03-09-2004, 04:49 AM
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wrote in message ...
The irrational belief that nature is benign and plants are there for human
benefit, while technology is evil, and its products are designed to make
money at the expense of the environment and human health has become so
widespread as to be the unconscious basis of thought and decision making
about health for many people. There's a *lot* of money to be made pandering
to this mindset, and key words like raw, natural, organic, unprocessed, whole,
etc. are a characteristic part. People are afraid of "drugs", but "herbs"
are "natural", untouched by evil "processing" and therefore intrinsically
good, provided by kindly Mother Nature to heal all our ills, unlike the
doctors and pharmaceutical companies that just want to profit from our
suffering.
No. I don't believe that tech is all bad or that nature is all good.
Technology actually makes things more preferable. Vitamix, for
example, is not natural at all.
It would be nice to genetically-engineer some bacteria to feed on our
stools in our colons. That way we would never need to defecate.
I could go on for pages about the problems with these beliefs, but I won't.
They are part of a powerful trend toward magical thinking and rejection of
science and rational thought which has been building up for decades in the
US, and has profound effects on that country, its citizens and the world it
dominates.
At least the poster didn't include natural herbs like tobacco, potato leaves,
foxglove and oleander in his proposed brew, nor wish to add natural minerals
like lead, cadmium, mercury, antimony and arsenic.
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