Posted by shar on May 28, 2000, at 20:46:17
In reply to Re: Useless things, posted by boBB on May 28, 2000, at 18:22:39
"Better living through chemistry."
What a time that was, people going along and creating more and more chemicals thinking they were helping solve "problems." Other people being grateful to have solutions to what they considered "problems." Then in the sixties, came "Silent Spring" but nobody listened. People --including the innocents -- are now living with what has been wrought, and that seems pretty just, that people live in the sewer they created, it is analogous to natural selection.
Some people have an interest in making things better, turning things around, but they can't turn back time, or the clock, or go home again, and they are stopped in the first place by the military-industrial complex. The earth is in wheels within wheels within wheels of poison, and people want to use more chemicals to solve the problems created by chemicals in the first place. People are full of poison, and who will consider what this has done to biology in the world village and culture? Has anyone even thought about it?
> I suspect many regulars on the board can anticipate the following perspective as soon as they see boBB spelled backwards, but biological and treatable are somewhat useless terms too. DuPont said "Without chemicals life itself would be impossible." The biologial and treatable poems recited in modern clinics serve to divert attention from sociocultural factors that contribute to these widespread "diseases." A society able to double atmospheric carbon dioxide levels then deny either culbability or adverse effect seems just as likely to deny the disruptive influences of overgrown ambition, and the corrisive effect on human relatioships of high-speed transportation and mass communication.
>
> Were slaves depressed? Concentration camp jews depressed? Residents of the Soviet gulag? Would medications sufficiently "treat" their depression?
>
> It amazes me how many of us are articulate at the neurochemistry and neurobiology associated with medication and mental pathology, but how few can articulate basic human needs in neurochemical and neurobiological terms. Has anyone here read any of the late 1990's text about the social and psychological impact of worldwide convergance of industrial capitalism?
>
> > i agree, the clinical definitions have meshed with the everyday to create something stigmad and subdued. it is not easy to say to people that you are depressed, and it is even harder to explain what this means apart from the colloquial definition.
> > how do you distinguish words from the ordinary while still integrating mental illness as a biological and treatable condition (without shame and stigma)?
> >
> > juniper
> >
> > > Depression: Wimpy, misleading word. It gives the impression that someone with depression simply has the blues. What did Styron in "Darkness Visible" suggest instead? Was it "Mental Storm?"
> > >
> > > Anxiety: Same thing. Too tied up in everyday language.
> > >
> > > Crazy: Ridiculous word, used as frequently, randomly and unhealthily as table salt.
> > >
> > > Any others floating out there?
poster:shar
thread:34979
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000526/msgs/35013.html