Socialism and Jim Jones: A Prime Historical Parallel

The only thing that brings perfect justice, freedom, and equality, perfect love in all of its beauty and holiness, is socialism, socialism, socialism . . . Socialism is God!
—Jim Jones

Do an internet search with the words: “Jonestown” and Santayana’s warning that, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” You will find a picture of a sign with those same ominous words hanging over Jim Jones’s throne-like chair, and hundreds of lifeless bodies lying all around it, including the infamous cult leader himself. For any objective person willing to learn from history, this haunting image speaks far more than a thousand words, particularly when it comes to Marxist ideology.

To be abundantly clear, not every socialist advocate is another Jim Jones. Nevertheless, The People’s Temple, led by Jones, is a very helpful, accurate, and necessary illustration of Marxism and its historical and progressive encroachment of evil. In fact, there are a plethora of parallels we all must learn from its history; otherwise, we too, might be doomed to repeat its destruction.

35 HISTORICAL PARALLELS

As you read the list of historical realities of Jim Jones and Socialism/Marxism, keep these questions in mind:

Which of the following characteristics and patterns from Jim Jones and his followers do you see in other historical Marxist attempts? Which do you see in today’s quest for socialism, especially Christianized Marxism (e.g., “Jesus was a socialist”)?

1. Jim Jones, particularly at the beginning, did not, would not, and could not honestly and accurately explain the history of applied Marxism, or the overall goals of socialism/communism (e.g., complete and coercive control over the community). Instead he lied, obfuscated reality, stayed far from the truth regarding collectivist ideology, made many fraudulent promises, and attacked anyone who sought the truth or called him on his deceit.
2. Jim Jones enticed people through notions about fighting against injustice, oppression, poverty, unfairness, and inequality (especially when it came to race).
3. Jim Jones had absolutely no objective criteria to support his assertions, or to judge equality, justice, etc. While true justice and equality necessitate objectivity, objective standards, and objective people—Jones had none, nor did he want to be held to or live by these.
4. Jim Jones relied on and lived by the deadly idea that the end justifies the means.
5. Jim Jones heavily pushed “social justice”—which is both a lure and a stepping stone often used to bring about full socialism/communism/Marxism.
6. Jim Jones exaggerated and manufactured enemies and crises (“never let a crisis go to waste”), and then preyed on people’s desperation, gullibility, fear, good-intentions, insecurities, and lack of discernment. He even staged a fake assassination attempt where he pretended to be shot by an assassin (complete with blood-stained shirt riddled by bullet holes), and then faked a miraculous healing from his wounds.
7. Jim Jones lured and deceived people with countless false promises, none of which were humanly possible (economic equality; total equality; utopia on earth; socialism).
8. Jim Jones gained followers and motivated people through shame, agitation, and by fomenting bitterness, anger, jealousy, and fear— particularly a fear of an imminent doom. He preached classism, manipulated racism (e.g., falsely accusing those who did not follow him of being racists), and demonized those who were right all along. Through this, he cultivated in his adherents a dominant victim mentality and an “us against them” attitude.
9. Jim Jones relied heavily on propaganda to not only advance his agenda, but to also deflect the truth and shift the blame away from his own failures and those of Marxism. Blame was falsely placed on those who were right (e.g., those who rejected socialism, social justice, etc.).
10. Jim Jones used his followers and leveraged their money and labor to increase his personal power, political influence, and overall bank account (at least that of The People’s Temple, where he had millions of dollars at his disposal).
11. Jim Jones infiltrated the church, and duped many undiscerning Christians by teaching and leveraging several counterfeits, including a counterfeit “Jesus,” “love,” “justice,” “compassion,” and “Christianity.” He also manufactured counterfeit healings and miracles.
12. Jim Jones first gained control over his followers through lies and false promises, and then increased and maintained absolute power through groupthink, shame, manipulation, humiliation, threats, force, abuse, and a totalitarian echo chamber (i.e., agree with the prevailing groupthink, or else).
13. Jim Jones directly deceived a large group of individuals who chose to follow him. Yet many additional people were innocent victims (e.g., children; spouses; family members) who were forced into destruction and death due to the weaknesses, folly, and deception of the first group. In other words, those who chose to follow Jones by their own foolishness (e.g., the deceived; the “useful idiots;” the “Injustice Warriors”) were largely responsible for the abuse and death of the others (of the 900+ people who were murdered in Guyana, about a third were children).
