# Take your medicine EVERY MORNING!



## gokedik (Aug 11, 2014)

Pills, pills and more...




    The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most pervasive in the lives of the citizens of this fledgling country of ours. Nearly all are written prescriptions, month to month, by a doctor in one field or another. Unheard of syndromes are planted in minds through media, then develop in their bodies until it consumes their entire being and they seek relief, of which can only be found in a medication produced and sold by the pharmaceutical industry. Physician sponsored addiction runs rampant.
    Viruses of curious origin, ravage the bodies, lives and families of millions. Then, after the public cries out for help, medications are designed that fit the virus like a puzzle piece and curtail the deaths but leave the virus intact. These medications are sold to the public in multiples, necessary to halt the progression of the virus, and issued by doctors sworn to do no harm. These medications must be maintained in order for the afflicted to stay alive. The medications are priced so ridiculously high that if the afflicted person had not some form of medical insurance, they would inevitably succumb to the deadly disease. And the sick in foreign countries not wealthy enough to pay the price of the medicine, drop like flies in a cloud of pesticide.
    The virus has the ability to mutate and therefore cannot be regulated with one single medicine. So, many must be developed, costing million, which is passed down to the ill, those with insurance and those without. The virus spreads like wildfire in third world countries, unable to treat their citizens, financially or otherwise. And nearly all end up in coffins, if they’re lucky.
    In America, the pharmaceutical industry creates pills for everything, from allergies to psychiatric conditions. And the must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But approval can be bought, so their pill can be sold to the public, thus billions of dollars are made while the safety of citizens is dismissed.
    Psychiatric patients have their brain chemistries altered by substances as strong as the base metal, lithium, never to be returned to it’s original state,from doctors purely speculating on the effects of their patients that are treated less than human. They are often lured into “studies’ by using financial means to get patients to allow manipulation of their bodies and minds by scientists, as virtual lab rats. And relinquishing their legal rights with craftily written wavers. Some of these studies are so lucrative some people have made them their primary source of income, spending the majority of the year in disease ridden hospitals.
    With the majority of the population taking, government approved drugs, a government which has lied to it’s citizens about pretenses for going to war, what is healthy to put in our bodies and would, without a doubt, do anything if it were profitable. One could logically question if there was something in each one of these pills that we don’t know about. Possibly to influence in some way. To keep us sedate, not becoming the dynamic, beautiful, creative human beings that we grow into naturally. And without instruction that forms us, inevitably, into some derivative of the instructor. The pharmaceutical industry is a tool government could, if they 
aren’t already, use to create a Manchurian society.
    All conspiracies aside, America is the most drugged up society on the planet and that is curious, at the very least.The pharmaceutical industry profits off of most of the citizens of the country with drugs that are potentially dangerous. We are entrusting a morally questionable institution with our health and that of our loved one’s. While they continue to live well off of our suffering.

*                                                            I'd rather miss by aiming to high than get caught sitting on my gun.*


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## LeeC (Aug 11, 2014)

“It is, of course, one of the miracles of science that the germs that used to be in our food have been replaced by poisons.” ~ Wendell Berry

I admire your thrust so by way of critique I'd like to offer up a bit of experience if you'll allow me. I used to write extensively about pharmaceuticals (legal and illegal), GMOs, the importance of biodiversity and how practices such as vast monocropping accelerate the course of evolution, and so on, with an ecologist's perspective. 

Though I've since taken a different course, a few of the lessons I learned are as follows: 

1. You've heard the old saying about attracting more bees with honey than vinegar I'm sure. What it means here is not being confrontational or talking down to your audience. 

2. Allusions to conspiracies are distracting (and potentially self-defeating). 

3. The success of your writing depends not only on your reasoning, but how effectively you present such.

4. The hardest hurdle to overcome is economic perceptions. Even if a reader concurs with you, they'll have at least economic reservations regarding how present society can accommodate such. A good example (including obstructions  and distractions) is that of the electric car struggle. 

So include potential avenues, in this case maybe the healthy benefits of home grown organic foods.

4. And lastly:



> I'd rather miss by aiming to high than get caught sitting on my gun.



I know what happens when one sits on their gun  Metaphors are a valuable asset in writing, but in this genre don't let them come off as self-promotion/self-indulgence ;-)

And of course be mindful of SP&G, i.e. "aiming too high"

Best wishes,
LeeC


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## gokedik (Aug 11, 2014)

LeeC said:


> “It is, of course, one of the miracles of science that the germs that used to be in our food have been replaced by poisons.” ~ Wendell Berry
> 
> I admire your thrust so by way of critique I'd like to offer up a bit of experience if you'll allow me. I used to write extensively about pharmaceuticals (legal and illegal), GMOs, the importance of biodiversity and how practices such as vast monocropping accelerate the course of evolution, and so on, with an ecologist's perspective.
> 
> ...


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## Pandora (Aug 12, 2014)

I like your mind gokedik, reads like a good plot for a sci fi thriller based in truth like the best of them. We must keep to our principles, do sheep have principles? I think not. Count me out of big Pharm, I'd rather die first.  

I like the emotion that comes through in your piece, this is a subject to get upset about and appeal to the feel of the reader. Well done.


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## gokedik (Aug 12, 2014)

Thank you Pandoraa, you are very kind. I've had people tell me they like it then rip it apart to encourage me to be better, I assume and will believe just for the sake of positivity. This one is very close to my heart as I am battling a terminal illness as we speak. Using medicine that "is keeping me alive" every morning. I see myself supporting the lavish lives of pharmaceutical execs., putting shoes on their children and gas in their Bentley's. Call me a cynic, and you'd be right but the more you know, the angrier you get. Knowledge is a painful thing, at times. May life give you all the blessings you've earned. Thank you again.

