. That you’re standing there is because of him.” Miller stopped responding after this and continued with the flow of the mass suicide. This is similar to the situation in The Lottery because someone attempted to speak out about something they thought was wrong but was shunned down by a fellow member and then they both continued to conform with the rest of the group.

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