Can Right Coexist With Wrong? – Drop in the Ocean – Constitute
Can Right Coexist With Wrong?
In a reply to a post which asks the question, “Can our society be happy again?” I identified one situation in particular that I feel is just one of the reasons that our society is not very happy as a whole at this time. What I identified as a roadblock to happiness, is the way that mental health is handled today in America.
My attempt at explaining my view on mental health treatment in America today and how it is affected by big Pharma, was me trying to convey greed in the form of big Pharma as being just one of the reasons why our society is not happy, and how it is keeping us from being happy.
Now, this was intended as simply a statement on the greed of big Pharma, and not as an attack on mental health doctors, nurses and research experts, who of course have come through with brilliant methods and advancements in treatments for individuals with mental health issues at various times throughout history. It also wasn’t intended to be taken negatively, but as an expose to illustrate there are things we have to fix first, if we seek a happier world.
I personally am the kind of person who never has and never will own stock in any big Pharma companies as, in my opinion, big pharma as a whole is evil because of its greed vice. Holding such stock is immoral and unethical, IMO, and it’s the same reason I won’t own oil and/or energy stocks along with some others.
The GermanWings pilot-(patient) was in the cockpit as co-pilot on the flight, and when the pilot went for a bathroom break or whatever, the guy on the big Pharma “medicine” that makes people want to kill themselves, locked the cockpit door and then spiraled the plane into the Alps, as the pilot pounded and pleaded desperately for him to unlock the cockpit door and the passengers, beside themselves, agonized, knowing of their impending doom.
Does this not constitute a severe and serious threat to our safety as normal citizens, to have pilots on anti-depressants that cause them to want to kill themselves, still being allowed to be in the cockpit of a commercial aircraft? Is anyone happy that this same flaw in the system continues on? Until I see something stating otherwise, I have to believe that big pharma used its “clout” to insure pilots can still fly while on their antidepre$$ant$.
The relatives, friends and lovers of those passengers doomed by that pilot, (who could be labeled as big pharma’s “hit man”), I’m sure are still extremely sad today, four years later, all because of big pharma’s greed.
Why do I accuse them of greed rather than saying it was just a mistake? Well, for one thing, as far as I know, (if anyone can correct me, please do, with an attribution to source), but I’m not finding anything showing that antidepressants have been banned for pilots, which would have been the only right and proper thing to do, but it would also mean the loss of $$$$$ from big Pharma’s coffers. A big no no.
A grave concern for maintaining the happiness of the world big Pharma and its stock holders, indeed!
Anyone? Your 401k maybe, you say? Take a look sometime at the people-negative stocks you own through your 401k, if you dare.
What big Pharma and this pilot did, actually increased the number of unhappy people on the planet! If each one of those innocent passengers had just 10 people that were sad at their needless, preventable deaths, that means that the number of sad people increased by the thousands that day, thanks to our greedy friends.
There was no happiness increase at all that day, and even if hundreds of reports of positive advancements in mental health care were published that same day or the day after, it likely didn’t outweigh the pain of those who were newly sad, and are still sad to this day, I’m sure.
I consider sadness to be a negative feeling, and when it is preventable and inexcusable, it’s very negative.
We can’t hide from things we wish didn’t exist. We can’t block out negativity and its cause by looking only at happy things. We can’t know truth if all that we hear are lies that make us feel better, but are still lies.
I see the mental health issue and how it is handled by government as a money-maker solely for satisfying big Pharma’s insatiable greed, which the congress people and the senators share in, along with the pay for play protection bounty, along with their taxpayer-funded sexual-offense accuser hush fund. While I am a positive person myself to the greater extent, I don’t shield myself from understanding why and how some of the issues that are killing happiness arise.
In order for us to look at something as vast and deep-rooted as the negativity that surrounds us in our world today, and then for us to set out to seek an answer as to whether or not our society can be happy again, we’re required to identify first, the negativity that needs to go. Just focusing on positive things exclusively, isn’t going to give us those answers nor bring us happiness, and it won’t help to solve anything negative, IMO.
