Explain a term for me

[mubs]

What does "drink the Kool-Aid" mean? From the context, I gather it's something akin to "swallowing the bitter medicine"? I came across this in a news item yesterday, and again just now.

 

[CraigLC]

possibly referring to a well publicised case in which a cult group commited mass suicide by drinking "spiked" (poisioned) kool aid? I think they were in California and wer semi famous for all having died wearing the same brand of nike shoe.

 

[flagreen]

Ah yes "Jim Jones" and his People's Temple cult. He and his flock fled to Guyana and built a compound down there. They all commited suicide by drinking kool-aid spiked with cyanide. Men women and children over 900 of them.

 

[mubs]

Thanks, Craig. I know the incident you're referring to. But I think the phrase is intended to mean something else.

Context #2:

And as corporations continue to cut technology spending, more and more companies are going for an off-the-shelf IT strategy, influenced in part by vendors' claims that they can clean up the "mess" CIOs have created. "Many organizations have come to believe that they can live with a certain level of technology that's plug-and-play, not complex, and gets the job done," says Highland Partners' Schneidermeyer.

Even CIOs are drinking the Kool-Aid. "It only makes business sense. If you can get it out of the box, why build it?

Cannot find news item for Context #1; can't even recollect where I saw it.

 

[Buck]

drink the Kool-Aid
v. To become a firm believer in something; to accept an argument or philosophy wholeheartedly or blindly.

Example Citation:
One top executive named McMahon, the treasurer, was known for going around the company after he met with Skilling, Lay, and Fastow, and they directed him to do some bogus deal and say, 'Well, we've all got to go drink the Kool-Aid.'
—William Lerach, quoted in Marie Brenner, "The Enron Wars," Vanity Fair, April, 2002

Backgrounder:
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which members of the Peoples Temple cult committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid (although some say the drink of choice was actually Flav-R-Aid).

Earliest Citation:
You don't follow anyone blindly, my brothers and sisters . . . . We love Marion Barry. He is the mayor . . . . But if Marion Barry disrespects us, we will cry out . . . . We will not blindly drink the Kool-Aid any longer . . . .
—Cathy Hughes, transcript from a radio call-in show as reported in "Being Stood Up by Mayor Leaves Radio Host Fuming," The Washington Post, July 17, 1987

 

[mubs]

Thanks, Buck! That was fantastic! I've bookmarked WordSpy for future use. I learn something new everyday! :mrgrn:

 

[Buck]

You're welcome mubs.