Eight or nine years ago, a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell, wrote a book called The Truth About the Drug Companies. It was an often searing critique of their deceptive research methods and business practices that really pulled back the veil on what Dr. Angell calls the marketing machine that the pharmaceutical industry has become.
This is important consciousness, because the pressure for profits above all other objectives of business has led to a state whereby we're medicating more and more Americans unnecessarily to feed the profit goals of shareholders and executives and not the health goal of the drug takers.
Fabricated diseases, diminished alternatives and multi-billion dollar advertising mean our medical system turns only in one direction now to alleviate suffering - towards the pharmacy. It's putting big money into drug company coffers, and deteriorating the medical education of doctors worldwide.
But it's doing something even more sinister. It's killing us.
Medicating Ourselves Into Oblivion, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
How Money Stops Growth
Line up all the economists in the world, it is said, and they'll all point in different directions. And while it's true that economists do view society through the particular lens of their political or sociological ideology, there are some general economics principles that seem widely held in the field.
One is that you can point to economic performance as an indicator of a household's or a company's or even a nation's success. And therefore the need to look after the drivers of this all-important economy - banks and corporations and GDP and all that stuff.
Economic performance is even one of the most important indices when considering happiness and quality of life on those top 10 countries to live in lists that pop up once or twice a year.
But yet, there is something obviously missing in a person who gives attention only to the financial side of things in life, something out of kilter and off balance - even psychotic - in running the world based on what the bean counters have to say.
We'll explore what's wrong with this view today. How Money Stops Growth, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
One is that you can point to economic performance as an indicator of a household's or a company's or even a nation's success. And therefore the need to look after the drivers of this all-important economy - banks and corporations and GDP and all that stuff.
Economic performance is even one of the most important indices when considering happiness and quality of life on those top 10 countries to live in lists that pop up once or twice a year.
But yet, there is something obviously missing in a person who gives attention only to the financial side of things in life, something out of kilter and off balance - even psychotic - in running the world based on what the bean counters have to say.
We'll explore what's wrong with this view today. How Money Stops Growth, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Final Conflict
It would be difficult to ignore the problems all around us. In fact, I was watching a disturbing video on the weekend about the serious consequences of Geo-Engineering - this manipulation of the jet streams through chem trails and the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in Alaska and Russia - and how it's threatening to finish up with the Arctic ice flows in 2 to 3 years and liberate massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere and generally demolish life as we know it.
It's a horrifying scenario, and coupled with the massive damage being caused economically by the secret banking cabals, and it can really make you lose sleep.
Good to remember, then, that there's good action all around us, too. Well intentioned people working in their communities for justice and equality and environmental sustainability.
This tension has always existed between the forces of evil and the forces of good, but it seems the stakes are higher today than they've ever been. It is no exaggeration to say we're living in important, even apocalyptic, times.
The Final Conflict, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
It's a horrifying scenario, and coupled with the massive damage being caused economically by the secret banking cabals, and it can really make you lose sleep.
Good to remember, then, that there's good action all around us, too. Well intentioned people working in their communities for justice and equality and environmental sustainability.
This tension has always existed between the forces of evil and the forces of good, but it seems the stakes are higher today than they've ever been. It is no exaggeration to say we're living in important, even apocalyptic, times.
The Final Conflict, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Friday, May 03, 2013
What a Normal Life Should Be
Check out a modern photography exhibition and you'll often find disturbing pictures of conflict and misery, along with the usual justifications of "Hey man, that's the reality!"
We all remember those generation defining images of the naked girl running down a dirt road in Vietnam, the young student defying the tanks in Tiananmen Square, the vulture stalking the child in the Sudan. And it's easy, in the face of those stark scenes, to think that this does indeed show reality.
I'm not so sure about that. If we look around us, we can certainly see enough disgrace and horror to make that argument that life is suffering.
But a humble psychoanalyst and social scientist in Brazil is forcing us to re-think all that. "Evil," states Norberto Keppe, "is just the destruction of good, not the natural state."
And that profound truth, although hinted at throughout history, has never been entrenched as a core pillar of any scientific philosophy. Until now.
What a Normal Life Should Be, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
We all remember those generation defining images of the naked girl running down a dirt road in Vietnam, the young student defying the tanks in Tiananmen Square, the vulture stalking the child in the Sudan. And it's easy, in the face of those stark scenes, to think that this does indeed show reality.
I'm not so sure about that. If we look around us, we can certainly see enough disgrace and horror to make that argument that life is suffering.
But a humble psychoanalyst and social scientist in Brazil is forcing us to re-think all that. "Evil," states Norberto Keppe, "is just the destruction of good, not the natural state."
