I was shocked to hear that 918 members of the Peoples Temple commited suicide, just on the orders of Jim Jones alone. I think Jim Jones must have been a very charasmatic leader with a very magnetic personality to be able to convince so much people to commit suicide. However; there is accounts of some members being shot but the majority which is still a huge amount commited suicide voluntarily.
When you look at a religious cults like in this instance The Peoples Temple you always ask yourself whether it happened because of an individuals deviance or the whole groups deviance. In my opinion i think that it was both the deviance of the individual as well as the group. I think this as Jim Jones as an individual leader had the authority in the group and so decided to be deviant by persuading members to commit suicide. However; i also think that the group played thier part as well as most of the group decided to take the poison and made it feel to an individual that they were going against the norm of the group by not taking the poison.
See these links for more information on Jonestown
Daniel Lloyd 0600618
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