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Wednesday 27 December 2023

Drinking the Kool-Aid

The phrase, "drinking the Kool-Aid", comes from the Jonestown massacre: the genocide of the 909-strong congregation of the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project in the jungles of Guyana (Conroy, 2018). The followers so believed in Jim Jones, their cult leader, they first gave cyanide-laced Kool-Aid - orange drink made from concentrate and water - to their children, before poisoning themselves. They literally drank the Kool-Aid

We drink the Kool-Aid when we unquestioningly believe what others say, when we believe the party-line without engaging our critical brain. When we spout the party rhetoric without stopping to think.

In the 1990s, unemployment was at 10% (Rasmussen, 2009). The Reserve Bank wanted the unemployment benefit payment to be lowered, so Treasury economists were asked to propose a minimum amount that an individual beneficiary could live on (Barry, 2002). 

Intended for home budgeting, University of Otago researchers (Parnell, 2005) had devised food budgets for liberal, moderate, basic, and low levels to meet adults and child nutritional requirements; based on a range of skill levels, time commitments and choices (Barry, 2002). From this research, Treasury created a "minimum income standard - in other words, a poverty line" (Barry, 2002, 1:02:20) by taking the 'low' level and reducing it another 20%. Ouch. This reduced amount fed into the 1990 'new' welfare benefits with the biggest cut-back being to unemployment benefits (Barry, 2002). 

The Otago researchers had unwittingly become part of the foundation for a new welfare structure, by a government branding beneficiaries as those who are “better off on a benefit”, according to a young Ms Shipley (Barry, 2002, 1:05:57). Worse, the Dunedin researchers were not informed what their research would be used for, as those families who ended up on these 20% below low budgets generally did not have the knowledge or facilities to be able to meet their nutrition needs (Barry, 2002). We are still living with this calculated reduction in decent support, having created our own under-nourished precariat underclass. 

Successive National governments have demonised those on government support through party advertising and government media campaigns. feeding the media the line that there is 'no incentive' for those on an unemployment benefit to seek work when there is so little difference between the benefit and a low income (Barry, 2002). 

Worse: I often hear those on low incomes spout this line, inadvertently sucked up from our media. We can rebut this right-wing rhetoric by sharing the movie with those who have 'drunk the Kool-Aid'. We can help them to re-engage their critical brain.


Sam

References:

Barry, A. (Director). (2002). In the Land of Plenty [documentary film]. Community Media Trust.

Conroy, J. O. (2018, November 18). An apocalyptic cult, 900 dead: remembering the Jonestown massacre, 40 years on. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/17/an-apocalyptic-cult-900-dead-remembering-the-jonestown-massacre-40-years-on

Parnell, W. (2005). Food security in New Zealand. [Doctoral Thesis, University of Otago]. http://hdl.handle.net/10523/8135

Rasmussen, E. (2009). Chapter 1: The Study of Employment Relations. In Employment Relations in New Zealand (2 ed., pp. 2-40). Pearson Education.

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