Western society so irresponsible—at just about any level one cares to look. Let’s consider just one small corner of our reality, how we take care of ourselves. For the most part (all the rubbish about staying fit through proper exercise and diet aside), we do whatever we want, and then act pretty clueless when our decisions cause some sort of a health upset. A simple example is upset stomach/acid reflux relief. Commercials show us products that let us make hogs of ourselves eating greasy, spicy, and chemical laden foods that have caused the viewer severe upset in the past. The solution is not to avoid those foods—but to take a damned pill that will mask the symptoms of doing something our bodies would rather we not.
There are literally thousands of products on the over the counter market to take care of any ache, pain, or complaint we may have. The message is quite clear—have a problem, take a pill. Instant fix, no effort or responsibility required. When we come to prescription drugs, then all bets are off. We expect them to fix any ailment or condition, regardless of how much that issue was our own doing and responsibility. Some of this might be the fault of a soft and stupid society wanting everything sugar coated and without any conviction—but there are mega-corporations out there that have spread the gospel of “pills are good for you” many decades now—regardless of whether they are or not.
It is natural to point the finger at the consumer. After all, we are the ones who ultimately make choices. But the real world matter is that we have little choice or input as to what goes into our food supply, supplements, or pharmaceuticals. These decisions are made by large multi-national corporations whose purpose is profit—and they spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year peddling junk food and questionable drugs to offset the choices that we are invited to make in the “free market”. One would think that a modicum of concern would be had for the end consumer—that bad products would not be even a consideration—but we need look no further than the tobacco or fast food industries to realize that this is not the case. Continue reading “Poison Pharmacy” »
