On Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 7:03:11 AM UTC-5, Adriaan Renting wrote: (on the subject of the opioid epidemic)
> That sounds more like a conspiracy theory than a real > analysis of the problem. Looking at it from here in > Europe, most of the analysis I've been able to read and > watch about it, points to a different cause: A lack of > security: People flee to drugs (alcohol, tobacco, coffee > and other (illegal) drugs) to escape st[r]essful > environments. Personally, I drink coffee simply so i can function in the morning. If i'm feeling anything, it's unconsciousness. As far as drugs, alcohol and tobacco are concerned; those days are long behind me. > - A lack of job security > - A lack of proper healthcare > - Broken and single parent families > - Poor and/or expensive education > - Mental illness And don't forget boredom! ;-) > What I learned from visiting the USA many times is: - > Americans value the individual, not the collective. Yes. Individualism is a natural part of rejecting your birth county; packing up your belonging; sailing across an ocean; and starting over from scratch. To the "true americans" (not the fake ones who come here looking for handouts) there is nothing more important than freedom. A true american would never sacrifice freedom for security. A true american spits in the face of so-called security, because they know it's a bald faced lie, as there is no such thing as "security" in such a hostile universe as our. "Security" is simply snake oil sold to ignoramuses. It plays on the emotions of infantile humans. > They have been trained to distrust anything collective, True americans are born in every country of the world. They come from all walks of life and every ethnic and racial background. But of all their differences, they share a common respect for individual liberty. And that's why most outsiders cannot understand how america could possibly become so strong in a paltry few hundered years and survive for as long as she has. > even if it is the only way to solve an issue. - Money has > too much influence at all levels, especially in politics. Money has been ruining politics for thousands of years... where have your been? > The combination of an election system that is 2 centuries > behind the times, with modern compute power, data gathering > and media technology is corrupting the system. The media is to blame for much of the ills of modern society, bathing our subconscious in gratuitous violence, and stoking our emotions over the most frivolous and petty differences between us. > - The USA always depended a lot on immigration and never > had to keep it's own working population well educated and > healthy to run the economy. This is changing and one of the > big cultural wars raging currently. Again, another failure of government who is in bed with greedy corporation. Nationalism is feared and branded as pure evil these days due to one most atrocious usage of it in recent history, but nationalism (the non-religios kind!) may be the _only_ force that has prevented thermo nuclear war up to this point. Even that murderous jerk Stalin would not have wanted to witness his beloved USSR smoulder to ashes. But with the rabid stigmatization of nationalism these days, we are entering a time in which the masses no longer care about their fellow country(wo)men. And in a world of Mutually Assured Destruction, a lack of social comradery leads to national suicide. And in this universe, there is no choice or action that is devoid of consequence. All forces possess varying degrees applicability. > The broken healthcare system is a symptom of these issues. "Broken healthcare" is a buzz word that animates emotional weaklings. The state of health care has absolutely nothing to do with the social turmoil that plagues us. "Healthcare" is only a recent phenomenon. Hardly a few hundred years ago doctors were few and far between. And to believe that "fixing the healthcare system" (whatever that means!) will suddenly usher in an "epoch of Universal Utopianism", is the bone-headed height of naivete. Don't be a fool. Healthcare has nothing to do with our overall happiness, it is merely another divisive tool utilized by the manipulators to animate the selfish and jealous idiots into a mad frenzy. An in such a discombobulated emotional state, humans are more willing to sacrifice freedom for paltry priviledge. Rights cannot be taken away. Whereas priviledge _can_. > There are other reasons people get into drugs*, but from > what I've read, my impression is that these are major > causes to the current problems in the USA. BRAVO! YES! THAT'S RIGHT! Blame all the world's problems on america. At least that way, you won't have to actually _think_! @_@ > Successive US governments have been waging unwinnable > "wars", like the "War on Drugs" for decades, so entire > industries can keep profiting. Until you fix the problems > in society the demand will not go away and the problems > will stay. The war on drugs has been the most ignorant of all wars ever fought in history of human existence. It elevates the status of criminals and enrichs them; encourages gang violence; kills and harms innocent people on a daily basis; contributes to governmental corruption. And it does all of this while endowing the busibodies among us (the most putrid and destructive of all human phenotypes) with a sense of self worth. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
