My husband, Ian, fondly recalls his high school teacher telling him back in the 1970s that in the future, we would all be faced with the "problem" of what to do with our leisure time, due to advances in labor saving devices. We all know how that worked out. If we do have leisure time, it might be because we are unemployed. There is now an imbalance of work in many industrialized societies.
You know the standard line "as a journalist, I don't believe in conspiracy theories?" This line is supposed to make people like me who do, go underground in fear of being labelled small-minded, low I.Q. or a paranoid right winger.
So, here's one conspiracy I've been mulling over lately. The set-up: People are supposedly living longer, well into their nineties. There are more and more old people blowing out their 100th birthday candles. We have been told that advances in medicine will make people live longer healthier lives. At the same time, old, sick people are a burden on society. The national coffers will not be able to keep up with the health care need. So, how is this going to play out?
The solution? Convince people that they will benefit from taking advantage of the latest labor saving medical advances, such as, but not limited to, antipsychotic medication. Studies show that long term use of antipychotics shortens an average lifespan by twenty-five years. Extrapolate that to medications for other conditions, and who knows how far the predicted lifespans can be brought into line with national budgets?
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Wow....that is quite a conspiracy theory. Paranoid delusional? A word of caution...when you visit Chris' psychiatrist you may want to leave this conspiracy theory behind.
ReplyDeleteI think the obvious problem with your theory is big pharma isn't lobbying for this and governments aren't organized enough to conceive and follow through on an objective that elaborate. Big pharma would prefer these people live on. The elderly are prescribed and consume a great deal of medication.
A couple of years ago when a friend's 95 year old grandmother fell and broke her hip it was determined that the nursing home where she resided, on a script from a doctor, was prescribing the old lady neuroleptic drugs. It accounted for why she was sleeping 20 hours per day and probably contributed to the fall.
I'm on my best behavior (usually) when I visit the doctor. A few years ago I told one of the psychiatrists that the drugs and the weight gain were an "abuse." The doctor went apoplectic.
ReplyDeleteI've been called "paranoid" for much less.
ReplyDeleteI don't think, people getting older and older is the main problem, though. The main problem IMO is that we're getting more and more individuals, in general. That creates two basic needs: 1. social control - cf. the pacifying effect of psych drugs, 2. birth control - cf. the "side" effect of most psych drugs that is sexual dysfunction. Two birds with one stone: dissidents (and this is how I see "mentally ill" people, as dissidents without a language of their own) are silenced, and in addition they're prevented from procreating. Eugenics.