14. Jim Jones was enabled by weak and corrupt leaders. He had no accountability; he eluded consequences; and his wrongdoing and corruption was minimized and covered up by his enabling and corrupt friends in government and the media.
15. Jim Jones was given a pass on many wrongdoings because of all the “good” he was doing, or at least what he promised to do in the community, and for society (e.g., “social justice;” racial reconciliation).
16. Jim Jones was a zealous devotee to Marxism, and zealous for power; yet he was very soft on socialism when trying to dupe Christians and permeate the church (e.g., socialism with a small “s”), particularly at the beginning. Later on, he increasingly preached ardent and radical socialism and communism. He even dreamed of to relocating all of his followers to the communist Soviet Union.
17. Jim Jones was able to gradually pervert and invert the dependence of his followers. He did this by slowly replacing Christianity with Marxism, and by making socialism their religion and himself their prophet, priest, and even their deity. As he weaned them off of God, they went from a dependence on God to increasingly rejecting God. They then replaced God with a complete dependence on Jim Jones and his ideology, leading to the effective worship of socialism and Jim Jones. He eventually renounced God, and even claimed that he himself was God for a while. Later, he declared, “Socialism is God.”
18. Jim Jones increasingly distorted the gospel. He eventually denounced the gospel, while replacing it with a “social gospel.”
19. Jim Jones was strongly aligned with mainstream Democratic politics and leftist ideology, and connected with powerful progressives and Democrat politicians (including the governor of California, the Vice President of the United States, the First Lady, the mayor of San Francisco, and many others).
20. Jim Jones promised a utopian existence, but only if his followers completely trusted him, his ever-changing constructs, and gave everything to him.
21. Jim Jones was, in reality—and despite what he said—focused on gaining power, wealth, and other pleasures.
22. Jim Jones was horrible at receiving correction. He never admitted his failures, or that of socialism. Instead he increasingly covered up this reality, while falsely blaming others, especially those who were right.
23. Jim Jones had to deceive, hurt, oppress, betray, and even kill people to obtain these things.
24. Jim Jones coerced everyone into groupthink and mob-mentality. Dissent was never, ever allowed, and those who did try to think for themselves were censored, shamed, and abused, or worse.
25. Jim Jones did not practice what he preached and routinely violated his own tenets. His directives and rules were “for thee, not for me.”
26. Jim Jones was increasingly corrupt, which was progressively obvious; yet few dared to speak up or leave due to groupthink, shame-bombing, threats, extreme punishment, his total control, and a dominant echo-chamber environment.
27. Jim Jones increasingly demonized any opposition or challenges to his ways.
28. Jim Jones heavily relied on false summary judgments rather than objectivity and reasoned dialogue with others (e.g., those who questioned him or did not agree with him were summarily condemned as “racists,” “bigots,” etc.; Jones claimed they lacked love and compassion; “they are against the poor;” “they don’t want us to be happy, free, and equal”).
29. Jim Jones brutally murdered several people who questioned or challenged his ways and his control.
30. Jim Jones demanded and obtained full control under the guise of equality, justice, love, and even God.
31. Jim Jones not only successfully achieved totalitarian rule, he ruled as an uber-elite. And he did all of this elitist-ruling while calling it a free utopia of equality (e.g., “doublethink” or cognitive dissonance).
32. Jim Jones had many followers who were blindly loyal, and who saw this woeful state as a good thing. They would believe anything and do anything he said, including heinous acts (e.g., murder; killing themselves; killing their own family and children)—because they were all taught to justify any evil and wrongdoing as “all for the greater good” and “the end justifies the means.”
33. Jim Jones was directly responsible for the mass oppression and destruction of all of his followers. He murdered nearly all who followed him, and the pain and destruction still exists for the few who survived.
34. Jim Jones not only justified all his evil and destruction, he blame-shifted all his responsibility onto capitalism, imperialism, America, genuine Christians, those who believed in true freedom, and anyone who had a high view of Scripture.
35. Jim Jones, as well as his followers, failed to follow their own simple maxim and goal: to learn from history so that they would not condemn themselves to repeating its destruction.

Which of these tactics or patterns of Jim Jones are also standard operating procedures of proponents of socialism and communism?

Which of these do you see in past attempts to implement socialism or communism?

Which do you observe in current attitudes, actions, and rhetoric of new socialist endeavors?

What do the answers to the these questions tell you?

