A Cult Following

In retrospect, I'm glad I wasn't alive during the seventies. Disco and Watergate aside, I have to say they were pretty fucked up.

Take, for example, what are surely two of the most bizarre events of the past 50 years -- the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army (1974-5) and the Jonestown massacre (1978). These two incidents share more than a high rating on the weirdness index-- on the surface both seem to be rooted in an utopian, (predominantly) Californian struggle for racial equality simmering in the denouement of the civil rights movement.

Both are also subjects of recent documentaries: Robert Stone's "Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst" (2005) and "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" (2006) directed by Stanley Nelson, which both claim to reveal new details and "never-before-seen footage" about these short, bizarre chapters in American history. What is it about these events that continue to fascinate us, to keep us glued to our seats in search of lurid details 30 years after the fact?

I've meditated on this problem for a day or so now, and I think I've reached some preliminary conclusions (with the help of some outside sources, which I will not neglect to cite). So read on and feel free to comment if you agree or disagree...

1) Extremism. Average Joes admire extremists not because of the actions they take but because of the passion that inspires them to action. Extremists are people who believe in something so strongly and unequivocally that they are willing to give up their lives for that cause. Modern society is bathed in ambiguity; we're unsure whether we're in love, whether we believe in God, whether trickle-down economics actually works...it's the curse of modernity. We all long to be part of something that supercedes all that, to bring a new level of certainty in our lives. Here's how "Guerrilla" director Robert Stone puts it:

"I think people long for a way to see the world in black and white, good and evil. Most people abhor ambiguity because you have to really inform yourself and struggle to make sense of things from a variety of perspectives. Political extremism, however you want to define it, is seductive because its prerequisite is the absence of doubt."

We all wish we could commit ourselves to some cause and banish every trace of doubt...just look at all the born-again Christians. They're just regular people searching for stability and certainty in their everyday lives. No matter how liberal or secular or apolitical you are, you've got to admire people who can achieve that. Even terrorists.

2. Free will. Both Jonestown and the case of Patty Hearst are linked by accusations of brainwashing. In both instances, however, it's hard to draw the line between brainwashing and persuasion. Did Patty Hearst and the members of the People Temple act under their own free will or were they merely being controlled by the leaders of their respective groups?

3. Racial Utopianism. By the time the seventies rolled around, the Civil Rights movement had already reached its peak. Now the groups that had fought so hard to achieve equality for blacks faded into the background, in a large part due to infighting over increased radicalism and the use of violence.

While many Americans viewed the problem as solved, racial and socio-economic inequality continued to simmer in major American cities. This reached a head point in San Francisco, which had a history of liberalism and social action. Poor blacks found acceptance and equality in Jim Jones's People's Temple -- whites and blacks worked side by side, the traditional socio-economic divisions erased.

Even though the SLA counted among its ranks only one black member (escaped ex-convict Donald DeFreeze), the organization saw itself as the leader of the Black Revolution. While their chosen method was violence, they put forth their own solution to the race problem, i.e. transferring wealth and power from the the rich, white elites to the poor, black underclass.

4. Mortality. Both episodes ended in death for the majority of the group members, either by mass suicide or violent resistance. We puzzle over how adherents of these movements ended up as corpses: were there a few critical moments that led down the path to destruction? Could we ourselves, having been there at that place and time, have gotten caught up in the force that impelled these people to their deaths?

In their deaths, we see our own. Maybe I only speak for myself, but I am transfixed.