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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

#151

Post by Nasrudith »

maverick2007 wrote: post #55

The scariest thing in this article to me was buried at the end describing how many of these drugs can be found in the water supply (albeit in mostly trace amounts). Whether you want them or not, it seems like everyone is going to get these medications in trace amounts and who knows what they will do to our bodies over time. Is there anything that I as an average person can do to remove as many of these chemicals as I…

Not worry about it. It is like trying to boost testerone or estrogen by the sex of your meat source - so hillariously ineffectual it is effectively mysticism.

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

#152

Post by Nasrudith »

Cougher wrote: post #139
mudil wrote: post #17

I am a practicing anesthesiologist and I see every day what medications my patients take, because we review preoperatively their in home meds. And it's astonishing that a large chunk of population takes either psychiatric or psychoactive prescription meds plus cannabis, etc. I even have a joke that Americans voluntarily take meds that in Soviet Union were only given to the political prisoners.

This presents an interesting diversion: the phenomenon of anesthesiologists who are addicted to drugs. I worked with one who lost his position as chief because he was caught buying street drugs . . . on a city street. If people who are so well-educated about the effects of recreational drug use can still succumb to it, it's unreasonable to expect that the average person should be "smart enough" to be immune to the ri…

I think it obvious personally - you would find it difficult to find an anaestiologist who fears the drugs. Also notably the reason you heard about it was because the hammer of the state, not because the drugs itself ruined his life.

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

#153

Post by oska »

jerf wrote: post #36
heavyset_go wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, the world has a lot of people. But a civilization that by default, does not want to produce children? (As Huxley envisioned, and as I think will be the case in the coming decades) is headed for sure collapse. Contraception and abortifacients have existed for millennia. People in the developed world are choosing not have children because of costs. Having children in the developing world is an investment that i…

"Contraception and abortifacients have existed for millennia." Yes, but not reliably (for contraception) or safely (for abortifacients), and by their nature, 80% reliable contraception is of dubious utility.

> 80% reliable contraception is of dubious utility.

You realise the quoted reliability rates are per year, not per act? For example, the withdrawal method (available to everyone, for all time) has a reliability rate of 78% for typical use and 96% for perfect use. [1] Obviously, even at 78% reliability over a year, that is of a great deal of utility. 78% of the time a woman whose partner practises withdrawal will not get pregnant over the course of a year.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coitus_interruptus

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

#154

Post by Nasrudith »

LessDmesg wrote: post #123

I've never taken anti-depressants and don't understand why so many people do. If you can't calm down your own mind, then you've got a problem no pill is going to solve - and the fact that people abuse these pills or keep taking them habitually proves this.

You don't understand depression or antidepressants period.

Antidepressants typically take weeks to take effect and have a low efficency rate overall - the reason why so many are approved is because it is a matter of cycling through them to find one which is actually effective and without unacceptable side effects.

The closest form of "abuse" aside from idiots who take any random substances to try to get high (in which case Mike & Ikes or kitchen spices also qualify because it is a matter of intent) is using them to try to make other withdrawal symptoms more tolerable which is far from mainstream even among burnt out addicts.

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

#155

Post by Nasrudith »

Thorentis wrote: post #26

More importantly, he predicted the rise of The Pill (birth control) very eerily too. And the long term effect that it will have on civilization is undeniable. Whatever your stance on the pill, I think it is naive to think that it will not have a lasting and deep impact on western civilization (and as it spreads globally, to all of human civilization). Never before has sex been able to be had without consequence. Or t…

You have forgotten about condoms entirely and with them excluded several centuries. Condoms predate the United States.

The regressive moral panic has done far more damage than the subject of moral panics ever have - which is quite impressive.

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

#156

Post by filoeleven »

jerf wrote: post #36
heavyset_go wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, the world has a lot of people. But a civilization that by default, does not want to produce children? (As Huxley envisioned, and as I think will be the case in the coming decades) is headed for sure collapse. Contraception and abortifacients have existed for millennia. People in the developed world are choosing not have children because of costs. Having children in the developing world is an investment that i…

"Contraception and abortifacients have existed for millennia." Yes, but not reliably (for contraception) or safely (for abortifacients), and by their nature, 80% reliable contraception is of dubious utility.

Birth control pills have a 9% failure rate, and anyone who’s taken it will tell you that the experience is far from “without consequence.”

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

#157

Post by refurb »

shams93 wrote: post #20
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…

What is interesting is that the same family owned company that created oxycontin also created valium originally. Amazing to think of how much damage one family owned business has done (Purdue Pharma) to an entire nation.

Valium was originally created back in the 1950’s by Roche pharmaceuticals.

Oxycontin was created in the 90’s by the Sackler family.

Not the same family unless I’m missing some connection.

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

#158

Post by refurb »

maverick2007 wrote: post #55

The scariest thing in this article to me was buried at the end describing how many of these drugs can be found in the water supply (albeit in mostly trace amounts). Whether you want them or not, it seems like everyone is going to get these medications in trace amounts and who knows what they will do to our bodies over time. Is there anything that I as an average person can do to remove as many of these chemicals as I…

Why are you concerned? We’re able to detect pharmaceuticals in water at several levels of magnitude lower than any actual impact. We’re talking parts per trillion.

I’d be more concerned about things like lead and other toxic metals.

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

#160

Post by noelwelsh »

tapland wrote: post #143
buboard wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> have been trying to cope with the stress of life since there have been people Did they? Alcohol was associated with feasts - not particularly stressful situations. Alcoholism , OTOH has a ~50% genetic contribution.

> Alcohol was associated with feasts Was it now? Alcoholic beverages were seen as a nutritious (!!!) staple food from it's discovery until recently. It was also the only thing to drink in areas that lacked clean water (and one cared about avoiding it). And yes, people have been trying to deal with people since there were people. And people have always been stressful.

Adding to this, it was common to drink very low alcohol beer, called small beer. It was usually below 1% alcohol, so very different to beer or wine that people typically drink these days.
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