Moving On - Children of the Children of God

Cults play a big part in the American psyche. After hearing the phrase "I gotta go drink the kool aid" one too many times, I looked up the phrase on the internet to discover its origins. Turns out, as I half suspected, it's based on the Jim Jones, People's Temple turned mass suicide saga, when Jones' followers were ordered to drink cyanide laced, sugar flavored, colored juice, resulting in 900 dead.

I was shocked to discover that fact. If you've ever heard phrases like "drink the kool-aid" or "the man's holding me down" you get the feel for how cynical modern Americans are. Extreme phrases like this one, also reminds me of how, after the columbine massacre, some Columbine high school kids joked about how they wish they were killed so they didn't have to go to school.

It's just bizarre, grown adults joking about having to go "drink the kool-aid" and kiss some corporate manager's ass for 10th time today, pretend to agree, etc. It's bizarre how they equate their office life to life in a cult, or do they? To what depth can ordinary people relate to what it's like to actually having lived in a cult? Or is it just so bizzare to them, that it works endlessly as a sick joke to toss around in the office environment, where the actual events of the activity alluded to by the joke are so far fetched, and fantastic, that it's okay to joke about it.

I will also end this thought with the observation that modern American society is in fact a docile one, filled with brain-dead lemmings. While the average idiot might not knowingly drink cyanide-laced kool-aid if ordered to, they would perhaps drink just about anything else...

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from Oddie
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 - 22:42
(Agree/Disagree?)

The same situation can be seen the world over. People take the worst tragedies, the darkest points in history, and the ugliest part of society, and turn it into one big joke. It's a defense mechanism. It's a way of coping. You'll see it all over this site as well, we laugh at our abused tormented childhoods, as a way of coping.
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from jan80
Monday, February 26, 2007 - 12:38
(Agree/Disagree?)
I think you perhaps are the cynical one. Clearly not everyone has personal experiences with cults, its all a big joke to them, and it should be. The examples you mentioned sound more like clever marketing tricks through utilizing the familiar rather then some sick, mean and horrible way at looking at the world. Its just TV. Its garbage anyway, don't watch it.
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From Phoenixkidd
Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 10:32
(Agree/Disagree?)
Brain dead lemmings? That is a gross overstatement, sure there are a lot of self satisfied, culturally inept people in our country but there are a lot of academics, counter-culture, democrats, etc...who really give a damn about what is going on in the World outside our US of A. I think many people have just given up hope to fight against middle America and realize through our media saturated minds that the World is too big to fight and stand up against and to "go with the flow", Sure I do the same thing, I am stuck in Corporate America, but in my heart and mind I am a die hard liberal and staunch believer in my freedoms and rights. There you got some scrap outta me. (reply to this comment)