I think the story is always about a charismatic leader whose followers get so dependent that they can't even imagine living without that person. Then when the leader's ambitions don't work out the leader decides it's better not to live and the followers will kill themselves. Some of Hitler's followers killed themselves (and their children like Goebbels), people in Waco didn't try to escape. It's a weird psychology but I think it has happened many times in history.