On 5/3/2017 3:00 PM, Cousin Ricky wrote:
> On 05/03/2017 09:10 AM, clipka wrote:
>> Am 02.05.2017 um 22:37 schrieb Dave Blandston:
>>
>>> PS - I'm not sure if the phrase "Drink the Kool-Aid" is known
>>> worldwide, so for
>>> anyone unfamiliar with it the historical context is from the
>>> Jonestown, Guyana
>>> mass suicide incident in which hundreds of people knowingly drank
>>> grape Kool-Aid
>>> poisoned with cyanide. The poison Kool-Aid was in a vat labeled with
>>> a green
>>> "C." Since then the term has been used to describe the act of
>>> compromising one's
>>> integrity and adopting the unethical standards and methods of those
>>> in power in
>>> order to advance within some corrupt organization.
>>
>> I've heard the expression in the more general sense of adopting someone
>> else's bullshit ideology or values in blind faith.
>
> That has been my understanding as well.  When my faith abandoned me (in
> the middle of a church service, no less), I did not feel comfortable
> remaining in a community whose very rationale as a community was that
> set of beliefs that I no longer shared.  As communities that are *not*
> faith-based are practically non-existent in my locale, I was forced to
> find explicitly non-believing communities on-line, and when they talk
> about "drinking the Kool-Aid," it always refers to swallowing dogma.
>

I will just reply here as I am lazy. ;)

Cuz, I can well believe that you "had to get out of town". I was quite 
taken aback when I worked in Jamaica, how religious most people are. 
Even those that professed not to be. (And how deep grained but not 
spoken about, Obeah is. Not that, that bothered me in the slightest.)

> That's a matter of perspective.  As a black American, I cannot look at "wholesome"
'50s images without being reminded of the hidden ugly reality behind them.

That is not surprising. I remember from the the race riots of the 60's 
the contrasting images. Thank goodness that things have changed and will 
only get better under your present government. ;)

Kool-Aid. I remember Jonestown but "Drink the Kool-Aid" is not a phrase 
I've heard in the UK.

>> Yes, I remember that. It's still hard to believe that people can be so gullible,
>> or blind to the idiocy of a charismatic 'leader.'
>
> It's only hard to believe until the day you wake up and realize that
> you've already been there, done that (figuratively speaking).

Duh! It took me a while to cotton on. :(


-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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