Tools In Parallel Development

		Tools In Parallel Development
I N T E R S E C T I O N S in the ElectroChemical Age
The War on Drugs Won't Be the First Time That Chemicals and Electronics Intersect
The advent of a new medium, television, was theoretically the catalyst for a war on drugs, At the time the drug war started, however, television was already celebrating it's second decade and the public was too blind to recognize that the era of New Journalism was bringing the first doses of reality TV into the living rooms of the American public... in "living color" for the most part. The "hit" took place during the summer of 1969. The target was the White House during it's first summer under the new Republican administration. The leading episode on broadcast television was prompted by the death of a well known icon to homosexuals, Judy Garland, and the stage was New York City Greenwich Village in a bar called the Stonewall. The drama was the unfolding of the Stonewall Riots which mirrored the civil rights movement and it's riots and the Vietnam War and it's demonstration and protest. By the ending of that summer, man had landed on the moon, long-haired hippies were monopolizing airtime, a glossy-eyed and smiling Charlie Manson had led a cult down the path of murder in affluent communities surrounding Los Angeles, mutilating the pregnant body of one of the newest Hollywood female stars with a promising
	CRASH!	The AGE Has Come
career, the vivacious and lovely Sharon Tate, who had captured young American in the movie Valley of the Dolls only three years before, and of course wet memories of the century's most decadent event, Woodstock, lingered in the brains of a new generation that was telling the world they weren't going to take the kind of shit that Vietnam was throwing into the face of the public. Disgusting? Not nearly as paralyzing as the rapid, violent, and morbid sexual revolution that was to follow. In two years, the world had changed. By early 1971, there would be no way in the minds of Republicans that they were going to tolerate a voter turnout which spelled doom. FEAR was everywhere... it was on the streets in New York and in the bus terminals. It was in the rich-well-to-do section of Scarsdale, New York as it had been in Harlem for years. Rape, murder, incest, S&M, and, of course, a growing population of homosexuals that called themselves "gay", a word that had not hit the households of America until early 1970 even though it had been used to describe those perverted "faggots" which were doubling and tripling in number. But where were they all coming from? The truth was so simple but so ugly that American conservatives didn't want to face their own filth. There they were, tumbling through the weeds and as naked as they could be. Do you see why these people wanted AIDS? Do you understand that Dr. Hilary Koprowski, the father of HIV, wasn't just invited to these clandestine meetings to sit down and drink coffee? "The entire world has gone mad," Betsy Bloomingdale said, unable to contain herself. "We have to do something! This is going to wipe out our entire country." You could almost see the tears in her eyes. How painful it was to see the madam of 59th Street wearing sunglasses that were as big as Jackie O's. And speaking of Jackie, where did she get off on cheating the American public by marrying that old Greek shipping magnet, no one had ever heard of? Camelot was gone forever and the Republican Party was wearing dirty diapers around their neck left over from Woodstock. Yet, in 1972, the Republican showing demonstrated that Nixon was wrong. He had nothing to fear because the more that our nation was moving to the left, the greater the force was coming from the right. Still, Watergate spelled the doom of the Nixon administration.	It was louder than the one that hit American in 1929! And yet it was softer because it said nothing except what Americans were hearing everywhere on the street: "Drugs are the number one Public Enemy." And not one voice disputed it... at least not one voice that counted. Had Richard M. Nixon not made that announcement, would our country have gone the same way? Probably. But if it was not for television, there would have never been reason to declare a war on drugs. The electronic medium brought every fantasy and every deadly plot to the surface, never again to see the light of Ozzie and Harriet, Lucy and Ricky, Rob and Laura Petrie. And there was the innocent Mary Tyler Moore, amidst all this confusion, starring in a B-rated movie opposite George Peppard, What's So Bad About Feeling Good? And there was no answer from the general public until the World Trade Centers in New York crumbled to the ground and there amidst the debris, a president of the United States emerged wearing a construction hat, acting like an imbecile. Americans looked around and saw what outlandish world they had created. Where was the American public for three decades? They were smoking joints and watching Mary Richards making it back to television after all. They were listening to lesbians like Lily Tomlin as she ridiculed the likes of Lucy Ricardo, and Gilda Radnor as Rosanne...and Rosanne as a moppish housewife and mother living a white trailer park dream. Suddenly Americans saw Ronald Reagan standing by the wall in Berlin addressing the president of the falling Soviet Union as "Mr. Gorbechev" and telling him to tear down a wall that was slated to fall years before. Suddenly people began to see that there was not one shred of reality in the Partnership for a Drug-Free America except for what it is: a gravesite for the young lost casualties of war! A war that no one wants to notice because it has to be doing somebody some good! And then there was the sick and dying victims of AIDS that breathed new death in the face of America. America had been dying and no one even noticed! In the center of all of this, we have to wonder, what evil-minded human being could have set the healthcare industry to the gas chambers? For the answer we turn to his wife, the lovely and strong, Nancy Davis Reagan, loyal patron to Hollywood, yet ever so loyal to her husband and the