The Cost of Conformity

HILLARY
So I watched a documentary on Jonestown, which covered the mass-suicide/murder in Africa that was coordinated by Jim Jones in 1978. Clearly, this was a very disturbing film, but it was also fascinating because it showed how vulnerable people are to persuasion by a charismatic leader. Growing up, I thought that this event took place hundreds of years ago, but this year is just the 30 year anniversary, which means that these were modern people who gave up their lives on command. It made me think about how we are all vulnerable to persuasion. Not that we’re all going to join a cult, obviously Jonestown is the extreme of the spectrum, but are we not all followers in some way? Even in little ways, like the music we listen to, or the shows that we watch on TV? Aren’t our tastes for these things being dictated to us?

JACK
The Jonestown disaster came at pretty much the peak of various cult movements. I am not a sociologist, but I see a great similarity in other seemingly respected organizations. Being a part of the organization demands complete obedience and willing submission. My opinion, the worst example, certainly the biggest in modern history, was the growth of the Nazi party in Germany, masterminded and administered by Adolph Hitler. The backbone of a movement like this projects the concept that there is only one right, beautiful, inspirational way to live, and everybody else in the world is looked at with suspicion. The Hitler government killed many millions of innocent people while they proclaimed the superiority of being an Aryan, preferably with blonde hair. There is something very attractive to people who are poor a confused when a charismatic individual tells them that they are actually superior. Many of the seemingly small decisions that we make in the course of our lives are now taken over by the cult and you are told how to live, how to dress, and how to think. I have seen organizations that started with very noble purposes and actually helped the people that became part of the movement. There was an anti-drug organization that took in addicts without question, and promised a cure. They had a brilliant idea in actually going into business, and actually making the money to support the organization. Parents of dope addicts would belong, but had to give all of their possessions, and promise to obey the dictates. At the outset, they helped to cure the drug problem, and restore self-worth, but the members gave up their freedom, and in the end this was far to big a price. I remember in my three years in the US Air Force that not only were you told what to eat, but how to dress. There was a “Uniform of the Day”; I guess uniformity is the operational word. In the end, I have not known of a cult that has lasted to the benefit of its members or society in general. And I find it fascinating that the horror of Jonestown happened just 30 years ago, when you thought it happened in another century.

HILLARY
I thought that it happened in another century, because there is such a history of counter-culture and individual thought, and questioning of authority in recent decades. I myself have done pretty much the opposite of what people in authority have asked me to do, whether it be my parents or teachers or religious leaders. I have also looked at what people have told me with a great deal of skeptism and I feel like many in my generation would have the same perspective. That being said, it’s almost impossible for me to comprehend that people who thought that they were going to live in a co-op with a hope for promoting peace and tolerance would so readily end their own lives and the lives of their own children because their leader told them to. It’s just baffling, yet your example of Hitler really makes the point. He had to have done something good, or inspired people to think that their positions in life would be better in order to get them rallied behind him, and once their they followed almost blindly. I just can’t imagine something like that happening to me, yet we’re talking about modern people. So am I foolish to think that I am impervious to this kind of persuasion, or has the right person just not come along yet that could make me give up my own sense of self?

JACK
Hillary, your thoughts are very encouraging to me. It’s difficult to say at what point someone can offer enough of what you really want to persuade you to become a member of a cult. It is extremely healthy for you as an individual, and for your friends and fellow citizens, to resist anything that dictates to you that you must conform totally, whether it is the government, the church, or a social organization. Everybody in this world comes from a different place and must be given the opportunity to explore what lies within. There is a fine line between revolution and resistance. The minute one starts to think that the only real truth is the one that he or she sees that is the time that individual is in big trouble. If it extends to a larger group, like in Jonestown or in the Germany of the 30s and 40s, it becomes destructive to the individual, the group, and finally all of us. We were born with individual intelligence. We must always use it without apology.

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