It may not seem like much, but imagine what could be done with an extra dollar per day multiplied by every single man, woman and child across our great nation. The biggest fallacy in this funding storm is that we will learn something important for all of these dollars. I have personally designed and carried out research that led to important discoveries, but they languished, were never published and never was funding available to allow full-time commitment to studying the important information that had implications for health, welfare and quality of life issues that will be with us for generations. If I could have tailored my research to support the multinational drug companies, or showcased the beneficial impacts of corporate greed or deception, I might have made a career of continuing research. The problem, for me, was that in seeking truth, I ran headlong into the teeth of the corporate welfare machine. Researchers who attempt to take the high road are both scoffed at and most often never funded.
In the cases that I studied, I neglected to think through who might pay for the sort of information that I gathered. If I had done so, I would have understood that my lines of inquiry posed a threat to current beliefs and understanding that command our attention and circumscribe our imagination. Great fortunes and careers can be made if researchers tailor their lines of questioning, as well as the answers they seek to the predominant approach to "science, medicine, and health" that are currently serving the ultra-wealthy. Any attempt to redefine our concept of health, (physical, mental, emotional or spiritual) welfare, security, physical reality or our relationship with the planet will not receive the attention they deserve and those who wish to carry our research on ways to live better at lower cost are deemed subversives and their research never sees the light of day. If the rich and powerful corporate welfare recipients cannot make even more money, they will have none of the truth that comes out from even the most cursory investigation. however, if there is a proprietary "cure", a silver bullet shrouded in side-effects or a patentable device, they will pour as much money as necessary into the investigation just to "make sure" that it works.
Ideas as simple as food is medicine and medicine is food cannot find a funding source because there is no money to be made by corporados on carrots, broccoli or cabbage. The lion's share of these research dollars flow to places one might expect. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, you know them, the poster children for medical research. If those who produce the commercials can find a soft spot in our armor, they can begin their work, getting us to donate to their "cause". Frequently, we see the results of our hyper concern, but the underlying truth is covered up as surely as the causes of our maladies. The Livestrong campaign, as many know, used Lance Armstrong as their organization's "face". What better person to put on your anti-cancer campaign but a survivor of testicular cancer. Old one nut was dropped as the spokesperson for their campaign after his doping fiasco came to a head last year. Lance finally admitted that he did take both banned substances (which can be carcinogenic) as well as using blood doping to win the Tour de France repeatedly. The part that the news spent the least amount of time on, however, was the fact that the Livestrong campaign spend less than five cents of every dollar they raise on cancer research and aid to those who have the disease. The elaborate heart-string pulling ads, the cute yellow bracelets and the multi-million dollar ad campaign primarily funds the PR folks, the kickbacks to sponsors, the corporate welfare whores who are the primary culprits poisoning the world. The research that shows plainly the rise in cancers and the collateral increase in carcinogenic materials in our environment are blackballed before they ever see the light of day.
Learning to ask the right questions can take a lifetime and I certainly am not the best authority on this topic, but the trends seem to be far to clear for us to ignore. The rapidly escalating occurrence of gluten intolerance, allergies of all types and mental disorders stem from a common source, but research that threatens the status quo will never make it to the trade journals, never be "taken seriously" by the monied classes and even if we were to do the hard work of proving the fallacies of business as usual, there would never be enough political will to go against those who are the major funding sources of either the research or the political campaigns of our leaders. Even benevolent and compassionate folks who seek to improve the quality of life for others buy into the failed systems of ecological destruction, scientific mayhem and dislocation that flows from the tendrils of corporate greed machines. This is why the first green revolution failed. This is why missionaries nearly always fail. This is why unequal distribution of wealth gets increasingly worse, never allocating resources fairly, never assuring that quality of life increases are not tied to ecological destruction. The way we attack problems has not changed, so expecting outcomes to change by doing more of the same is tantamount to building castles in the sand. Basing our way of life upon lies can never lead us to a better place. Confronting truth, even when it is uncomfortable is the only way forward.
My entire health-care budget is barely a dollar per day. I buy and grow my own herbs, visit a chiropractor occasionally and do my best to avoid breathing, drinking or eating anything that causes negative health impacts. I occasionally have to look at what others put in their grocery carts, what they choose to do for a living and the activities that they deem to be "fun" and wonder why more people are not dying off more quickly. Approximately 85% of what is sold at most grocery stores is what I consider to be non-food items. Pure salt, pure sugar, (or a combination of both) processed with a long list of questionable or dangerous additives, etc. The research that we all need so desperately is not the stuff that giant corporations and institutions are willing to fund, quite the opposite, it is what they are unwilling to see, unwilling to admit and vehemently opposed to seeing. I know a handful of people who grew up near or had parents who worked at the nuclear generating stations along Lake Michigan's shore. They are all battling thyroid conditions and several have had cancers, but none of them think that the radiation had anything to do with their conditions. Research into these sorts of toxic hot spots would reveal much, but the cost to industry of this sort of truth could be their undoing. I'm sure that they would have us know that there will be none of that!
