Are others as struck as I am by the cognitive dissonance between the happy cheerful smiling faces of the people advertising a variety of medicines and drugs on television and the somber voice underneath it all describing the horrific side effects that may result from using the substance? I am delighted that the manufacturers are required by law to include these warnings but I wonder what effect they have.All
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Yes, I have the same reaction. I especially get a kick out of the message, “Do not take medicine x if you are allergic to it.” And the list of possible adverse side effects that seems to go on for pages makes it sound like the cure is worse than the disease.
The devil is in the fine print. Some months back, I went to the grocery store to buy something for dinner. I looked into the freezer case and saw a package of crab cakes that were “Made with Real Crab Meat.” The stuff was pretty expensive, so it seemed plausible that the cakes were indeed the genuine article. Then I looked at the list of ingredients (fine print, on the bottom back). Yes, there was some “real, wild-caught crab meat” in the product but that meat was pretty far down the list; most of the animal protein in the cakes was identified as imitation crab meat. Caveat emptor.
There's a compelling artistic reflection on this very issue from Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VByZc4Hn7pI&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive
"Required by law to include warnings"
Yea, unless it's an experimental gene therapy worth trillions of dollars. Then it's just "Safe and effective, and safe for pregnancy too!" with no asterisks or further questions allowed.
:)
Do vegetarians know they are washing their faces with soaps made from animal fats? I think even some ingredients to vitamins use shell fish or other animal by products. It could also be true that some 100% beef stick sausages at the checkout counter use pork casings. Should we investigate such things? I think it is better for society in general if we left such things alone. Sometimes living inside the matrix is better than living inside the reality.
Michael:
I checked the line in the movie: Cypher: 'You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.'
Charles,
Exactly correct. I love that quote! Would anyone truly complain if they lived 24/7 in a Star Trek holodeck where everything went their way & that same holodeck never had any kind of interruption & it had the power to keep such a person immortal? Whatever you call it: the matrix, a holosweet, the nexus, the recall machine, I believe most people just want to be happy & more so super happy. To heck with all of those individuals who want to escape Plato's Cave & its nonstop television show of shadow puppets, or ditch Calypso for Penelope.
The trick is knowing or believing that it’s actually real. Nobody wants to live in a prison, no matter how pleasurable it may be. ( well some might!)
"Nobody wants to live in a prison, no matter how pleasurable it may be."
I call the planet Terra, or Earth, a prison. It wouldn't be a prison if I had the option of traveling to another planet or two. But I'm still stuck here. And as far as killing myself to leave this planet, it's not an option. I've read some Bhuddist writings where I might end up a hungry ghost on Earth. And I don't want that to happen.
John Rapko --
The growing awareness (and easy target) of this phenomenon was spoofed years earlier on SNL with the famed "Happy Fun Ball" sketch: https://youtu.be/GmqeZl8OI2M
-- Jim
Michael Llenos --
Don't forget to add to your lists of desirable escapes: Aldous Huxley's "Soma Holiday."
Jim,
I don't do drugs. And I don't think the powers of the world use traditional religion to opiate the masses. It sounds too cliché. That's why they don't teach religion in public grade school, & why it's shunned in highschool & college circles. And it's also the reason why citizens are beat over the head from early youth with the fundamental principle of separation of church & state as glorious. Besides a lot less people are going to Synagogue & Church in this post pandemic world.
However, a lot of church goers see this as a sign that the Second Dark Age is soon to begin, and before this a Rapture of the Church might commence.
So what is the Rapture? In my readings I have figured out there really are only 3 different possible outcomes of a Biblical Rapture for Terrans.
(1) Traditional Evangelical Rapture. Go to God's throne in the twinkling of an eye.
(2) New Age Rapture. Saved by benevolent Aliens on their giant space station w/ over 1 billion people saved (+) or (-). Why 1 billion? They might not have a fleet or station big enough to save more.
Or,
(3) Idiot's Rapture. Stay on Earth & await approaching, destructive comet.
--So whatever Rapture you might aspire to, I believe #'s 1 & 2 are most excellent, & # 3 is completely worthless.
--A Catholic priest once said that the Great Tribulation is like a mini Judgment Day. You could I guess then compare it to a Civil Court.
--A Civil Court is divided into 6 parts, so is the Rapture of the Great Tribulation.
1 Prefiling or Prophecy code written down by scribes, 2 Initial pleading or Preaching of Rapture by church leaders, 3 Discovery or revelation of Aliens to the world (Nephilim, Jinn, etc.), 4 Pre-trial or Get Ready, 5 Trial or Rapture of lucky ones, 6 Post-trial or Left Behind people who are left to a horrible fate.
Today's opiates of the masses are a smartphone, social media, fast food, and TV "news" and sports. Not to mention all the actual pharmaceuticals everyone's on. Yea, religion is no longer needed to serve that role.
I have always wondered who the intended audience is for these advertisements.
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