Okay. Let's try World Peace. May I assume that everyone is for World Peace, that World Peace, at least, is something nobody's against?
See, I'm not convinced I can make even that claim any longer. Not after what happened with Cancer.
I used to jokingly quip that if someone discovered a cure for cancer, somebody somewhere would be against it. That was supposed to sound utterly absurd. That was supposed to be an utterance whose utter absurdity would serve to draw ludicrous attention to and pointedly rebuke the swelling numbers of gainsayers in our society, the people eager to oppose or find fault with just about anything, if only to grab a turn in the spotlight.
Well, look what they've done to my song, ma.
Along comes the HPV vaccine a few years ago, and instead of universal joy over a medical breakthrough affording potentially surefire protection against cervical cancer, what do we get? Gainsayers! People against protecting women from cancer. People who feel it will make young girls promiscuous, and reckon death the more desirable alternative.
As Nancy Kerrigan once wondered, "Why? Why? Whyyyyyy ... ?" Why does idiocy have to figure so prominently in the makeup of Dodo sapiens?
I know I won't live long enough to find the world verging on World Peace; won't be around when the gainsayers start saying gain on that score. Would that I could, though. I'd like to laugh myself to death over their lunatic line of reasoning.
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What can you say of a world where we possess an untapped miracle in the probability that stem-cell research could most likely put an end to all human ailments, and yet there are so many who would prefer to turn a blind eye and simply religate it to "medical waste" - and much of the time the objection has it's basis in religion. Are we just fucking nuts??
ReplyDeleteIn a word, yes.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite oxymoron is "religious reasons." But what's with you people throwing your women into the sacrificial fire when the drug company bandwagon drives by? That vaccine hasn't been around very long. Do you love the pretty colors, the pretty packagin of the commercials on TV and in Reader's Digest? Are you seriously taken in by that? Does anybody remember the drug, DES? And how it was touted as the miracle drug for preventing miscarriages from the 1940s-1970s- didn't that turn out well? Daughters who were exposed to it in the womb are at an increased risk for cancers in the vagina and cervix, have a 2.5-fold increased chance of breast cancer after age 40 and daughters of those exposed to it before birth have the highest risk of developing clear cell cancer in their 20s and 30s. Seems somebody's study showing DES really didn't prevent miscarriages didn't get attention until 6 years after the FDA approved the drug for that use. It wasn't until 1971 before data became available showing the long-term effects of its use. The medical world has since discovered that DES can cause malformations of an embryo or fetus. Boys have their own laundry list of troubles from DES.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was approved for use as a post-coital contraceptive way back when but, religiously of course, only for rape- or incest-induced pregnancies (and we know how those victims like to reach out). Seems an odd use for the same drug originally used to prevent miscarriages, although they say dosage is key.
You still want to try this out on your own women? Me? Not so much.
Respectfully,
Queen Gran
Queen: Thanks for one of the best comments anyone's posted on my blog. Had I ever seen an equally forceful fact-based assault on the HPV vaccine I would not have composed this post in the first place. All I've ever seen or heard from the anti-vaccine crowd, though, are self-righteous "concerns" about girls going the full-blown harlot route once freed from their fears of cervical cancer. Even so, I think my premise remains valid regardless of specifics: No matter what it is, somebody somewhere will be against it, and probably vehemently.
ReplyDeleteI agree, R.J., that your premise remains valid. Seeing as how world peace might be awfully boring - I don't think The Media ever would wish for it, just for a start.
ReplyDeleteQueen Gran