In the cases that I studied, I neglected to think through who might pay for the sort of information that I gathered. If I had done so, I would have understood that my lines of inquiry posed a threat to current beliefs and understanding that command our attention and circumscribe our imagination. Great fortunes and careers can be made if researchers tailor their lines of questioning, as well as the answers they seek to the predominant approach to "science, medicine, and health" that are currently serving the ultra-wealthy. Any attempt to redefine our concept of health, (physical, mental, emotional or spiritual) welfare, security, physical reality or our relationship with the planet will not receive the attention they deserve and those who wish to carry our research on ways to live better at lower cost are deemed subversives and their research never sees the light of day. If the rich and powerful corporate welfare recipients cannot make even more money, they will have none of the truth that comes out from even the most cursory investigation. however, if there is a proprietary "cure", a silver bullet shrouded in side-effects or a patentable device, they will pour as much money as necessary into the investigation just to "make sure" that it works.
Ideas as simple as food is medicine and medicine is food cannot find a funding source because there is no money to be made by corporados on carrots, broccoli or cabbage. The lion's share of these research dollars flow to places one might expect. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, you know them, the poster children for medical research. If those who produce the commercials can find a soft spot in our armor, they can begin their work, getting us to donate to their "cause". Frequently, we see the results of our hyper concern, but the underlying truth is covered up as surely as the causes of our maladies. The Livestrong campaign, as many know, used Lance Armstrong as their organization's "face". What better person to put on your anti-cancer campaign but a survivor of testicular cancer. Old one nut was dropped as the spokesperson for their campaign after his doping fiasco came to a head last year. Lance finally admitted that he did take both banned substances (which can be carcinogenic) as well as using blood doping to win the Tour de France repeatedly. The part that the news spent the least amount of time on, however, was the fact that the Livestrong campaign spend less than five cents of every dollar they raise on cancer research and aid to those who have the disease. The elaborate heart-string pulling ads, the cute yellow bracelets and the multi-million dollar ad campaign primarily funds the PR folks, the kickbacks to sponsors, the corporate welfare whores who are the primary culprits poisoning the world. The research that shows plainly the rise in cancers and the collateral increase in carcinogenic materials in our environment are blackballed before they ever see the light of day.
Learning to ask the right questions can take a lifetime and I certainly am not the best authority on this topic, but the trends seem to be far to clear for us to ignore. The rapidly escalating occurrence of gluten intolerance, allergies of all types and mental disorders stem from a common source, but research that threatens the status quo will never make it to the trade journals, never be "taken seriously" by the monied classes and even if we were to do the hard work of proving the fallacies of business as usual, there would never be enough political will to go against those who are the major funding sources of either the research or the political campaigns of our leaders. Even benevolent and compassionate folks who seek to improve the quality of life for others buy into the failed systems of ecological destruction, scientific mayhem and dislocation that flows from the tendrils of corporate greed machines. This is why the first green revolution failed. This is why missionaries nearly always fail. This is why unequal distribution of wealth gets increasingly worse, never allocating resources fairly, never assuring that quality of life increases are not tied to ecological destruction. The way we attack problems has not changed, so expecting outcomes to change by doing more of the same is tantamount to building castles in the sand. Basing our way of life upon lies can never lead us to a better place. Confronting truth, even when it is uncomfortable is the only way forward.
My entire health-care budget is barely a dollar per day. I buy and grow my own herbs, visit a chiropractor occasionally and do my best to avoid breathing, drinking or eating anything that causes negative health impacts. I occasionally have to look at what others put in their grocery carts, what they choose to do for a living and the activities that they deem to be "fun" and wonder why more people are not dying off more quickly. Approximately 85% of what is sold at most grocery stores is what I consider to be non-food items. Pure salt, pure sugar, (or a combination of both) processed with a long list of questionable or dangerous additives, etc. The research that we all need so desperately is not the stuff that giant corporations and institutions are willing to fund, quite the opposite, it is what they are unwilling to see, unwilling to admit and vehemently opposed to seeing. I know a handful of people who grew up near or had parents who worked at the nuclear generating stations along Lake Michigan's shore. They are all battling thyroid conditions and several have had cancers, but none of them think that the radiation had anything to do with their conditions. Research into these sorts of toxic hot spots would reveal much, but the cost to industry of this sort of truth could be their undoing. I'm sure that they would have us know that there will be none of that!
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