It’s Friday and we’re feeling mischievous, so here’s an entirely (mostly) tongue-in-cheek comparison chart.
| People’s Temple | CAMRA | Brewdog | |
| Problems reduced to one simple explanation, repeatedly emphasised | Imminent nuclear holocaust. | Real ale. | Craft beer. |
| Gain a new identity based on the group | Church member. | CAMRA member. | ‘Punk’ or ‘scamp’. |
| Isolated from mainstream culture, mass gatherings, access to information controlled | People’s Temple Agrictultural Project. | Great British Beer Festival; What’s Brewing?; real ale pubs; Good Beer Guide; AGM. | AGM, bars, blog, TV programmes. |
| Charismatic leaders | Jim Jones. | Michael Hardman and Christopher Hutt. | James Watt and Martin Dickie. |
| Financial exploitation | Religious communalism. | CAMRA investments; direct debit membership. | Equity for Punks. |
| Exaggerated membership numbers | Claimed 20,000; probably had c.5000. | “…journalists… began to over exaggerate… how big we were and that perhaps made the breweries take more notice than we deserved.” Graham Lees, 2011. | ? |
| Persecution complex | Believed corporations and government were ‘out to get them’. | ‘CAMRA-bashers’, noisome bloggers. | Diageo-gate, CAMRA ‘bans’. |
If we’re making a point, it’s that no-one should confuse a membership society or a brewery with a Way of Life or Path of Righteousness. If you find yourself preoccupied with or becoming angry about CAMRA or Brewdog, consider deprogramming.