the Disillusioned kid: Red Pill / Blue Pill?
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Monday, December 13, 2004

Red Pill / Blue Pill?

There have been several stories in the past week looking at the use of antidepressants in the UK. There have been concerns about the safety of these drugs and further concerns about the level of usage of such substances. The Guardian quoted, public affairs director at mental health charity Rethink, Mr Brook who expressed concern about the fact that prescriptions for such drugs had risen to 13 million over the last decade and asked, "What is the influence of the pharmaceutical companies in creating this situation through marketing, and how effectively have they been regulated and overseen?"

I don't doubt for a minute that drugs companies would pursue strategies which were contrary to the needs of those they claim they are seeking to help. You only need to look at the machinations they have gone through to prevent third-world countries using generic versions of anti-retrovirals for treatment of HIV positive patients to see how little they care for the wellbeing of those with illnesses. Nonetheless, I wonder if there is not a more fundamental question raised by the story: Can we avoid the conclusion that there is something wrong about a society in which 13 million people feel they need medication for medical illness? That's quite apart from any others in therapy or who haven't received any treatment.

Marxists might attribute the problem to "alienation" stemming from our relationship to the means of production. I wouldn't be so pretentious, but I do think that the realities of modern, post-industrial capitalism are probably psychologically harmful. We work long hours for crap pay and typically have little to show for it at the end of the day. Those of us not yet assimilated into the workforce must pass through an increasingly exam-orientated education system which places more value on our ability to jump throught the right hoops then in genuine personal development. Outside our respective institutions we face a constant compulsion on the part of the dominant media to conform to a manufactured image of beauty or manliness. None of this is natural and I doubt it's very good for us.

In the face of all of this we have two choices. We either carry on taking our medication and continue in blissful ignorance or we take the bull by the horns, smash capitalism and get on with reclaiming our humanity.
|

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.