Drinking the Kool-Aid
The Cultural Transformation of a Tragedy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20200730 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rebecca Moore (0000-0003-2477-9816, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 92-100 |
| Publication date | 2003-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Nova Religio The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1092-6690 • E-ISSN: 1541-8480 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1525/nr.2003.7.2.92 |
| OpenAlex | W1965456888 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 3 |
The expression "drinking the Kool-Aid" has entered the American idiom with little reference to its origins in the Jonestown tragedy of 18 November 1978. Instead, people are using Jonestown— the event—and Kool-Aid—the phrase—to signify a number of contradictory meanings and values. This is because those who died in Jonestown were ritually excluded from cultural consideration. The more traumatic the original incident, the more likely memory of that event will be forgotten or repressed. The author identifies the ways Kool-Aid and Jonestown are used in the news and on the Internet, and catalogues four main groups of uses: cult disasters, including 9/11; political uses; entertainment; and business uses. The categories of cult disasters and politics use Jonestown references negatively,thereby indicating a tenuous connection with the origins of the concepts. The entertainment and business worlds, however, use the references both negatively and positively,thus revealing dissociation and amnesia about the reality of Jonestown
Ancient history · Art · Cult · Entertainment · Linguistics · Literature · Phrase · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · History · Law · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2023 (13) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |