For some reason I’m drawn to the story of Jonestown and after listening to and reading the stuff BB has been posting I’m starting to understand why. Jones was the embodiment of “charisma,” something that can poison opinions and destroy lives. He is the man in the middle who insinuates himself in places he doesn’t belong and, in a way, isn’t that what the devil always tries to be? A great line from LA Weekly sums him up:
Jones toyed with both medicine and the law but, after a brief phase as an itinerant salesman of pet monkeys, discovered his true vocation in God’s work.
Unable to handle monkeys, he turned to people.