"Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" is a documentary film of 2006 that makes clear everything about the incidents in the Peoples Temple, which had been headed by Jim Jones, the patron of over 900 members of the cult. In 1978 he arrived to a settlement in Guyana (Jonestown), where he caused a mass suicide. The film contains many interviews with Jonestown survivors, former Temple members, and people who accompanied Jim Jones at various stages of his life.
1. What are some of the characteristics of the followers in this organization?
The original purpose of this organization was to help people find inner peace, to accompany them on their way to happy and carefree lives. The members of the Peoples Temple were weak, spineless men, who fell in despair because of different reasons: some of them used to be drug or alcohol addicts, others lost relatives and had nothing left to do. These people had unpredictable behavior and actions; they suffered from lack of confidence. The followers of Peoples Temple were not able to defend their own opinions, they did not go for self-improvement and self-realization, and they liked just to follow someone, who had a strong will.
2. How would you describe the expectations the followers have of their leader?
People believed in every word said by Jim Jones, they were ready to follow him wherever he went. Those, who joined this movement, believed that Jim Jones was the man whose vocation was to save this world. They honored him as if he was God`s incarnation. Men wanted to improve their old ways of life while being under the care of Jim Jones.
3. Are there any susceptible followers in this organization? If so, identify them and describe what made them susceptible.
In my opinion, all members of Peoples Temple were susceptible persons. They easily believed the man, whose original aim was not to improve the world he lived in, but to destroy it. Only those, who survived, could be called “unsusceptible”, but nowadays they became susceptible because their relatives or friends trusted that man and died. I have no idea, how those people continued to live, as all their dreams had been destroyed by one man, who did not want to set people free. There were men in the video, who were former members of the organization. At first, they seemed to be unsusceptible, but then I realized, that they just learned how to hide their feelings. Deborah Layton was susceptible because she had been under sexual pressure from Jim Jones, when she was a teenager. She just had to learn to live in a new way, as her former life had been destroyed. Jim Jones Jr seemed to be heart-broken, as his foster-father made 900 people die, and the man accompanied his parent during all the performances. Jim Jones had been an example to follow to the African boy, who had been adopted by a preacher. Families of Tim Carter and Stanley Clayton died of no reason – they just followed the instructions given by Jim Jones; Tim Carter found nothing dignified about it. He considers it to be just senseless waste and deaths (Perez). They could not be returned, and men had to live their lives without their children, having no support or even any kind of explanation of the mass suicide.
4. What needs were the followers hoping to have met by joining and remaining part of this organization?
Such people joined the organization and considered it to be their redemption for all their sins. Men joined Peoples Temple in order to get better lives, to live in peace. Being part of the organization, people hoped to be closer to Heaven, to prove everybody that they were not lost in this world – they could reach for the sky under the patronage of their leader.
5. What motivated the followers to join and remain with the organization? Which motivation theory best explains this?
People had been motivated to live happy lives and have no problems. Those, who needed a leader, joined Peoples Temple. It seemed that Jim Jones motivated people using Alderfer`s theory of motivation – he promised them that they would succeed in everything they started if they became a member of the organization.
6. What did this movie teach you about the relationship of followership to leadership?
This movie had a great influence on me. Peoples Temple had been totally built on leadership laws, as one man ruled over hundreds of people. He established his regulations and demanded every person to execute his wishes. If the organization had been built on followership principles, it would have prevented the mass suicide of 1978, as the leader would consult with other people, he would not get cranky because of the world-saving thoughts, and, probably, over 900 people would have been alive.
Works Cited Page
Perez, Alejandro. “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple”. Documentary film. YouTube. YouTube, 1 Nov. 2013. Web 16 Feb. 2016
