Drinking the Kool-Aid, a study of Cults of Personality

Reposted:

1.29.19:  8:00 am

The previous post was about a type of cult of personality.  The cult followers nearly committed mass suicide, but the crew of the Enterprise was able to intervene, and save a few people.

Why mention this?

Senator Kamala Harris, a candidate for POTUS, was said to have an affair with Willie Brown.  Willie Brown was a follower of Jim Jones.  The connection here is alarming.  This type of cult following may be quite seductive for many.

Harris is definitely not the ticket, but don't be surprised if she does well.  So many people may be ripe for such a cult to resurface and gain a large following.  In fact, that seems to be what the Democrats and the left are all about.

No human is worthy of such blind loyalty and obedience.

Update:  1:30 pm:

Correction:  I wrote above that Willie Brown was a follower.  This is probably not 100% correct.  Willie Brown probably did not fall into that category.  I'd say more like an ally than follower.  Even though he probably could not be called a follower, he should be accountable for defending the likes of Jim Jones.

I regret that I wrote that he was a follower without being a bit more careful about it.  These connections DO have a legitimate basis for concern.


Original post of 7.24.18:

Given the Mark Sanford comments recently, it seemed well to examine this phenomenon in more detail.  Nobody should want a Cult of Personality taking hold of America.  Such a phenomenon on a nationwide scale would be truly frightening.  People should be aware of the danger signs.  In the interest of prevention of such a catastrophe, perhaps it would be wise to study it, and learn about it, and be prepared to take steps that could prevent it from happening here.

The internet is a fine tool to study things such as this.  Even though some people may denigrate it, Wikipedia is a good source for a lot of topics of interest, such as this.

Let's look at the Wikipedia entry on Jim Jones, the leader of the People's Temple.  Jim Jones would have to qualify as a good example of the phenomenon of Cult of Personality.  Indeed, his religious "cult" was in fact a cult.

One thing that jumps out at you is that Jim Jones was an outcast of sorts.  Acquaintances called him "weird".  He was said to have held funerals for small animals and stabbed a cat to death.  Certainly, there seems to be something not quite right with Jones.

Jones became more and more famed as time went on.  He plunged himself into the civil rights struggles of the sixties.  In short, he made a name for himself, and attracted a following.

One thing that seems to surface is Jones' dishonesty about his real beliefs.  He disguised his belief in communism on more than one occasion.  There may be mitigating circumstances for a lack of candor, but one's antenna should go up once a pattern is detected.  By the way, I am reading the Wikipedia article as I write this.

The dishonesty gets rather significant, as Jones rejects the Bible.  The problem here is that Jones presents himself at first as a Christian, then he rejects the Bible.  Clearly, there is a pattern now of deceit on a grand scale.

Another big red flag appears, as Jones starts to preach that he is a reincarnation of historical figures.  One of these was Jesus Christ.  Such delusions of grandeur are red flags of mental illness.

Jones was claiming a tax exemption on religious grounds.  This is rather odd when he denied the Bible, and began to denounce Christianity.

 Then Jones goes to San Francisco and injects himself into politics.  He is credited with helping Moscone win the Mayor's race.

A number of prominent politicians, whose names can still be recognized by many, seemed to have been taken in by Jones.

Charges of sexual abuse found its way into local newspapers.  Jones decides to move his temple to Guyana.  Jones would not permit people to leave Jonestown ( the name of his settlement).  Jones is a full fledged communist, and patterns himself and his temple upon the examples of communist states already in existence at the time.

Jones begins to have problems, but he still has significant political support.

Tragedy is getting nearer as Congressman Leo Ryan begins a fact finding mission to Guyana.  Ryan is attacked while visiting the Temple.  The mission ends, and Ryan is attempting to leave.  Fifteen temple members wish to leave with Ryan.   Some gunmen at the airstrip where Ryan was attempting to depart start shooting.  Ryan is killed, along with four others.  This was a big story now.

It was then that Jones induced his colony to commit mass suicide.  This is where the term "drinking the Kool-Aid" comes from.  His followers drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.

Why did Jones and his followers kill themselves?  They believed that they were being persecuted.  Jones believed he was performing a revolutionary act.

After reading this summary of the Wikipedia article, do you think you can spot the signs of a dangerous cult of personality?

By the way, I have written about Jones before.  What should alarm you is the tendency of the left in San Francisco and in California, to pattern themselves after Jones.  The name of Podesta surfaces in my blog search.  This could be really big, ya'll.

A large number of Democrats believe that Trump is a traitor.  Are these people setting up a gigantic container of Kool-Aid for themselves to drink if they cannot rule over the rest of us with an iron fist?

Or shall the notion of Sanford be entertained, and examined if the followers of Trump are actually a new cult of personality?

A great deal of courage needs to be summoned in order to face the truth.  The link above to the Paul Craig Roberts piece was not vetted before I linked it.  Now that I have, I will state that I don't quite believe Roberts.

However, what I DO believe is that there is something really, really wrong here.  People should sit up and pay attention.

Also, it is a bit disheartening to observe that people in general DO NOT pay attention when they should.  This puts us all at risk.

I prefer to be optimistic.  But realistic too.  Sometimes it is hard to be both.