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Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

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

#111

Post by trevyn »

acheron wrote: post #89
allovernow wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>From that perspective, Western democracies have really struggled to assimilate their long history of toppling other nations and benefiting from their resources into the cultural framework I think that's a post internet thing. Pre-internet most of us got all of our historical information from school, and there weren't places like Twitter or Facebook to spread what were previously dismissed as fairy tales. I certainly…

This is 100% a function of your age and has nothing to do with the availability of reddit(?!). Every teenager thinks "I know the real truth unlike the rest of the sheeple!" Usually they grow out of it.

>Every teenager thinks "I know the real truth unlike the rest of the sheeple!" Usually they grow out of it.

And the ones who don’t are the ones who actually move the needle. ;)

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

#112

Post by allovernow »

acheron wrote: post #89
allovernow wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>From that perspective, Western democracies have really struggled to assimilate their long history of toppling other nations and benefiting from their resources into the cultural framework I think that's a post internet thing. Pre-internet most of us got all of our historical information from school, and there weren't places like Twitter or Facebook to spread what were previously dismissed as fairy tales. I certainly…

This is 100% a function of your age and has nothing to do with the availability of reddit(?!). Every teenager thinks "I know the real truth unlike the rest of the sheeple!" Usually they grow out of it.

I'm talking young adults. 20 somethings. They won't grow out of it if they have nothing cohesive to grow into, and I think many see a broken history as a huge smear on the country. There were fewer of these people pre internet because most then learned a somewhat biased account in school and then went off to join society with little chance of encountering revisionist history, outside of certain relatively small social circles.

Now it's all over the internet, a sort of radicalization-lite that starts in tighter circles where kids swap conspiracy theories and alternative perspectives, and more of this stuff quickly starts leaking mainstream.

I think any dominant culture de facto produces and consumes its own propaganda, to some extent. That's good and bad. The information age has made the system more chaotic because of the speed and convenience of data exchange, and that leads to more frequent clashing and fracturing in society, as common indoctrination does lead to greater social cohesion, across cultures. Propaganda has less of an effect and people have less reason to rally together because of different views on, say, in America's case, history and even some of our modern world building.

What, you think radicalization is unique to the chans? You'll see it's all around us if you're not unfairly exclusive in your definition of radical.

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

#113

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

oska wrote: post #103
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…

> 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. I do not think the second half of your statement is true. Certainly there was drug use in hunter/gatherer societies but it was mostly shamanistic/ritualistic use, not 'stress relief'. The example that you give of alcohol only really came on the scene with the advent of farming, w…

Wikipedia claims 10,000 to 5,000 years BC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_drink

So you’re potentially correct, though we don’t know if fermentation was used earlier, either intentionally or opportunistically.

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

#114

Post by raxxorrax »

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…

I think there is a difference to the common drug consumption in the past. People believe psychotropic drugs to be medicine since they have or had a subscription. True in some cases, but the awareness of using a drug is different. People also take them not only to cope, but to help them learning, sleeping, concentrating... That goes beyond traditional use in my opinion. Plus, access to these drugs is much easier than in the past and taking them has become trivially normal.

It is also the first weapon to deployed if some kids are deemed to be unruly. Nobody would think of giving them alcohol however.

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

#115

Post by misterman0 »

Alex3917 wrote: post #45
drongoking wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm genuinely surprised. Maybe it's just for psych ailments (e.g. anxiety) that use has declined. > the biggest rise in prescriptions during this time period was for back pain and other types of chronic pain. Now I'm doubly surprised. Some benzos have muscle relaxant properties but I've never heard of them prescribed for pain. (I've never experienced benzo withdrawal but I've heard it claimed to be as bad as opiate w…

> Some benzos have muscle relaxant properties but I've never heard of them prescribed for pain. Back pain is thought to be mostly psychological, so it makes sense. Also, if you have minor tears or congenital defects in tissue around your spinal cord then anxiety can cause inflammation, which can then cause your spinal fluid to push against your actual spinal cord and cause all sorts of problems. (Or something like th…

>> Back pain is thought to be mostly psychological

Do you have a credibility source to back that up?

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

#116

Post by lazyasciiart »

cf498 wrote: post #104
wlesieutre wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> genetics, life circumstances, surrounding culture Life circumstances like “needing to get their wisdom teeth removed.” The doctor prescribes you painkillers afterward and makes absolutely no mention of how addictive they are, or even that they’re opioids. I don’t think those people were going to wake up one morning and start using on heroin on their own, so I have a hard time writing them off as “well, some people…

Oh please spare me the sermon. You dont just wake up one day an addict. Its similar bullshit to "the first hit is always free". Its propaganda. As much as wide parts of American society dont want to believe it, as an addict you make a choice. Its your god damn agency. You dont just find out that the yummy candy made you an addict. Thats nothing but a nice excuse. You keep using stuff that you know you shouldnt use, b…

You don't have to believe that addiction is a choice to think that painkillers should be more widely available. It really sounds like you are reacting to a bunch of shit that is not in this thread.

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

#117

Post by darkFunction »

Soma became a reality and takes the form of constant distractions and serotonin hits delivered via our mobile devices and TV screens. It's the status notifications, the likes, the latest Netflix series, browsing Reddit in bed. It's pornography and follower counts. We consume the Soma until our pleasure receptors are fatigued then we sleep and repeat the process. Huxley was right and it has nothing to do with pills.

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

#119

Post by pennpaper »

Brave New World is one of my most favorite books. Ever. The scary thing about it is that reading you start to understand that although this might be a vision of the future, it really is just a replica of what is already going on. Pill popping has been happening for ages, especially for a happy-feeling reason.
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