Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction • Hacker News Board

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#71

Post by stormbrew » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 2:50 AM UTC

Thorentis wrote: post #43

rtpg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but this is not a narrative rooted in reality. People don’t not want kids. Lots of people want kids at the right time. Others want it but find they would be unable to provide for their children due to a generation and a half of wage stagnation, along with women not wanting to have to change their profession to “full time childcare”. Giving people access to childcare is documented to work. There isn’t some magic…

> People don’t not want kids. I'm not sure which Gen Z's you've spoken to recently, but the next generations certainly want kids much less than previous generations. And this trend will only continue. We have seen family sizes continually drop, until now the average is about 2. That will soon drop below 1 where most people do not have children. Give it 30-40 years max.

If it continues at the current rate by 2060 people will all want to murder 1 person! By 2100 every person will massacre an entire small village!

People have been predicting the imminent demise of civilization from lowering birth rates for an awful long time.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#72

Post by boxy310 » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #44

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #15

Huxley and Orwell saw two dystopian futures in different ways: one, totalitarian and ever watchful government. The other, a society robbed of cognitive and personal agency via societal pressure and medication. When I was young, I thought Orwell's future was the most dangerous an imminent. Then later Huxley, especially once things like "apps" were created. Now I see they both work together to erode liberty. Your cultu…

Neil Postman wrote about this at length in _Amusing Ourselves to Death_. There's a classic comic strip based on it: https://highexistence.com/amusing-ourselves-to-death-huxley-...

Neil Postman was my single most favorite find in a thrift store.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#73

Post by larnmar » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:06 AM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #62

wil421 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this comment getting downvoted?

Probably because of that part well, most of them would otherwise be addicted to something else anyway.

That doesn’t seem so obviously wrong that one should simply downvote rather than counter-arguing.

Drug trends come and go. People who for whatever combination of reasons (genetics, life circumstances, surrounding culture) are likely to get addicted to drugs seem to find their way to whatever the currently popular drug is.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#74

Post by hellllllllooo » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:12 AM UTC

Thorentis wrote: post #43

rtpg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but this is not a narrative rooted in reality. People don’t not want kids. Lots of people want kids at the right time. Others want it but find they would be unable to provide for their children due to a generation and a half of wage stagnation, along with women not wanting to have to change their profession to “full time childcare”. Giving people access to childcare is documented to work. There isn’t some magic…

> People don’t not want kids. I'm not sure which Gen Z's you've spoken to recently, but the next generations certainly want kids much less than previous generations. And this trend will only continue. We have seen family sizes continually drop, until now the average is about 2. That will soon drop below 1 where most people do not have children. Give it 30-40 years max.

Even if this is true (which I don't believe based on your anecdotal evidence about Gen Z who max out at age 24), why is it bad?

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#75

Post by drongoking » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:13 AM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #68

drongoking wrote: post #9

I hate to be That Guy Who Argues With Everything, but I will. I'm a big fan of Huxley and Brave New World, but he wasn't particularly visionary with Soma. Drug use goes back as far as humankind does because people have been trying to cope with the stress of life since there have been people. If you're looking for a drug that helps with the anxieties of everyday life, alcohol would have my vote. It's been used for tho…

Is the name soma based on the hindu soma [1] by any chance? I alwawys wondered but never got a chance to find out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_(drink)

Yep. Huxley was heavily into Hinduism. "The original soma, from which I took the name of this hypothetical drug, was an unknown plant (possibly Asclepias acida) used by the ancient Aryan invaders of India in one of the most solemn of their religious rites." (_Brave New World Revisited_, Aldous Huxley)

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#76

Post by inferiorhuman » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:14 AM UTC

flatline wrote: post #21

Alex3917 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Valium (and benzodiazepines in general) aren't prescribed as much these days because of their addictive potential. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/01/25/6882878... What were the prescription rates in the 60s?

Ridiculously high. A quick search reveals that: > After about ten years on the market, Valium had been prescribed to 59.3 million patients [0] The US population in 1970 was about 200 million. A significant portion of the adult US population took valium at some point during the 60s/70s. [0] https://www.valiumaddiction.com/history-of-v.htm

Ridiculously high.

Ridiculously high because they were touted as safer alternatives to the then popular barbiturates. Benzos are safer, it just turns out that benzos also have not-so-great long-term effects.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#77

Post by SilasX » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:18 AM UTC

smegger001 wrote: post #29

SilasX wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He kinda missed the mark on predicting greater ability to suppress information though.

Did he miss the mark? Ask the average person on the street why congress are having impeachment proceedings against the president. most will either regurgitate some fox news conspiracy theory or say something about Russia. while the actual reason is he attempted to extort a personal quid pro quo from the Ukrainian government in exchange for releasing foreign aid funds they were due. Sounds to me like he predicted peop…

The reason has nothing to do with his “firemen”.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#78

Post by wp381640 » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:19 AM UTC

tim58 wrote: post #67

unixhero wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who needs that stuff?

I'm not sure about Oxycotin specifically, but people in severe pain generally should receive medication to alleviate it. I've had severe burning. Pain medication greatly reduced the amount of suffering that occurred.

The newer formulations - especially those that are slow release and combined with naloxone, are fine and have their use. The problem is the 20+ years of overprescribing straight up plain and crushable oxycontin that for a time was better than heroin

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#79

Post by drongoking » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:22 AM UTC

decebalus1 wrote: post #32

I will probably go against the grain here but my inner tinfoil hat is telling me that the recent marijuana legalization is actually secretly run by the military industrial complex in order to silence dissent. Kind of the 'lithium in the water supply' thing.

Heh. Except it took forever for states to begin decriminalizing/legalizing marijuana, and it isn't legal at the Federal level yet.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#80

Post by afarrell » Tue, Dec 03, 2019, 3:26 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #28

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #15

Huxley and Orwell saw two dystopian futures in different ways: one, totalitarian and ever watchful government. The other, a society robbed of cognitive and personal agency via societal pressure and medication. When I was young, I thought Orwell's future was the most dangerous an imminent. Then later Huxley, especially once things like "apps" were created. Now I see they both work together to erode liberty. Your cultu…

The weird thing, if you study history and step outside the culture you were raised in, is to realize that Huxley and Orwell were both describing the world they were writing in , not some hypothetical future. 1984 is based on Orwell's experiences writing propaganda for the BBC during WW2; 19 84 was intentionally chosen by switching the last two digits of the year it was written, 19 48 . Brave New World is a Depression…

> Tolkien's Lord of the Rings...literary reactions to that time period

It was also a response to WWI. Tolkein's childhood friends were killed and shattered by that war...and why? Because in 1831, Britain agreed to be a guarantor of Belgian neutrality.

So when Gondor calls for aid... when Isildur calls the Men of the White Mountains to war... when Minas Tirith is besieged... what ought elves and men do but honour their allegiance? We now have all seen that war is obscene as cancer, but perhaps to march to death is still more fitting than to forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship.

Otherwise... what was the point?