In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the main character’s fight against the government is broken when he is faced with his biggest fears of being covered in rats. Jones similarly instructed every member to write down their biggest fears. If any member disobeyed or tried to resist Jones, he would use their worst fears against them or humiliate them publicly. Jones’s clearly used fear to his advantage to maintain control of his cult.
Jones successfully maintained his follower’s obedience by creating fear within his congregation by simulating mass suicide practices. Jones called these practices “White Nights”. During these practices, the inhabitants of Jonestown were awakened by sirens and guards, and were all gathered in the pavilion. Deborah Layton Blakey, a defector of Jonestown, describes the suicide preparations of “White Nights”,
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As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told.” While Jones hosted these “White Night” meetings, he claimed that the U.S. intelligence agencies would soon attack Jonestown and manipulated his followers into a mindset of fear. Jones had even gone to the extent of staging fake attackers around Jonestown to make the practices seem more serious and realistic. After each member had taken the drink, Jones would reveal that it was simply only a test to prove their loyalty, but that one day the poison would be real. The purpose of “White Nights” was to build a form of behavioral commitment that increase the willingness of Jones’s followers to repeat this behavior at a later stage. On November 18, 1978, it