BACKGROUND: It is the latest and greatest fad for cities to sue big pharma for the opioid epidemic - which is apparently an entirely new thing too.
Testimony:
Over the years I’ve seen a number of friends go down this road. A funny thing I noticed is when a larger body of community is allowed to form people have a way of cleaning themselves up. This is of course a well-established principle upon which AA meetings are based on. Out here on the streets I’ve seen it occur in a natural fashion. And when it is broken up it is not long before you can’t recognize the person because they are strung out as there is nothing left to do but drugs and no one left to associate with but the wrong crowd.
It is ironic how we rely on social service agencies which neatly divide people between old vs. young, homeless vs. non-homeless, and addicts and non-addicts. It is ironic because you might say we were evolved to feed off one another; the old gain vitality from the young, the young learn from the old, the addict gains positive energy from the clean and sober, etc. People need each other not help nor someone pointing the finger at big pharma for their problems.
But where have our meeting grounds gone too? What am I to do if I cannot normalize a culture in which the local bar or house party full of drugs are the most significant source of community to be had, without becoming an addict myself?
Well apparently the only answer to that question is to point the finger at whoever happens to be selling the pills.
You memebers of the council know where I’m coming from on this, and so too should you then apprciate the hypocrisy I see in it all; everyone wants change, yet everyone wants privacy, and everyone is willing to be organized in order to achieve it, yet we also maintain the right to point the finger at the man who is organizing us. 90% of what it takes to keep the domesticated man happy is to give him his very own box, the other 10% is what we call politics. This is where all the drama is; blame wall street, blame Trump, and today we’re blaming big pharma for our problems.
There are few things more apparent than the domesticated mans compulsion to blame someone else for his own problems. But all of these things – Trump included – are cultural phenomena that we as people help create every day. Just because you did not vote for him does not mean you did not help make him president, and just because you did not sell them the pill does not mean you did not help make them an addict.
I have a prediction to make; we let our strategy become one of pointing the finger at big pharma for our problems today, then tomorrow they’ll respond by doing what they always do which is to find a new way to make more money and we’ll be right back where we started.
Happy presidents day Porltand.
Testimony:
Over the years I’ve seen a number of friends go down this road. A funny thing I noticed is when a larger body of community is allowed to form people have a way of cleaning themselves up. This is of course a well-established principle upon which AA meetings are based on. Out here on the streets I’ve seen it occur in a natural fashion. And when it is broken up it is not long before you can’t recognize the person because they are strung out as there is nothing left to do but drugs and no one left to associate with but the wrong crowd.
It is ironic how we rely on social service agencies which neatly divide people between old vs. young, homeless vs. non-homeless, and addicts and non-addicts. It is ironic because you might say we were evolved to feed off one another; the old gain vitality from the young, the young learn from the old, the addict gains positive energy from the clean and sober, etc. People need each other not help nor someone pointing the finger at big pharma for their problems.
But where have our meeting grounds gone too? What am I to do if I cannot normalize a culture in which the local bar or house party full of drugs are the most significant source of community to be had, without becoming an addict myself?
Well apparently the only answer to that question is to point the finger at whoever happens to be selling the pills.
You memebers of the council know where I’m coming from on this, and so too should you then apprciate the hypocrisy I see in it all; everyone wants change, yet everyone wants privacy, and everyone is willing to be organized in order to achieve it, yet we also maintain the right to point the finger at the man who is organizing us. 90% of what it takes to keep the domesticated man happy is to give him his very own box, the other 10% is what we call politics. This is where all the drama is; blame wall street, blame Trump, and today we’re blaming big pharma for our problems.
There are few things more apparent than the domesticated mans compulsion to blame someone else for his own problems. But all of these things – Trump included – are cultural phenomena that we as people help create every day. Just because you did not vote for him does not mean you did not help make him president, and just because you did not sell them the pill does not mean you did not help make them an addict.
I have a prediction to make; we let our strategy become one of pointing the finger at big pharma for our problems today, then tomorrow they’ll respond by doing what they always do which is to find a new way to make more money and we’ll be right back where we started.
Happy presidents day Porltand.