- - - Updated - - -



gokedik said:


> Thank you Pandoraa, you are very kind. I've had people tell me they like it then rip it apart to encourage me to be better, I assume and will believe just for the sake of positivity. This one is very close to my heart as I am battling a terminal illness as we speak. Using medicine that "is keeping me alive" every morning. I see myself supporting the lavish lives of pharmaceutical execs., putting shoes on their children and gas in their Bentley's. Call me a cynic, and you'd be right but the more you know, the angrier you get. Knowledge is a painful thing, at times. May life give you all the blessings you've earned. Thank you again.


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## gokedik (Aug 12, 2014)

If you would, please, I replied below but since I'm new at this I didn't post with a quote. I sincerely appreciate your thoughts.


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## gokedik (Aug 12, 2014)

Pandora, Thank you.


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## Pandora (Aug 12, 2014)

Thank you gokedik. You are no cynic, you are a messenger. Sharing and reaching others, those experiencing similar, those oblivious to Big Pharm. I admire your fight, I understand and respect your position. I sent a pm, look for that please. When I first joined I messed up quoting and couldn't figure out pms or anything, look at me now, I can do half of it!

Know that you are in my thoughts with good vibes sent every morning, every night in my prayers for strength and happiness. Keep writing, keep the truth out there.


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## Trilby (Aug 16, 2014)

The following I copied and paste this from The Onion - America's Finest News Source;

SILVER SPRING, MD—In an effort to get Americans to at least go through  the motions of a healthier diet, the Food and Drug Administration  announced Wednesday that it is now recommending individuals consume  three servings of foods every day that simply include the word “fruit”  on the box. “Though we have in the past advised eating a minimum of  three pieces of actual fruit per day, it is now acceptable to eat any  food labeled with the word ‘fruit,’ including variations such as  ‘fruity,’ ‘fruit-a-licious,’ or ‘fruit-blasted,’” FDA commissioner  Margaret Hamburg told reporters, also noting that sweetened cereal or  gummies shaped like fruit are entirely permissible under the agency’s  new guidelines. “If it smells somewhat like fruit, or even if there’s a  cartoon strawberry or orange on the wrapper, that’s sufficient at this  point.” The FDA’s new recommendations are expected to be followed up by  other guidelines under which anything successfully chewed and swallowed  can now be considered a vegetable.

Unquote -

Really, is this what the FDA are advocating, any processed food with the word 'fruit' on the packaging - I'm speechless! 

If this wasn't so serious it would be hilarious. 

Quote“If it smells somewhat like fruit, or even if there’s a  cartoon strawberry or orange on the wrapper, that’s sufficient at this  point.”unquote - I wonder does that mean that if I draw an orange on a piece of paper and then eat the paper, I'll be getting a dose of vitamin C ?

If this is what they recommend as 'fruit' - goodness only knows what is in their drugs. 

Sorry I should be critiquing your work - but, things like this make me angry and I can't concentrate!


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## Deleted member 56686 (Aug 16, 2014)

In the Reagan era they wanted to call ketchup a vegetable. Seriously.


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## gokedik (Aug 16, 2014)

Has not the FDA lost all relevance in our çountry, yet because they clearly are not out to protect the "consumer" anymore, and has not fo a long time.


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## Trilby (Aug 17, 2014)

mrmustard615 said:


> In the Reagan era they wanted to call ketchup a vegetable. Seriously.



Tomatoes are fruits - so way back then, they must not have had much of a clue as to what they were talking about.


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## Pandora (Aug 17, 2014)

Oh wow, can't believe all that, goodness! and where is the goodness for us anymore? Soylent green seems more of a possibility everyday. At least there will be suicide places to go end it all so comfortably. I remember the pretty film playing of wildflowers in a breeze, looked nice. The Reagan era and the ketchup thing, that was a clue to the future, I guess. What clue does this tell for the future? I'm not a Granny yet, sometimes I hope I'm not. What world would my beauties be inheriting?


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## TKent (Aug 17, 2014)

Very powerful piece. It make me think of a great sci-fi I read called the Windup Girl. (It was the agriculture industry not big pharma but the results were pretty much the same).  

_The Windup Girl is set in 23rd-century Thailand. Global warming has raised the levels of world's oceans, carbon fuel sources have become depleted, and manually wound springs are used as energy storage devices. Biotechnology is dominant and megacorporations like AgriGen, PurCal and RedStar (called calorie companies) control food production through 'genehacked' seeds, and use bioterrorism, private armies and economic hitmen to create markets for their products. Frequent catastrophes, such as deadly and widespread plagues and illness, caused by genetically modified crops and mutant pests, ravage entire populations. The natural genetic seed stock of the world's plants has been almost completely supplanted by those that are genetically engineered to be sterile._


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## J Anfinson (Aug 17, 2014)

Trilby said:


> The following I copied and paste this from The Onion - America's Finest News Source;



The Onion is a satire newspaper.

From the FAQ's:



> _The Onion_ is a satirical weekly publication published 52 times a year on Thursdays. _The Onion_ is published by Onion, Inc. The contents of this material are © Copyright 2010 by Onion, Inc. and may not be reprinted or re-transmitted in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher. _The Onion_ is not intended for readers under 18 years of age.
> _The Onion_ uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Aug 17, 2014)

Yeah I was kind of hoping Trilby knew that. The whole ketchup thing I'm afraid was all true. It was some crazy attempt to save money on federally funded school lunches.


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## Trilby (Aug 18, 2014)

Yep, I know, but sadly it is almost true.

I could rant on about food additives etc., but it would be 'off thread' and unfair to the OP. 

This is a critique thread!


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