Psychology

The most recent article we discussed in class by Havrilesky, "Why TV Apocalypses Are Really Wish-Fulfillment Fables" truly helped peak my interest in the zombie topic by discussing the psychological implications that coincide with the whole zombie fantasy. I for one am not a zombie fanatic. I have always been interested in real life horrors such as serial killers or unfortunate events. The psychology behind people doing horrible things such as murder, or various other atrocities has always been an interest of mine, simply because it is completely unbelievable what others are capable of.

For instance, one of the most interesting cult-suicide cases of all time is the Jonestown Massacre. For those of you who are not familiar, a man named Jim Jones started a private church in the United States (San Francisco) specifically targeting college students, and got them addicted to the organization. People eventually began to give up their family and entire life savings SO mindlessly. Once Jim Jones gained a large enough following, he moved his organization to Guyana, so there would be less outside sources to conflict with whatever he preached. Eventually, things started to go wrong. It began to turn into a Warren Jeff's type situation where little girls were used sexually, and food became scarce. There was even one instance where the towns' people were instructed to dig a torture hole, where misbehaving children would have to sleep in over night and pray they weren't eaten by animals. Once people were starting to understand how much control Jim Jones actually had, some people started to talk about leaving, which he of course couldn't stand.
Jim Jones called a meeting to the town pavilion, where their entire population of a thousand people met. Jones said that everyone was being called to Christ, and had to follow his orders to be free. Everyone was instructed to drink the grape kool-aid in the pavilion, which also included Valium and Cyanide. This killed all but a very few survivors, and Jim Jones had shot himself in the forehead after the entire atrocity that he had created.

The stories like Jonestown are so psychologically fascinating to me, because I cannot imagine being so damned brain dead that I couldn't even tell that something that horrible was going to happen. When torture pits and a lack of food were prominent in their little town, it would be an easy sign to see that things had gone to far. This Jonestown relationship compared to a zombie apocalypse makes the topic all that more interesting to me. At least in a zombie apocalypse, if you haven't been infected yet, you still have the chance to fight against being brain dead whereas in Jonestown, if you willingly moved to the town, you already are the zombie. I now understand why people are so fascinated with the whole zombie bit. It's the same as a psychological disturbance with in an actual person.

I hope this didn't get too depressing for anyone to read. I find all of the morbid stuff like Jonestown absolutely fascinating. I'd love to hear your comments of reactions to events such as these.
Thanks for reading!

-Laura