The stories coming out of the world of medical research get more and more insane. The latest, about the pill that will erase traumatic memories, apart from drawing attention to another instance of the collaboration of corporate and academic fascism, is a total load of bollocks.

First, the active drug in the pill is a beta blocker. These drugs have been around for decades and are not known for wiping people's memories so we must suspect the clinical tests were based on codology.

Let's look at the experiment. Hmm. What the medical researchers did was take a bunch of "volunteers" (i.e. down and outs promised money, booze and recreational drugs if they said what was required of them). These people were shown a picture of a spider and simultaneously given an electric shock.

SHOWN A PICTURE OF A FUCKING SPIDER? How is that frightening?

So someone is saying "look at this picture of a spider and as you are saying "oh yeah, what a nice spider" or even "in't nature amazing," ZZZZZZT you get 120 volts up you. You're a normal person OK (or if you are a medical research scientist just pretend you are a normal person for a minute.) What are you going to do, develop arachnophobia or stick the nut on the bastard who keeps giving you shocks?

It's a no brainer isn't it?

So now we know the tests were carried out on morons who don't really count what else can we conclude. Our memories, good or bad are what make us who we are, so we can conclude this is another step forward towards the nazification of the world. Seize power. CHECK. Use Phobos and Deimos (our old chums fear and panic) to make people feel insecure. CHECK. Control the flow of information. CHECK. Develop drugs to suppress individualism. WORK IN PROGRESS...

If you have any inclination to think a drug to erase trauma is a good thing read up on Pavlov's Dogs because this experiment seems to have more to do with social conditioning than medical science. It is no more valid that the recent experiment to show a "near death experience" could be induced in the laboratary by administering electric shocks.

As the people in that experiment were not near death and the people who report having near death experiences are not being given electric shocks, what does the exercise prove other than that we have working in medical research a bunch of perverts who get off on giving people electric shocks.

When the memory eraser pill has been proved to work for people who have experienced real trauma, rape victims, people who have witnessed genocidal attacks or been involved in a disasters like The Word Trade Centre or the 2004 Tsunami, people who have seen loved ones die in terrible circumstances or even worse, had to listen to a Mariah Carey record all through, only then will we know it has potential. Compared to those experiences being given a mild eectric shock while looking at a picture of a spider is not on the scale. Show them something truly frightening like a picture of Peter Stringfellow in a thong at least.

UPDATED 19 FEB 2009:
Then they can opt to behave as programmed choose life and read Ian's poem Pavlov's Cat which extols the medicinal benefits to be gained from thinking for yourself.

21 FEB 2009:
The thing they have not thought through is: What happens when the drugs stop working? Find out in Bitter Fruit

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