And that profound truth, although hinted at throughout history, has never been entrenched as a core pillar of any scientific philosophy. Until now.
What a Normal Life Should Be, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Why a Better Society Isn't Happening
There is a common misconception in many parts of the world that society is improving. "Hey, we don't draw and quarter people in the public square anymore," goes that common wisdom. "We've got central heating and watch on demand."
Yes, we do. We've also got very sophisticated killing machines, and for all our vaunted technological forensic wizardry there are still some disturbingly unanswered questions about 9-11.
I could make a strong case for us not advancing much at all in some fundamental aspects of what it means to be human - especially if we compare ourselves to the first humans described in the folklore of all peoples in earth.
Development of society from misery to relative abundance for all is more than a misconception - it's wrong in a fundamental sense because we come hard-wired for peace and justice and goodness, and the hows and whys we act against that basic programming deserve more consideration. "We're good but choose to act bad" is very different from "we're bad but we're getting better."
Why a better society isn't happening, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Yes, we do. We've also got very sophisticated killing machines, and for all our vaunted technological forensic wizardry there are still some disturbingly unanswered questions about 9-11.
I could make a strong case for us not advancing much at all in some fundamental aspects of what it means to be human - especially if we compare ourselves to the first humans described in the folklore of all peoples in earth.
Development of society from misery to relative abundance for all is more than a misconception - it's wrong in a fundamental sense because we come hard-wired for peace and justice and goodness, and the hows and whys we act against that basic programming deserve more consideration. "We're good but choose to act bad" is very different from "we're bad but we're getting better."
Why a better society isn't happening, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Paradise Now and the Universal Society
Way back in English Lit class at Reynolds High School in my hometown of Victoria, I remember Mrs. Kent waxing rhapsodically about Milton's Paradise Lost, and asking us if we believed in paradise regained.
I, with my thoughts on the basketball game that night against arch-rivals, Oak Bay, thought she was a bit loopy. But something must have got through for I've found myself not infrequently since reflecting on that very question.
I have never felt completely comfortable in society as it's been elaborated, and yearned not only for something better, but for how I might play a part in improving it. And it is this, of course, that's led me to Brazil and the profound work of Dr. Norberto Keppe.
Because, I'm happy to report, there is in this science of psycho-socio pathology, both a sublime analysis of how we painted ourselves into such a tight corner, and a therapy to help us get out. If we apply Keppe's findings, we have a chance.
Paradise Now and the Universal Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
I, with my thoughts on the basketball game that night against arch-rivals, Oak Bay, thought she was a bit loopy. But something must have got through for I've found myself not infrequently since reflecting on that very question.
I have never felt completely comfortable in society as it's been elaborated, and yearned not only for something better, but for how I might play a part in improving it. And it is this, of course, that's led me to Brazil and the profound work of Dr. Norberto Keppe.
Because, I'm happy to report, there is in this science of psycho-socio pathology, both a sublime analysis of how we painted ourselves into such a tight corner, and a therapy to help us get out. If we apply Keppe's findings, we have a chance.
Paradise Now and the Universal Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Metaphysical Basis of Keppe's New Physics
In the 1500s, the scientific revolution was in full bloom. Scientists were fighting for independence from the theological dogmas that were unchallengeable. The Bible was literally interpreted back then, so when it said the sun rises and sets, that was the final word.
One of the lead revolutionaries - the scientific Che Guevara, if you will - was Galileo, who proposed that actually it was the Earth that was moving, not the sun. This caused quite the furor back in the 1630s.
Today, there is another scientific revolution emerging. There are no Inquisition trials, but Norberto Keppe's scientific perspective is receiving the modern day equivalent - silence from the scientific mainstream. His views, though, are still shaking the foundations of science just as Galileo and Bacon did 600 years ago.
Keppe doesn't make the mistake the 16th century scientific radicals did, however, of throwing out philosophy and theology from his scientific proposals. It makes for a comprehensive science that's poised to lead us to a new society.
The Metaphysical Basis of Keppe's New Physics, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
One of the lead revolutionaries - the scientific Che Guevara, if you will - was Galileo, who proposed that actually it was the Earth that was moving, not the sun. This caused quite the furor back in the 1630s.
Today, there is another scientific revolution emerging. There are no Inquisition trials, but Norberto Keppe's scientific perspective is receiving the modern day equivalent - silence from the scientific mainstream. His views, though, are still shaking the foundations of science just as Galileo and Bacon did 600 years ago.
Keppe doesn't make the mistake the 16th century scientific radicals did, however, of throwing out philosophy and theology from his scientific proposals. It makes for a comprehensive science that's poised to lead us to a new society.
The Metaphysical Basis of Keppe's New Physics, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
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