by Nika Bee 6 Replies latest jw friends
Hello I am relatively new here, and I apologise for my English in advance.
This is a very irrelevant and probably very stupid question: What does the word "borg" mean, or where does it come from? I understand it's used for the organisation, but I don't get why.
Also, where does "kool aid" come from?
Thanks and sorry again!
Borg - Fictional race of controlled cyborgs in the TV series Star Trek. In the mid-1990s when Star Trek was still a craze, to the best of my knowledge, some online poster combined Borg with Organization and got Borganization. This quickly was shortened to Borg.
Kool-aid - Is in reference to the Jim Jones Cult disaster of the late 70s. Jones was the charasmatic leader of The People's Temple. The church grew to over 1,000 members. Eventually they relocated from the U.S to Jonestown Guyanna. On one fateful day, Jones convinced nearly 1,000 men, women and children to drink cyanide laced kool aid. All died. How does a man convince 1,000 people to take their own lives? He must completely control them. Similar to the control the Governing Body has over 7 million JWs. Thus "drinking the kool aid" means accepting the counsel of the governing body without question.
The Borg comes from Star Trek science fiction. They were a mindless group of workers who were run by a queen, as are bees. Their only function was to obey orders and serve their group. They assimilated people from all over the galaxy and turned them into Borg. In this regard, JWs are similar. They try to bring others in and their goal in life seems to be to do whatever the Governing Body says. One of their worst "sins" is "independent thinking."
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" comes from the fact that many people in the 1970s followed a cult leader named "Jim Jones." He led them all to commit mass suicide by drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. So in a religious context, a "Kool-Aid drinker" is one who does anything a cult leader tells them to do, even if it kills them (such as by refusing life-saving blood transfusions for themselves and their children, which JWs do.)
Lol No worries bee..... All good questions with easy answers..
Borg is a play on words. It could be mistaken for a shortened form of "organization"... But it refers to a tv show called "star trek" (the next generation) which was very popular in the usa (and elsewhere im sure). There were a group of villians called "the borg". They had a hive mind, meaning they all thought and acted the same, like robots. They listened to one leader and spoke with one voice. It is a very good comparison to the watchtowers mindset for its followers. So the term "borg" came to be short hand for the robotic behaviour of witnesses.
Koolaid is a referance to another cult from the 1970's. "the peoples temple", run by a man named Jim Jones. He ultimatly moved the congregants from califonia USA to a private villiage in guyana he named "jonestown". There was ultimatly A mass suicid in which over 900 people lost their lives. He instructed them to drink koolaid (a childrens beverage) laced with a poision (cyinide i believe). In american culture the phrase "drinking koolaid" has come to mean drinking poision that tastes good, like the koolaid at jonestown.
Hope these explanations help, im sure others will offer more perspective :-)
Drinking the Kool-Aid is a reference to a cult under the direction of Jim Jones where members comitted suicide by drinking kool-aid laced with cyanide. It refers to a cult having unquestioning belief in their leaders without critical thinking.
From "Star Trek" the Borg is a "collective" of half-human, half-machine creatures, who have sacrificed their individual identity to live within a rigidly controlled environment and function as one mind focused upon universal domination. The Borg is led by one distinct individual mind, which is cast as somewhat of a self-proclaimed Science Fiction "messiah." That mind alone actually directs their plans and defines their collective mindset. The Borg travel throughout space in search of new species to assimilate. Subsequently, those absorbed into their collective are labeled "liberated." Calling a JW that is saying tha they give up much of who they are to live in a controlled environment controlled by the governing body.
Although I never watched "Star Trek, except occasionally, my children loved it and still watch the reruns . I am glad to know where the word '"borg" comes from. I did know about the "kool-aid
Hello I am relatively new here, and I apologise for my English in advance.
It always cracks me up when foreigners say this, because they almost always write in English better than those of us who grew up speaking it.
"cracks me up" translation: makes me laugh
