There’s Something in the Kool-Aid

ANGLO AMERICA, 9 Sep 2024

Vern Loomis - TRANSCEND Media Service

4 Sep 2024 – “Drinking the Kool-Aid,” is a now familiar and oft-used phrase to describe the naïve obedience to the will of another at the expense of one’s own well-being. For some, the phrase might hark back to Tom Wolfe’s, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” but its current context came later. It stems from the 1978 “Jonestown Massacre” where more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple obeyed their leader’s (Jim Jones) forceful directive and dutifully drank a poison-laced punch to end their earthly lives and trustingly float off to the eternal joys of heaven.

Jonestown wasn’t the first or the last “Kool-Aid” tragedy. More than 150 years ago, a British Guiana shaman (Awakaipu) convinced 400 indigenous tribesmen to kill one another and then be reincarnated as ultra-powerful white-skinned humans who would be more powerful than their invasive white European conquistadors. In 1941, Yogmaya Neupane, along with 67 disciples, committed the biggest mass suicide in Nepali history when they purposefully jumped into the Arun River and drowned. Closer to home and more recently, most Americans are familiar David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. Their compound in Waco, Texas was surrounded by FBI agents in 1993. Rather than surrendering, Koresh and at least 74 followers shot or stabbed one another to death as flames engulfed their living quarters. Just a few years later, in 1997, Heaven’s Gate leader Marshall Applewhite and nearly 40 disciples rented a California mansion and fatally poisoned themselves in order to transcend their earthy bodies and ascend to a higher plane.

Mesmerizing leaders usually drink the Kool-Aid along with their followers, but it’s not a given. One such exception was Awakaipu. He was killed by disillusioned survivors when his prophesies failed to transpire. But usually, they do believe their transformational hype (or see no graceful exit) and willingly drink from their own proffered Kool-Aid.

Messianic cult leaders with the charisma to induce mass suicides are rare enough to attract sensational news coverage, but common enough to always seem familiar. One can hardly consider a Marshall Applewhite without also reflecting on a David Koresh or a Jim Jones. When the next one comes along, the number of suicides could conceivably approach a hundred or more, perhaps even a thousand. As sensational as a thousand simultaneous suicides might be, its shock would likely dominate the airwaves for a couple of news cycles and then fade into the collective memory of similar tragedies.

But what if a million followers were to drink the Kool-Aid? Would the initial shock soon fade into obscurity? What if 25 or 50 million trusting souls were to drink it? How would our brains process such a holocaust?

Well, this too, happens; it happens quite regularly. In fact, it happens often enough to be regrettable, but hardly shocking. Powerful nations continuously mix and stock-pile enough Kool-Aid to serve millions, and partaking of it is a common rite of passage for their young citizens. The beverage is ostensibly brewed to nurture the need for national self-defense, but unscrupulous leaders can (and do) disperse it for self-indulgent ambitions. A cup is held forth as tribute to patriotism or even as service to God. When one country superfluously invades another, millions of obedient followers will drink from it before sacrificing their own and the lives of others for the ill-begotten gains (if successful) of an ambitious leader. They will kill and die by the millions because they have faith in their leader’s initiative, or because once it’s in hand, they see no viable alternative to lifting the cup to their lips.

When we think of the Jonestown Massacre, we probably visualize a psychotically deranged Jim Jones and hundreds of misled “suckers” who naively gave up their lives. Do we have similar thoughts when considering the invasion of Vietnam, the invasion of Iraq, the invasion of Ukraine, the invasion of Israel, or the invasion of Gaza? Do we see our leaders who initiate unnecessary wars as madmen, or do we lionize their ambitions? Do we see the young soldiers sent to kill and die for such dubious causes as gullible pawns, or do we glorify their sacrificial patriotism?

We are all vulnerable. As members of a cult, or as citizens of a country, we are immersed in a dynamic that pulls us forward. If for cult, the probable lure is group integrity and the rewards of heaven. If for country, the probable lure is national integrity and patriotic honor. The Kool-Aid is always an arm’s length away. If the cup is offered (or ordered), we are apt to drink from it. Whether through cult or country, obedience is the path of least resistance. If obeisance is to a deranged cult leader, hundreds of misled “suckers” are apt to die. If obeisance is to an immoral political leader, millions of “patriotic” soldiers (and civilians) are apt to die. Other than of magnitude, are the dynamics and their outcomes really different? Perhaps in one way: the messianic cult leader will lift the cup and likely drink the Cool-Aid along with his followers; the manipulative political leader will lift the cup and likely set it back down before bringing it to his own lips. He will survive, but many of his enabling followers will not.

Can a national leader be both? Can an ambitious politician or militarist also be a cultish leader? Rulers of a theocratic nation can certainly cite the “will of God” to promote and justify ambitions. If its citizens are true believers, obedience is a given. A nation need not be a theocracy though, to offer spiritual Kool-Aid. Democracies, even secular democracies are prone to offering the cup. The United States, the world’s largest “secular” democracy, is also an “In God We Trust” nation, with the god in question being Christian. While all faiths (or non-faiths) are supposedly welcomed or tolerated, the nation was founded on Christian principles, and any politician with viable hopes of leading it is compelled to display Christian values. Accordingly, honor to the Christian God has often been held forth as Kool-Aid to justify ambitions and fortify obedience. The U.S. wars across the North American continent to purge it of prior inhabitants were proffered as “Manifest Destiny,” a concept that both excused and obligated the violence of U.S. soldiers who were sent to risk their lives for the honor of God and country as they exterminated Native Americans. In the 1860’s, America’s Civil War was initiated by wealthy landowners who demanded (through political representatives) observance of their Biblically cited freedom (and duty) to own slaves. Nearly 592 thousand young men sipped the Confederate Kool-Aid, of which more than 490 thousand were killed, wounded, or captured (there were also nearly 600 thousand Union casualties). When George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq more than a century later, he dubiously declared “weapons of mass destruction” to justify the incursion, but cited Biblical prophecy for validation. A “mere” 4,492 American soldiers lost their lives, but more than 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and civilians died. When national leaders hold forth God to validate the initiation of invasive war, are they not like cultish leaders offering deadly Kool-Aid to vulnerable followers? Are we not like cultish “suckers” if we accept the cup?