Again, not every Marxist proponent is another Jim Jones. And yes, Jones was extreme. However, his socialism did not begin that way. It never does. Yet how many socialist endeavors have not ended in extreme chaos and destruction? (cp. Prov 14:12; Jas 3:16)

More importantly, the lessons from The People’s Temple and socialism do not merely come from the leaders, such as Jim Jones. We can learn much from those who fall for the lies of Marxism, and from the myriad of deceitful tactics that ensnare them, as listed above. Some are merely followers who have been duped, some are highly dangerous “useful idiots,” and still others are the more zealous and destructive (In)justice Warriors.

Note: I know when writing about Jones that pro-socialists will try to turn this comparison and illustration into victimization and claim this is a gross misrepresentation. Yet, while I still believe Jones was somewhat exceptional, I realize more and more that his path was not that extreme when compared to the average application of Marxism.

If the reference to Jim Jones was removed from the above list of thirty-five aspects and another socialist/communist leader or country was named instead (e.g., Lenin; Mao; North Korea; Castro; Che Guevara; Hitler; Hugo Chávez; etc.) then clearly most, if not all, of these things would still apply. Therefore, these characteristics are not just true of Jim Jones. Rather, we find every one of these true of all historical Marxist leaders as well. What does this tell us about the naivety, lack of discernment, or willingness to deceive regarding modern pro-Marxists?

One key fact about the history of The People’s Temple—which fits with the history of all Marxian attempts—is that Jones did not start off by being overtly evil. He began, instead, by being kind and compassionate (at least pretending to be), and seemingly “for the people,” and with no shortage of grandiose but impossible to fulfill promises. Does this sound familiar? Yet through all this, he manipulated people and gradually expanded his controlling and destructive ways.

Another pivotal observation here is that Jones’ increase in power ultimately resulted in his absolute extremism and corruption—and a totalitarian echo-chamber—which socialism always devolves into, without exception. As Lord Acton famously observed: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Therefore, The People’s Temple merely mirrors every other Marxist endeavor, which eventually turn into totalitarian control, and worse.

The good news here—mixed with a lot of irony—is that all of this provides several critical truths everyone can and must learn from the history of Marxist ideology, including The People’s Temple, and today’s new-and-improved versions.

While it may not begin horribly, socialism always necessitates more and more power because, by definition, it must have one hundred percent control over each individual in order to be true socialism. This process of gaining power not only produces escalating corruption, it results in less and less freedom and more and more oppression of the masses. Then, at some point, if given enough time, it becomes absolutely horrific, with the elite leadership having tyrannical and absolute control over the less-than-equal-“equals.” Finally, it all comes to a brutal and deadly end, at least for countless innocent people.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
—Proverbs 14:12

How different would life on earth be if Marxism had never been invented?

What would the world look like—and how many more people would be living today—if Russia, China, Germany, North Korea, Cambodia, Venezuela, Cuba, etc., had not applied any Marxism?

How different would America and western civilization be—and, therefore, the rest of the world—if today’s academia had not been overrun by Marxist ideology?

What do your answers reveal about Marxism and those who insist that it is a wonderful and compassionate system?

Sadly and tragically, while millions and millions of people have died, are dying, and will die directly due to Marxist beliefs, Marxism never dies. However, if enough people would learn from its history, then we could be free from the toxicity, tyranny, and mass exterminations borne out of collectivist ideology.

In other words, if Marxism would die, untold numbers of people could live. Not only would they be free, they would be spared destruction and death.

Despite this reality, countless people are doing all that they can to see that we are never free from the absolutely guaranteed death and devastation of Marxist ideology. Adding irony upon irony, these same individuals claim to be the ones who are truly loving, compassionate, trustworthy, justice and equality seeking, as well as arbiters of what is ultimately best for everyone. As a result of this inversion of reality, it is up to the rest of us to expose these people and their ideology of death.

Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds.
—Proverbs 24:11-12

If people choose to ignore history—and, instead, buy into socialism—we cannot stop them from believing this ideology of tyranny and death. However, if Marxism takes over our society, then destruction will fall on all of us, just as it always has in the past. Therefore, those who fail to learn from the history of socialism are not just hurting themselves; they are condemning the rest of us to a dreadful existence, or worse.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
—George Santayana, 1905

Let us not be among those who repeat the past because we fail to remember. And learn from it.

 

*Excerpt from Jesus Was A Socialist? The Life or Death Truth Everyone Needs To Know About Jesus & Socialism now available at Amazon and Hope For Life