In 1978, at Jonestown, Guyana, Pastor Jim Jones convinced over 900 followers to first give cyanide to their small children and then drink it themselves. In 1857, at Mountain Meadows, a group of Mormons murdered 120 unarmed men, women and children who had surrendered. During WWII, the Nazis exterminated over six million innocent human beings in a cold and efficient genocide.
Fear, Violence and Political Orientation
The politics of the three groups varied widely. Jim Jones developed a communist system and his followers shared their property, labor, and resources. The Mormons were a homegrown American group which operated as a theocracy and desired to separate from the U.S. government entirely. The Nazi Party was fascist, with a mixed economy. Many other political groups have committed group violence; atrocities are not confined to any particular political system.
Fear, Violence and Religion
While religion is often blamed for group violence, the religions of the three groups in question were quite different. Jim Jones was a renegade Pentecostal pastor. Although he appeared to be an orthodox Christian when he started out, he eventually denigrated the Bible and told his followers he would be God to them. The Mormons were a brand new religion with their own version of scripture at the time of the Massacre; rejected and persecuted by mainline Christian churches. As quoted in the book, Hitler Speaks, 1939, by Hermann Rauschning, Hitler said of the Nazi Party, “Those who see in National Socialism nothing more than a political movement know scarcely anything of it. It is more even than religion; it is the will to create mankind anew.”
Fear and Violence: Jonestown
One common tactic that the religiously and politically diverse groups employed to motivate their followers was fear. According to the documentary “Jonestown,” Jim Jones had preached for years that the U.S. government intended to wipe them out and the end of the world was at hand. His purchase of land and the construction of Jonestown in Guyana was supposed to provide a refuge from the imminent attack. When a U.S. senator came to investigate Jonestown, he and four others were shot and killed. Following that, Jones convinced his followers to commit suicide rather than be "captured and tortured" by the government.
Fear and Violence: Mormons
According to the PBS documentary, “Mormons”, the hard-working and religious followers of Brigham Young lived in fear of persecution. Their prophet, Joseph Smith, had been killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois. When a Mormon missionary was killed in Arkansas and a wagon train with Arkansas settlers passed by, the Mormons first used Native Americans to attack them. When they realized that the settlers recognized them, they decided to kill all those who could testify against them at a later date. The settlers, under flag of truce and unarmed, were shot to death by the Mormon militia.
Fear and Violence: Nazi Germany
Hitler repeatedly used fear to motivate his follower; warning of a Jewish plot to destroy civilization. Using Darwin’s idea of natural selection and survival of the fittest, he maintained that impure blood inevitably led to the decline and destruction of a nation ( documentary: Architect of Doom.) When the Reichstag building burned shortly before an election, he claimed that it was the work of communists planning an imminent takeover, thus eliminating his political opponents. He raised the specter of Jews plotting to seduce German girls in Mein Kampf, “The black-haired Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end, satanically glaring at and spying on the unsuspicious girl whom he plans to seduce, adulterating her blood and removing her from the bosom of her own people.
Demonizing a supposed enemy and promoting fear are common and effective tactics in group dynamics. Warnings of imminent annihilation have been used effectively by leaders to promote group solidarity and commitment in every nation. Constant promotion of fear by leaders should therefore immediately be viewed with suspicion.