The fact that it would be difficult to find a majority among common citizens saying that big pharma does good things, means there are a lot of people unhappy with something they are forced to deal with on a continuing basis, and out of their wallets, while others in the world pay far less than we do in our rigged system.
Understand that I was identifying just one of the things that we all need to understand and act upon if we can even begin to consider making the world more positive overall. The things that cause the negativity have to be called out, and then altered in the way they are done, possibly as far as a complete makeover. But we can’t make a positive world while allowing negativity-inducing entities to continue to exist as they have been.
Doing so will only make more people of the world sadder, IMO. Ignoring the negativity that people and other entities create will serve to only grind away the potential for an increase in happiness. Negativity must be identified and destroyed before that can happen and happiness can instead be the rule.
Can Right Coexist With Wrong? © free-reign 2019
Source for images used in this post:
Sign: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
GermanWings Plane: Image by Andy Leung from Pixabay
Pills: Image by Emilian Danaila from Pixabay
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Most drugs come with a warning: Don't use while operating a motorized vehicle. The last I checked, a helicopter was a motorized vehicle. These warnings also include lawn mowers, by the way. It's just common sense. Big Pharma, or the government, may not put a sanction on something, but it's up to the end user to be responsible. Really sad event.
I agree, but in the world which we live today, pressure from big Pharma to on the airline industry to not ban such drugs for use by pilots, exposes a weakness in actually doing the right thing, and the cause is simply to make more money. Lives are expendable if it means maintaining/increasing profit.
If they've actually done that and there's a paper trail, they could be liable. Remember what happened to Philip Morris?
I don't recall what happened to Phillip Morris, but did anyone go to jail? Look at GM. They knowingly delayed recalling cars for a fault they knew would kill people, which it did, but even then, no one went to jail.
GM's reason for why they did it? To protect themselves from the backlash, which would hurt their profits. It's disgusting.
I doubt if big Pharma did get caught, that anyone would go to jail. So, corporate execs aren't afraid at all to do things they know are illegal, because the government will just end up "settling" with them.
No, I don't think anyone with Phillip Morris went to jail. What you say is true. The individuals who are responsible for such things typically don't bear any consequences. The corporations get fined, and they may be hefty fines, but they shield the individuals from responsibility.
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You hit this one really, really close to home for me. I have a child on anti-depressants. It took me two years to agree to it, and I only got to that point because I ended up having to put him in the hospital because he was so incredibly depressed he just couldn't even get out of bed. It was awful.
I'm of mixed emotions about it. I don't like it. But I've also seen how he self destructs without it. And yes, I keep a very close eye on him. I've tried to teach him that the medicine is only to help him level out; the other parts of actually being happy are up to him, just like they are to everyone.
I think every tool we have has a good and bad side. Knives can be used to cut food or people; computers can be used to spread knowledge or porn or hate, and so forth. Pharmaceuticals can help, and they can hurt. I don't like that pharmaceuticals are marketed to the masses who, for the most part, don't have the education to understand the right questions to ask. I think we'd agree that Big Pharma has tipped the scale from "helping people" to "making money" as the motivator. There's no reason both can't happen, but the guidelight has been lost.
I'm sorry to hear about your child's condition, and understand that I'm not putting the blame on the drug, or suggesting the drug doesn't work. In this case I'm just saying that a drug that causes some people to commit suicide should never have been allowed to be taken by people that are on-duty pilots, or that do any kind of work in which they would kill innocent people along with themselves if it happens to them.
We know that the antidepressant drugs do have a flaw that is deadly, and therefore these drugs should be strictly controlled as to who can take them, so as to consider people taking the drug and the danger involved in their jobs, and if other people could be hurt by them on their job, then they should be reassigned to do danger-free work instead once they are prescribed antidepressants.
