I would appreciate being asked what I am doing first, before being told what I am doing.
That said, if you want to think that, go right ahead. Know however, that you’re making a statement about an aspect my experience which you have no access to, or knowledge of.
Based on that demonstrated behavior, which suggests a thinking/cognitive style, the credibility of your argument is now even less from my view.
And their "truth" is based on what, exactly? :noidea:
cheers,
Ian
I understand how that looks. I will try and explain my position
At the moment we are looking at an issue through a metaphorical microscope. We are looking at a component part (ie big pharma) of a much larger whole. If we zoom out a bit and look at the whole itself, it can then give us insight into the component parts.
In the same way that scientists tell us that the same laws of physics exist in space, the same laws apply to the component parts as to the whole.
The whole i am talking about is the profit driven system which we use globally to allocate resources: capitalism
Some people might be a bit bored of me talking about capitalism, but i hope this post will shed some light on why i do talk about it a lot.
The system (capitalism) has a nature of its own. It is driven by the pursuit of profit and that prioritisation of profit over other things such as: people, animals, the environment or the truth has very real implications for all of us.
I can't present you with extensive pie charts or graphs to represent this so i will ask you to look around you. What are we seeing happening around us, both in front of us and further afield? We are seeing all sorts of problems. I trace all of these problems back to the system which gave birth to them.
You can pick pretty much any topic discussed on this forum and it can be related back to capitalism.
Capitalism shapes everything including us.
Someone might talk about an oil spill in the gulf of mexico....that can be related back to a system that prioritises profits above sustainablity or safety. Someone might talk about being depressed.....i would relate that back to the negative ways in which capitalism is shaping that persons reality.
Capitalism is not motivated by kindness, compassion, equality, respect or any other 'higher values'...it simply is not. The markets do not have an inbuilt capacity for any of these things....they are unfeeling and so therefore is capitalism.
So this story about vaccines....do i believe that the pharmaceutical companies have endevoured to provide us with the most safe and well researched product, brought through a compassionate desire to enrich our lives.....NO i think they are trying to turn a massive profit. I think in that race to turn a profit they may even resort to things which are either outright illegal or which are at least immoral by the standards of most people
Do i need to see a written study showing data gleaned from 50 years of painstaking research to tell me that the pharmaceutical companies are a bunch of heartless profit hunters? No i know it because i understand the forces which shape them.
Many people seem to think that the status quo is 'just the way things are'. But that is wrong. We influence our reality all the time.
I believe strongly that the current system is not the best way for humanity to allocate resources. Global wars, famines, environmental disaster, drug dependancy, economic upheaval etc are the pointers to that for me.
For as long as we are living under this profit obsessed system and all the ill effects it has for all of us i think it is important not to have any delusions about the nature of the system.
Many people do get complacent and then get stung by the system as we have seen in the latest economic crisis....these just keep coming under capitalism.
So a healthy level of scepticism is a good thing for a person to arm themselves with. Where does scepticism end and paranoia begin? What is quite disturbing is that the more information i learn the further that boundary is pushed.
There seems to be no limits to the cruelty or heartlessness of capitalism. You can talk about positive advances made under capitalism but these more likely come down to the 'higher values' you spoke of before, which i believe are a more natural part of human nature then the negative ones people must adopt to survive under a capitalist system.
I hope this goes some way to explaining my seeming inflexibilty over some issues. My view is that these things are all just the inevitable consequences of living under a system that puts profit first
That's why I was always skeptical over my sister's view. Although her arguments were perhaps probably well rounded I couldn't but help being skeptical due to the bias created by her fervor. To me her stance on the "Good vs Bad" was all that was influencing her reasoning. Perhaps if the subject at hand was a little less emotionally charged I would have been able to take her more seriously. But at that time all I could do was to believe that she was overly biased (and perhaps a bit paranoid). To me she was not engaging her brain but engaging her sense of juctice. 