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In a movie, in television, in a story, in a novel, in a newspaper, they get identified with those people that they would like to become but they cannot. They may condemn, that is their mask; deep down they are enjoying it. Otherwise, why so much interest in Jonestown? He was mad. And who were his followers? All uneducated, mostly black people, not understanding anything -- what kind of congregation had he got? But he managed to draw the attention of the whole world just by committing suicide. Otherwise nobody would have ever known the Reverend Jim Jones and his people. By committing suicide he has managed good publicity. And that's all he wanted: to become famous.
One university has done research in my commune. Sixty percent of people are graduates from some university. Twenty percent have postgraduate degrees -- one M.A., two M.A.'s, three M.A.'s. Ten percent of people have Ph.D.'s -- one Ph.D., two Ph.D.'s, three Ph.D.'s. Three percent of people have D.Litt.'s, B Sc.'s, Doctor of Education, LL.D.'s. Now, this kind of people you compare with Jonestown? You cannot find such a caliber anywhere in one commune. These intelligent people have not gathered here to commit suicide -- that they could have done anywhere. They have gathered here to share life with me, to have something of the eternal, to taste it.
But the politicians are dangerous people. Journalists are nothing to be much worried about, but politicians are dangerous people. It can never become a Jonestown, but politicians can make it a Dachau, Auschwitz, Buchenwald. Politicians can do that, they have already started doing it. They declare the city illegal. Now, where seven thousand people are living without any crime, without any drugs, without any problem, without harming anybody, the city is illegal! No illegality is committed -- the city is illegal. And the illegal cities, which are committing all illegalities, are legal.
They want this city to be demolished because of their land use laws. And none of those idiots has come to see how we are using the land. Can they use it more creatively than we are using it? And for fifty years nobody was using the land; they were happy, that was
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