Drinking the Kool-Aid: A (Partial) 2008 Directory

The expression “drinking the Kool-Aid” is now deeply embedded into American slang – often as throwaway and/or commonly-understood lines in sports, business, and popular culture – with upwards of a dozen references appearing on news feeds every day. Especially in political arena, the saying has become increasingly weaponized, as partisans on all sides use it to disparage the intellectual capacity and discernment of their opponents.

Nevertheless, there have been several serious considerations of the phrase in several commentaries during the past year, including:

Q & A: Jim Ardis
Peoria Journal-Star, June 23, 2008

Mayor Jim Ardis has received some criticism lately for his comments regarding the Peoria Public Library’s successful referendum in 2007, saying he wasn’t going to “drink the Kool-Aid” of the 72 percent who voted in favor of supporting a $35 million expansion of the library system.

Ardis said he accepts responsibility for his comments, and he hopes the sometimes confrontational discourse in the past month between the City Council and the Library Board does not hamper future progress for Peoria.

Q: There has been some fervor, it seems, with the “Drink the Kool-Aid” comment you made about the 2007 referendum with regards to voter turnout and those who supported the library referendum. Is there anything you would like to say to set that record straight?

A: I accept full responsibility for that comment and would not use that phrase again in that context. Many people in our community share my vision for enhanced education and I did not mean to imply that those who desire enhanced libraries are (naive) or have been brainwashed.

Drinking the Kool-Aid
by Dave Stewart, Running in the Rain, April 4, 2008

I was sitting with one of my work colleagues today and having a little ad hoc meeting about something interesting (but off topic). At one point I commented, “Maybe I have been drinking the Kool-Aid too much here, but…” and then I was going to prattle off some long-assumed corporate party line, which I wanted to cast doubt on.

Then my friend interrupted me and said, “What does ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’ mean?”

This caused me to stop dead, and then break out in laughter. Not at him … my friend grew up in India, and moved to the US after graduating from college. He has heard several people use the phrase, but didn’t know what it meant. My laughter was based on how deeply this term has seeped into American culture. Then I turned serious, and even sad.

Hey, Kool-Aid: A resurgent metaphor of questionable taste
by Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, March 9, 2008

That sloshing sound isn’t just your imagination: If you follow the news, you’ve probably noticed the risingtide of references to “drinking the Kool-Aid.”

There’s a lot of Obama-flavored Kool-Aid out there, of course – according to Clinton partisans. And there’s Clinton Kool-Aid, too – according to Obama voters (and columnist Frank Rich, who recently told New York Times readers that Hillary’s strategists, early in the campaign, had been swilling the stuff).

Accusations of Kool-Aid intoxication aren’t limited to Democratic campaign rhetoric. Warren Buffett recently said that US banks tripped up by complex investments were now drinking their own “toxic Kool-Aid.” Business students, sportswriters, and Nascar fans imbibe as well.

When the Kool-Aid showed up last month in a Globe story about bread-baking rivalries, though, reader Janice Zazinski had had her fill. “I assume it’s a reference to the mass suicide in Jonestown, and I find it wholly inappropriate and insensitive,” she e-mailed.

She’s right about the source. Jim Jones, who forced hundreds of his followers to drink cyanide in Jonestown, Guyana, 30 years ago, left the language this vivid metaphor for blind faith.

On the road with Obama
by Justin Webb, BBC News, USA, March 3, 2008

Suicide is a serious subject and mass suicide even more so. But we had to laugh (those of us sitting on the press bus inhaling fumes from a dodgy exhaust system) at the start of another day on the road with Barack Obama.

“Oh God,” someone called out.

“They’ll think we did it on purpose if we all die here. They’ll think we drank the Kool Aid.”

That phrase “drinking the Kool Aid” – as well as recalling the drug fuelled days of the 1960s – is associated with followers of a cult leader Jim Jones who were persuaded by him to commit suicide.

They drank bottles of pop (actually Flavor Aid, not Kool Aid, but Kool Aid has stuck) and the point anyway is that the pop was laced with cyanide.

Nine-hundred and thirteen people died and to this day nobody knows why they did it.

How apt that my journey with the Obama team begins with a Kool Aid reminder because that is the charge you hear over and over again now…

But I come away from my days on the road with the Obama team with, if I am honest, a very warm feeling about him and his people. They are pleasant to deal with. They are winning and having fun.

And yet, I read the other day that Jim Jones’ Kool Aid cult began as a struggle for racial equality and social justice.

One account says, “his followers believed their movement was the solution to the problems of society, many did not distinguish Jones from the movement.”

How disconcerting.

On drinking Kool-Aid and other paranormal events
by Ray Unger, Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, April 25, 2008

The weird headline above was just to get your attention, so read on. You won’t be disappointed. We’re forced to make decisions about the future with faulty and imperfect information. But guess what? That’s what makes this business so interesting, because we’re always learning new things. And that’s the crux of the above headline. No, I’m not a Jim Jones fanatic – he convinced his followers to take a cyanide-laced drink to commit suicide – hence the expression “drinking to Kool-Aid.”