Republican Party. What she did was timeless. What she said had double meaning, and now the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz finally had the brain to say "Just Say 'NO'". What we were telling America is to turn their backs. Look the other way, damn you! So the streets flooded with drug dealers, and the prisons filled with victims and the world has gone on until that day that George Walker Bush, president of the only remaining superpower, smiled at the cameras, basking in the glory of the American symbols that had been turned to dust by rampant terrorists. The wars that have followed made little sense, but they are prodding us to realize that in that zone of comfort, we have neglected to take pity on those that have been downed in our own bloodbath. Look around, America! Look at the death toll that reduced our population by a sliver. Do you still want to pick and choose who you bury? Then take up that action with those who are merely trying to save their lives by self-medicating. Look at WHY they are using drugs. But even more important: Take your face away from that mirror where you have been practicing your sermon of denial that you believe. You have no shame.	Unlike the Ages that have gone by (the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age...) there is not just one, but two distinctive technologies that define the tools that we use. One of those technologies is Electronic and the other is Chemical. We are chemical-based being that contain billions of electrically charged atoms. But even so, chemicals define us. Thus, every time that chemicals and electronics converge, the outcome could be harmonious or harmful. For example, the invention of the artificial heart is mechanical and electronic, but it intersects with the chemical component of who we are. It achieves this harmoniously. On the other hand, in 1969, what occurred as a result of television had a derogatory impact on the Chemical component and therefore, has failed to help us evolve. What the New Journalism media did was to raise a conflict with the Chemical component directly, causing the government to peel the general public away from it. Our leaders witnessed undesirable changed in human behavior that it couldn't explain except that these changes had to be due to the increase in psychoactive substance that people consumed. For example, television showed an increasing number of gay people in society and followed up with a story about increase in drug abuse. The photo-montage of drugs and gay people meant that drugs influenced the outcome (gay people) because drugs were prevalent within the gay culture. But drugs were also prevalent in the straight culture, yet we chose only to see that minorities were involved. Anytime that someone considered a WASP, there was always an excuse as to why they weren't the targets. It is important that our society discards the war on drugs because it is only leading to greater conflict and prolonging a war that is devastating every aspect of our society, much more than any drug could. Anti-drug disorder is not only real, but it can be more harmful than drug abuse, particularly when society has maintained it is acceptable behavior. In the US, drug use is not considered acceptable even though it is acceptable in the ElectroChemical Age. We have come to denounce the use of not only psycho-active drugs, but also performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids. The plain truth is that if a certain drug is available in our society and can be used to correct a medical problem that doctors and patients agree can and should be treated, then that medication should be allowed to be use with minimal or no restriction. By allowing some members of society to use a drug while barring others from using the same drug is discrimination, particularly if those being barred from its use really and truly need the drug to survive. Pain medication is available today only to the very wealthy and politically connected. Others are banned from its usage. Thus, to obtain the drug to self-medicate, they must rely on the black market and drug dealers. This greed that exists will be critical to the failure of the US to survive since it restricts the general public from being a part of the ElectroChemical Age. Already it has weakened our healthcare system, left those with chronic disorder, disabled, and imprisoning those who fail to obey laws based on greed. If the war on drugs continues for just another decade, the US will have drained itself. Drug dealers will be more powerful than physicians and the economy will slide.
Drugs are unstoppable, but not because they cause harm. They are unstoppable because they are a crucial part of the Age in which we live. The government must concede to the fact that punishing someone for using drugs is like punishing someone for breathing. Education is the key for using drugs responsibly and for eliminating drug abuse and anti-drug disorder. Zero Tolerance is national suicide... By 2015, the WOD will have ended. The question is whether the US will still remain a strong nation.
Today, we are able to see where the ElectroChemical Age is going more than we were 25 years ago. Back then, the war on drugs looked as if it had a purpose. The focus was supposed to be on protecting children. But the WOD has failed to achieve that even to a small degree. Rather, it has been the children that have taught the adults. By foregoing popular illicit street drugs and turning to inhaling household products, the children are saying that there is no stopping the ElectroChemical Age. Indeed, the US will fall before the world gives up all of its' technology, The greater the number of people that we incarcerate, the greater will be the crime on the streets because the families of the incarcerated victims need to survive. Thus, the fears of those with anti-drug disorder(ADD2) are having the greatest impact on crime rates that are rising. It's only natural for this to happen. By eliminating the war on drugs, we won't restore the US to normalcy. Ending the WOD is just the first step. There still has to be some organization.

	COPYRIGHT 2007