What if the spiritual Kool-Aid is offered in exchange for risking less than one’s life? What if taking a sip merely leads to a loss of power rather than to a loss of life? The world’s democracies are often threatened by ambitious leaders bent on usurping a population’s political power and bestowing it upon themselves. Short of a militaristic takeover, an autocratic-minded leader must first convince a free electorate to give up and hand over its power (its freedom). Some form of Kool-Aid must be offered to ease resistance and consummate the transaction. A once avowed atheist, Viktor Orban opportunistically embraced Christianity to seize and consolidate power in what had formerly been Hungary’s multi-partied political system. He offered Christians little more than token validation of spiritual values in exchange for their electoral support. His Kool-Aid was obsequiously ingested. With initial Christian backing, he dismantled a democracy, and Orban now governs an autocratic nation. He no longer has need of electoral support of any kind, including Christian. The manipulated faithful drank the Kool-Aid and surrendered their electoral power. In doing so, a democracy was lost.

Donald Trump was never an avowed atheist. He was simply “irreligious” before entering the political arena. Like Victor Orban, though, Trump saw the obvious opportunism in embracing Christianity. It was an easy hug for him; he didn’t have to actually “live” Christianity, he only had to “laud” it. His superficial reverence was enough to garnish the blessing of God in the eyes of prominent clergy. Jerry Falwell Jr., Lance Wallnau, and Jeremiah Johnson are but a few of the religious leaders who have cited God’s hand in Donald Trump’s politic arrival. Trump himself, does not disavow the notion; he astutely embraces it. Like an adroit cult leader, he now invokes the will of God as sweetener for his Kool-Aid. With the cup held high, Trump infers the blessing of God in drinking from it, but it’s not eternal heaven in exchange for earthly life that’s being proffered. Rather, it is existential validation in exchange for the electoral votes needed to assume a position of power. Just as an atheistic Viktor Orban manipulated a gullible Christian community to attain sovereignty in Hungary, an irreligious Donald Trump is manipulating gullible Christians to attain sovereignty in the United States. The manipulator gets so much and gives so little: Christians already enjoy the unfettered freedom to practice their religion under the inclusive umbrella of a secular democracy. Trump simply offers to enhance it a little: he would validate the desire of some Christians to impose tokens of their religion upon others (such as Christian prayer in public schools, Christian-based embryonic concepts, or the display of Christian doctrine in governmental buildings). That is all. If he prevails, Christians will have gained a little power (that can later be revoked) while trading away a big power (democracy) to an autocrat (from whom it can’t be revoked).

His first bid for a second term in office was narrowly cut short by voters in 2020. Trump’s (and his party’s) disregard for democracy was put on full display as he attempted to invalidate and/or bypass the results of votes cast in several key states. When his “peaceful” effort failed to win the presidency, he upped the ante and encouraged a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol Building (01/06/2021). That too, failed, but he and his party have regrouped for 2024’s election. The erosion of democracy is now accelerating; the end of January (2023) saw at least 150 bills introduced in 32 states aimed at restricting access to the electoral system. The bills are weighted to eliminate voters least likely to be supportive of Republican endeavors. Many legitimate Democratic voters will thus be disenfranchised, but Trump will still need a majority of the remaining voters to carry him forward. Short of staging another violent attack (one that’s successful) on the Capitol Building, he will require the electoral votes of a democracy to grant him the power to then dismantle it. Of the disparate groups that Trump seeks to utilize for his quest, none is more essential than the amalgam of Christian voters. Christians hold the means to his autocratic leadership; Trump holds forth the cup. Will Christians drink the Kool-Aid?

Christians in Hungary surely felt a gratifying surge of power when their still meaningful votes gave Viktor Orban his victory. The elation has likely subsided; their votes, like the votes of everyone else, are no longer very meaningful. Christians in the United States will probably feel a similar elation if their votes give victory to Donald Trump. As in Hungary, the Kool-Aid “high” will begin to subside upon realization that true Christian values and aspirations are not integral to the ambitions of an irreligious autocrat who has usurped the nation’s electoral power. But it will then be too late to avoid the looming hangover. As happened in Hungary, the power and influence that U.S. citizens once had in affecting government policy and leadership will have been traded away. Trump, like Orban, will have gained so much and given so little. It was in the Kool-Aid; it’s always in the Kool-Aid (and such is the art of the deal).

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Vern Loomis graduated from Michigan State University in 1972 with a degree in psychology. He bounced around for a couple of years, then began an unrelated career in the field of architectural engineering from which he retired in 2018. He uses some of his newly found free time to pursue an old interest in writing. Thus far it’s been political/social commentaries on publications including The Dissident Voice, CounterPunch, and The Humanist. He lives in southeast Michigan with his wife and daughter.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Sep 2024.

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