Our
View: Enhancing society
Our
society seems to become more and more drug
dependent every time we check. If it's not
painkillers or sexual enhancements, it is
steroids and human growth serums.
Everything
about American health today seems to be
seeking the embodiment of perfection. All
the natural processes that are supposed
to happen in your life are considered hurdles
to be overcome and inconveniences to our
daily routines. Wrinkles, loss of a sex
drive, menopause, thinness, and fatness
can all be cured with some miracle drug
straight out of the laboratory.
Too
often though, people use these drugs before
the long-term effects can be ascertained.
The use of steroids and other enhancers
have long been known. You would think the
shrunken scrotum, acne and possible breast
formation in men would dissuade use by athletes
and lay people alike. And yet it is always
in the news, especially recently, the use
of performance enhancers is rampant.
Another
curious prescription is hormones. Women
have used hormones to combat the effects
of menopause for a while now, but even that
use is questioned. The more women use laboratory
hormones the less their body produces them.
This is similar to the long-term effects
of anti-depressant use. When your body is
given substitutes for chemicals your body
already produces, rather than raising your
body's production it reduces it, as you
become more and more dependent on the laboratory
for your happiness.
Now
men are crying lame too. Not only do women
go through menopause, but now men supposedly
are suffering from andropause as well. The
lack of sex drive, poor physique and general
lack of that youthful "je ne sais quois"
has led doctors to begin prescribing testosterone
to these middle-aged mishaps. Oh boy.
So
what are we going to start seeing? More
middle-aged men with an insatiable sexual
appetite? All the rage apparently with the
advent of drugs like Viagra and Spontan
ES aimed at the impotent and the uninterested.
More middle aged men buying outrageously
expensive sports cars to augment their newfound
strength and vigor? Where is this all leading
too exactly, and does anyone want to know?
Doctors
and pharmaceutical companies are marketing
a new American dream. Apparently we dream
to be sexually active and attractive until
the day we die, even if its only with the
help of a handful of little pills and the
doctors that tell us it is all going to
be OK.
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