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This morning I was watching a program on the History channel (next to the HD channels and Sci-Fi, History is pretty much what I watch). The program was about Jonestown and the cult leader that created it, Jim Jones. Apparently, Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple group didn't start out as a cult (though I suppose not many do...). Eventually, he fled the states and started his own cult town called Jonestown. In what he called a protest against an inhumane world, Jones and 900+ of his followers committed suicide by drinking poisoned Kool-Aid. They also killed a congressman, a pilot, and some reporters, too.
Today, at least in the circles in which I roam (geeks, programmers, and other such degenerates...), people use the phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid" to indicate that someone is buying what is being sold. In short, people use it often when referring to products or new technologies where people are "drinking the Kool-Aid" if they believe what they're being told about the new product. I am currently "drinking the Kool-Aid" about some products, whereas I remain skeptical about others. I have actually heard the phrase a few times where the connotation came close to brainwashing, implying that those drinking the Kool-Aid were being hypnotized or had lost their faculties in order to believe the line being fed them. Kool-Aid drinkers are often referred to as lemmings.
That said, you may or may not know that I consider myself a linguist. I am fascinated by various aspects of language, especially in how colloquialisms are formed. As a writer of fantasy and fiction as well, I need to know how colloquialisms are formed in order to give characters in my story believable localized speech and expressions.
One thing that I have found that often happens is an expression comes from a dark or particularly painful memory (such as the mass suicide by Kool-Aid) and the sting of the original incident recedes, and people go on using the expression without knowing where it came from or why. My inner linquist will not allow me to draw a parellel between me being excited when listening to a Steve Jobs keynote to brainwashed followers killing themselves with Kool-Aid, so I am now going to try and avoid using that expression in my day-to-day routine.
It just makes you wonder - how many of the expressions we use on a daily basis actually came from darker, more grim origins than any of us suspect?
Interestingly, or ironically enough, the earliest usage of it in technology
I can find is this quote:
According to Wikipedia, 'drinking the kool-aid' goes back to the sixties,
and Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test', about Ken Kesey and the
Merry Pranksters. Apparently Kool-Aid with LSD in it figures prominently.
Presumably the LSD is where the 'Electric' in the title comes from.
It's funny that you should refer to lemmings. The myth surrounding lemmings
was created by the filmmakers at Disney. The footage of thousands of
lemmings jumping off a cliff was staged by the film makers. Lemmings don't
actually commit suicide. They were pushed off the cliff by crew as the
cameras rolled. There are many sites out there to substantiate this. Just
google lemmings disney.
