By Bobbie Anne Flower Cox at Brownstone dot org.
We are living in a point in history where so many, if not all, of the foundational pillars of our society are being questioned. In some cases, those pillars are almost wholly being cast aside. Once the cornerstones of our American backbone, we are finding ourselves doubting it all as we ask ourselves and one another…Can the government truly be that corrupt? Are the courts actually compromised? Are major media outlets really just mouthpieces for propaganda? Is modern medicine a sham?
It is difficult for people to question what they have known all their life to be something that is "good" or "honest" or "reliable." Why would you doubt the things that everyone around you (including your trusted friends and beloved family members) are telling you are true, and pure, and good? Of course the government is there to protect us. Of course the legal system is designed to uphold our righteous laws and defend liberty. Of course the newscaster on the TV is telling us the truth.
Of course the drugs our doctors prescribe to us are there to help us get well.
As hard as it is to question societal norms, it is even more difficult to do something about it. Indian author Arundhati Roy has said:
"The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable."
In questioning traditional, stalwart institutions, we find ourselves standing on the precipice of a rabbit hole so large and deep, it is better likened to a meteoric crater than simply a hole. There are so many craters all around us now - the government crater, the legal crater, the medical crater, the media crater, and so on. These craters are appearing one after the next, in parallel formation, and like dominos, if one begins to fall, the chain reaction of full scale collapse is undeniable.
Let us, for a moment here, peer over the ridge of one of these craters as we ask ourselves…
Is modern medicine a sham?
Let's first look at the learned, societal norm…When most people hear the word "medicine," their mind immediately forms a positive opinion and thinks, "This will help me feel better and get well." Like Pavlov's dog, we have been trained to correlate medicine with the thing that cures your sickness when you are ailing. You have a malady, you go to the doctor, they give you medicine, and it will fix the malady from which you are suffering and restore your health.
Right? Ehhhh, well, ummmm, not exactly. Sadly, in today's world, "health" has become synonymous with "medicine," and medicine has become an industry - and not just any industry. It is a behemoth!
Did you know that the largest lobby we have in the United States is the pharmaceutical industry? It is the largest, by a long shot, as it solidly towers over all of the others. Let me share some numbers with you. Pharma spends approximately $380,000,000 (three hundred eighty million) every year lobbying Congress. To give you some perspective, the second largest lobby industry in our nation is the electronics manufacturing industry, and it spends about $250,000,000 a year lobbying Congress.
The third largest is the insurance industry which spends about $150,000,000 a year lobbying Congress. All the other industries that lobby simply pale in comparison. These statistics alone reveal so much.
And so, health (which used to mean how well your body functions in relation to other natural interactions and happenings like sufficient sunlight, fresh water intake, clean air, sufficient sleep, what you eat, and how much you exercise) now means medicine.
When you go to the doctor, do they ask you how much water you drink and the amount of sunlight you absorb every day, or do they ask you what pills you are popping? Whether because of the C-19 debacle, or perhaps through osmosis, the medical industry has recently garnered a reputation of being untrustworth...