Drinking the Kool aid

[herbgeek]

Heard on the news today: today is the 33rd anniversary of Jonestown (mass suicides for you young uns who may not have heard of this) and the origin of the expression "someone drank the Kool aid". I was surprised when I heard this, as I remember when it happened. I guess I must be old.

[Alan]

My brother-in-law was part of the Army's response team to Jonestown from his base in Panama. The pictures he brought back were disturbing.

It wasn't all mass suicide. Some of the residents, including all the children, were murdered.

[Jemima]

Geez, does that ever make me feel old! 33 years???

[Fawn]

My brother-in-law was part of the Army's response team to Jonestown from his base in Panama. The pictures he brought back were disturbing.

It wasn't all mass suicide. Some of the residents, including all the children, were murdered.

I was talking with a physician yesterday about how not understanding or being in touch with our emotions is dangerous. This is to me one powerful example of group denial...and obviously very dangerous.

I don't think I would be able to look at the photos your BIL brought back....

[Mrs-M]

I watched a special on Jonestown, and it was frightening. The pictures were horrific, and the stories shared by those who survived was spine-chilling.

[loosechickens]

I saw something interesting today in that pretty much everyone uses the term "you're drinking the KoolAid". but the huge majority of younger people have no idea whatsoever where the term came from. I found that really interesting. And sad. We not only don't learn from past experiences or history, much of the time, we don't even remember it, even when some of the terminology lives on.........

[RosieTR]

Heh, Loosechickens, people don't even remember things a politician said last week never mind 30 years ago. It's a slippery slope to start thinking of all the things that young people today have no idea about.

[ctg492]

It so hard to understand how so many could be pulled into the following along of such a strange man. Then I suppose in one way or another this has gone on many times in history to some level.
This is one of those events that I will always remember as I was in HS and the teacher held up the News Paper in Problems Of Democracy class that day.
Along this line, I remember back in the 70's Cults were talked about a lot. Keeping teens out of Cults was a topic and fliers were given out at school. Now I never hear of talk like that. Why is that I wonder? Maybe so may other issues to deal with teens about today.

[catherine]

It so hard to understand how so many could be pulled into the following along of such a strange man. Then I suppose in one way or another this has gone on many times in history to some level.
This is one of those events that I will always remember as I was in HS and the teacher held up the News Paper in Problems Of Democracy class that day.
Along this line, I remember back in the 70's Cults were talked about a lot. Keeping teens out of Cults was a topic and fliers were given out at school. Now I never hear of talk like that. Why is that I wonder? Maybe so may other issues to deal with teens about today.

I think the ease with which mobs of people can be led by certain leaders is truly scary. For every leader that has started great movements, there has been a leader that has talked his followers into self-destruction, destruction of others, or both.

Did anyone ever see that Oprah segment way back in the 90s with Jane Elliott?
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Race-on-The-Oprah-Show-A-25-Year-Look-Back/4

I'll never forget seeing that for the first time, and witnessing FIRST HAND how people's thinking can become distorted in 30 MINUTES!! And there were no reasons for them to change their minds like survival reasons. They indulged in their racist propensities in record time. I could not even believe and it scared me tremendously.

[terrica]

I saw something interesting today in that pretty much everyone uses the term "you're drinking the KoolAid". but the huge majority of younger people have no idea whatsoever where the term came from. I found that really interesting. And sad. We not only don't learn from past experiences or history, much of the time, we don't even remember it, even when some of the terminology lives on.........
Talk show host Dave Ramsey uses the term “drink the Kool-Aid” for getting onboard with getting out of debt and saving money. While I like him, this has always bothered me. I was much more disbursed when I was on another forum and someone asked about this phrase and another person replied that she thought he said that because Kool-Aid was cheap.

I have always had a weird fascination with Jim Jones. Not sure why as I am 32 and wasn’t even alive when Jonestown happened. An excellent book on it is Raven (http://www.amazon.com/Raven-Untold-Story-Jones-People/dp/1585426784/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321727687&sr=8-1) by Tim Reiterman. This was one of those books that I just couldn't put down.

[Alan]

One of the goals of the People's Temple was to replace religion with socialism. I always think of "drink the Kool-Aid", and the end result, from that perspective.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I like the rickross site as it really tries to come up with a hard check list of what constitutes cult or cult like behavior (and yes I like just because I find cults interesting! :)). It's not about the content of the belief itself, but about the methodology used to indoctrinate the belief (in fact content is used to distract from methodology - a person is so stuck in his rational self trying to make sense of the belief that he might not even notice how his environment is being manipulated via temperatures, his body kept in pain (forbidding bathroom breaks, feeding people inadequately etc.), and his emotions played on in the most manipulative ways - embarrassment, love-bombing etc.).

I mean sure contents of beliefs may be argued to be harmful in an of themselves for other reasons, but that is not what makes it cult-like.

[goldensmom]

I watched a special on Jonestown, and it was frightening. The pictures were horrific, and the stories shared by those who survived was spine-chilling.

My feelings exactly. I remember hearing the initial reports of the incident on the news before details were released, it was unbelievable. I've never heard the term 'drinking the Kool-Aid' used in any context but it sounds flippant and insensitive when attached to such a tragic event.

[Tiam]

Of course the Oprah experiment was a reproduction of the original Elliot, brown eye/blue eye experiment.

To me, (and I remember the Jim Jones cult incident) the phrase "Drinking the Koolaide" means you are buying the B S that someone else is feeding you. You are no longer thinking independently for yourself.

[frugalone]

I certainly remember it, and I'm only 47.

[lizii]

Heh, Loosechickens, people don't even remember things a politician said last week never mind 30 years ago. It's a slippery slope to start thinking of all the things that young people today have no idea about.

Maybe not, but I'm finding that many young people enjoy reading about it.

[treehugger]

I saw something interesting today in that pretty much everyone uses the term "you're drinking the KoolAid". but the huge majority of younger people have no idea whatsoever where the term came from. I found that really interesting. And sad. We not only don't learn from past experiences or history, much of the time, we don't even remember it, even when some of the terminology lives on.........

I don't disagree that we [society] aren't very good at learning from past mistakes, but I also don't think kids today not knowing the origin of the phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid" means anything especially significant. We all use expressions in our daily speech that we don't necessarily know the origins of.

Kara