Pills pills pills. Advil, tylenol, viagra, zoloft, lipitor, nexium, celebrex.

Yes yes! Have a problem? pop a pill? Feeling pain? pop a pill? Feel like popping a pill? pop a pill Fixing a problem? pop a pill

Pop. A. Pill. 3 words (well two if you count A as a letter not a word, one letter words are kinda iffy) that have taken over.

People have become wussies, any pain, any problem, they pop a pill and because they are too impaitient.

Although some medicines need to be taken to stave off sickness or help save a life, which should be taken to preserve life (if you wish to), there are others that people take at any minute sign of pain. But rather than talk about our obsession with drugs for this thread, i would rather stick with the title and explain what i mean.

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is about a young man who gets put in prison for horrible crimes (rape, murder, theft) he commits at the beginning of the movie. In prison they subject him to a medicine that will "cure him of his evil". When it "cures" him he goes back out to the world and meets all those he did wrongdoings against, they wish to hurt him. When he tries to defend himself or attack them in anger (whether first or in retribution) the medicine kicks in and makes him sick to his stomach to stop him from being violent or lusty.

He may not be committing wrongdoings and instead is being good. But is that real goodness? NO. it is a product of the pill

This raises an ethical dilemma. Another film, Minority Report, used sophisticated technology and biomodified people to see into the future and see crimes. They then arrest the person and imprison them before they commit the crime. But they have done nothing, even if they were going to murder, arresting them is not going to bring true goodness, just stop evil.

In these films the quest to stop immorality results in other acts of questionable ethics.

Zoloft. A pill that alters the depressed person's state chemically. Does this solve their problems? no it just does what the Clockwork Orange doctors did, stop them from doing whatever it was they were doing.

Is this right? This does not help them solve problems naturally, which could be done with diet/excerise, physchiatry, lifestyle changes, etc.

"The fact that you prevented it from happening does stop the fact that it was going to happen"- Capt. John Anderton, Minority Report (i use this here to explain the Clockwork orange dilemma, If he had not taken the medicine he would still be out there gallivanting around commiting crimes)

Is use of mood altering pills ethical? it does not truly solve their problems, just stave them off.

Post your thoughts on ethical medicinal practices, the future of medicine, our obssession with pills, and your opinions of medical treatment here. This is a more open thread, speak your mind about the medical world, don't just limit it to a yes or no about Zoloft. Good will hunting...err...thinking :D

Originally posted by Evakian
Stanley Kubrick's
Anthony Burgess's.
A Clockwork Orange is about a young man who gets put in prison for horrible crimes (rape, murder, theft) he commits at the beginning of the movie.
Book.
Another film, Minority Report,
Short story.

Otherwise, good post.

Oh hey, I just noticed really that what is about to be said is kind of a spoiler for those who haven't read the book and/or seen the movie...




When it "cures" him he goes back out to the world and meets all those he did wrongdoings against, they wish to hurt him. When he tries to defend himself or attack them in anger (whether first or in retribution) the medicine kicks in and makes him sick to his stomach to stop him from being violent or lusty.
It's funny though, because if you read the book (or caught McDowell's smirk at the end and connected it with the jumping afterwards), you'd realize that the drugs didn't work after all...

Originally posted by Blibblob
It's funny though, because if you read the book (or caught McDowell's smirk at the end and connected it with the jumping afterwards), you'd realize that the drugs didn't work after all...[/COLOR]

Exactly the twist is what made it!!!

Indeed Borghunter, thanks for the compliment and clearing that up.
I was aware of A Clockwork Orange the book and have read the Minority Report short story.
But i was referring to the film versions of those stories, and they came to mind first that is why.

As far as the smirk- the last ten minutes or so of the movie was cut off for me :( i rented it and i guess someone damaged accidentally damaged the disk, it was a wee bit scratched up. So i missed teh smirk, that opens doors for me about the story though :) thanks for posting

If you are going to read the book "Clockwork Orange" try to get the original English edition which has one more chapter that was left out of the American edition. It goes on beyond the smirk in the movie.

If you are going to read the book "Clockwork Orange" try to get the original English edition which has one more chapter that was left out of the American edition. It goes on beyond the smirk in the movie.
I don't particularly care for the last chapter of the British version. It explains enough in the chapter before to know what happens later, you didn't really need that last one, not only that... it was corny.

This is all a matter of dealing with problems or covering up the symptoms (which is modern medicines favorite "cure").

I'm suppossed to take these pills everyday to help with my allergies. I don't. I only take them when I can't function due to snot, sneezes, itches, etc...

My reasoning is that if I take a pill everyday then my body will become reliant on that pill and my allergies will be ten times worse when I stop taking them.

In 4th grade I had just gotten glasses and hated them. I didn't really wear them the first year and my eyesight improved. Then my parents found out and ragged on me till I wore them more. Since then it was a pretty steady decline in my vision and since evened out. I think If i hadn't gotten glasses so young my body may have actually fixed my eyes more (when I was young and your body does crazy stuff like that).

==
Strange them removing the last chapter of a book for import hmmmm...I wonder what their logic was (assuming there was one of course)

how do I know if my copy has this last chapter?

I have a real old version that was my dad's printed in 1963.

was the last chapter in your book that last scene in the movie?

If you haven't seen the movie then get on it.

Originally posted by Imagineer
If you are going to read the book "Clockwork Orange" try to get the original English edition which has one more chapter that was left out of the American edition. It goes on beyond the smirk in the movie.

I have only seen the movie (and now have the DVD). I doubt I will find the English edition of the book anytime soon. What happened?

I've seen the movie and read the book, but it has been some time.....

Just tell me how the omitted last chapter begins?

A much older Alex sitting with some new young droogs in the same old Korova Milkbar making up some more rassoodocks for what to do that evening. Once again dressed in the heighth of fashion, which was now very wide trousers and a lose black shiny leather like jerkin over an open-necked shirt with a like scarf tucked in. This time it was also the heighth of fashion to use the old britva on the gulliver so that the gulliver was like bald and there was hair only on the sides. One thing was the same on the old nogas -- real horrorshow bolshy big boots for kicking litsos in.

Thank you blib.........mine does not include that one.....American copy, but still in great condition for one that is 43 years old, it's a hardcover, and the paper cover is still intact......