Big Pharma pressuring the commercial flight industry against banning the drugs for pilots would illustrate the evilness in their greed, and innocent people losing their lives is an acceptable trade-off to them, to keep the sale of their drugs at the highest possible numbers by making sure the drug is not being banned for anyone doing any job.
I truly hope your child is healed with the help of the drugs, and grows to enjoy a fruitful and productive life without the need for them anymore!
Oh, absolutely, I'm not questioning your statements. My son has been lucky in that his doctor does not want him to be reliant on the medication; it's viewed as a tool to be used along with other tools such as exercise and diet. If Joshua's behaviour ever changes (and it has) the first suspect is the medicine. That's the level of care-giving I like to see from medical professionals.
I agree, an over reliance on medication leads to horrible consequences, and I'm distrustful of big pharma too. I hadn't heard of the story of the pilot you mentioned, but I'm sad to say it doesn't surprise me. I remember when the Exxon Valdez spilled and Exxon tried to shy away from responsibility to clean it up. That was what soured me to "big business." Profits should not come before the public good.
Thank you for the kind words! He's getting better, definitely a work in progress. I'm looking forward to the day I can take him off too. It's a positive goal to work toward. And thanks for understanding where I'm coming from! It's nice to be able to have an actual conversation with shared ideas.
Howdy sir free-reign! Great points and you sure nailed it, big pharma seems to only care about money and power.
Thank you and howdy to you, Jonboy. It's human nature for a whole lot of us to be either somewhat greedy, greedy or extremely greedy. Extremely greedy people know that to gather as much value as possible to themselves means they need to get themselves into positions to be controlling things. Companies seek CEOs who basically are very acquainted with the use of greedy acts to gain "success," both personally and professionally.
It's much worse once they decide to go that route and get themselves elected to public office.
Basically the wrong kind of people, with the worst possible motivations, are running things now. They need to be prevented from running things, if the hope is for ours to ever become a happier world.
That is SO well put free-reign! Yes, the people who we most want NOT to be in charge are the ones in charge!
You can find the community announcement on Discord :) and it has also been shared on our FB Page and Twitter feed.
While I understand your ire at the avarice of big pharma, and which applies to all the big multinational conglomerates, I do think that some of this is because it's too easy to pop a pill to solve a problem. The pall currently hanging over the world - or certainly my part of it - is a consequence of deep seated societal issues. Of which capital and avarice is just one element.
I agree. I think avarice is the number one driving factor actually, but the conceptual ease of "popping a pill" to fix everything extends further, into the realm of the over-prescribing of antibiotics, (in some cases, prescribed for ailments for which they will clearly have no positive effect), that has led to the appearance of "superbugs." Who makes and sells the over-prescribed antibiotics which have created the superbugs?
Big Pharma is the modern day snake-oil salesman, but rather than getting run out of town, they receive the full protection of our compromised officials. And, as you say, it's the same for all of the conglomerates willing to play ball for some extra, compromising loot.
Because of the Direct effect on people's lives and health though, due to the influence of big Pharma, it needs to be at the top I think - to be the issue that receives the most attention the soonest.
Great post @free-reign. Big companies with greed for money do not care about the effects.
Exactly! It's gotten so bad that there is a movement that wants to remove the thought that greed is a bad thing, and instill the thought that's it's actually a great, desirable trait to have.
I'm not sure how to respond.
I do wish or pray it's not just profit that these Pharmaceutical companies are after because what they do are related to the life and death of a human person.
There's more to life than just the materialistic life
Pharma's greediness is facilitated by the dirty politicians, who are undoubtedly getting a slice of the pie. So, we can put the most blame on our compromised lawmakers. If they did their job the way they should then it would be handled appropriately, but politicians become politicians because of the dirty money they can collect, and not because they desire to do what's best for the country and citizens who elect them.
I beg to differ. Sounds like a good idea for a post. I will cite yours as the springboard.
I've read and replied. Thanks for being the third voice to get on the springboard of this subject and to make a post about it! I wonder if this is a new thing, or how many times this has happened before here on steemit? :)