For time tends to get less busy I decided to pick up a book that I always wanted to read that has been rotting in my book shelf since my A-Levels: Apex Hides The Hurt by Colson Whitehead. I will soon publish a short review on this book, FYI (this abbreviation is for “for your information” in case you are wondering).

Anyway, I came across with the phrase in Apex Hides The Hurt. Here a quote: “That doesn’t mean I’m all up in his Kool-Aid, if you know what I mean” - And I was - talking to myself, like a 64-year-old grandpa - “No, not exactly,” so I check and did some research on that phrase. Lucky you as I made a blog post out of my curiosity. Curious Gorge Phil meets a rather short Lingo Bingo session.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

There are various ways of using the Kool-Aid phrase. Here are some examples: To be up someone’s Kool-Aid or To drink someone’s Kool-Aid. You can also say something like that and refer to the said idiom: “I’m afraid that kid has already taken a sip of the Kool-Aid.”

The (idiomatic) expression’s meaning transformed over the years. It orignially refers to the Merry Pranksters, a group of people who toured the US in the 60s distributing LSD-laced Kool-Aid drinks. They advertised these LSD events with posters saying “Can you pass the Acid Test?” Kool-Aid, now and then, is a brand name for an artificially flavored sweet drink. Back in the days, “drinking the Kool-Aid” meant to follow the new ideas of the psychedelic 60s culture. LSD was legal until 1966.

However, the meaning of the phrase “drinking someone’s Kool-Aid” is associated with the cult suicide in Jonestown (Guyana). Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple cult, talked his followers into drinking a poisoned Kool-Aid drink in order to commit suicide due to the leader’s paranoia. Those who refused to do so were injected with poison by devout followers. Read here on Wikipedia why Jim Jones wanted them to commit suicide…

Since the Jonestown massacre the phrase’s meaning has changed in a dramatic fashion. It now means to do something without questioning, to follow someone blindly (like the Peoples Temple cult followers did).

And now we reach out to the German speaking folks out there reading my blog. Do you know a German equivalent for a saying like that?

Here is what came up with: jemandem blind folgen — That’s not quite a lot, so help me out on this one.