Friday, February 26, 2010

The Conservative Threat

Gregory Paul, a freelance researcher/artist/author in the field of paleontology since the late 1970's, has recently put out an essay on the socio-economic impact of religion, "The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions." At the end of the second page is this line:

"...the development of a middle class majority that is sufficiently financially and socially secure due to progressive secular socioeconomic policies consistently results in a serious and measurable decline in religiosity." [emphasis added.]

Ahhhh, now we can understand why the religious right in the U.S.A. opposes and attacks government regulations and social programs with such fervor (and why they hate and resent the example of western Europe).

However, he makes an epistemoligical error conflating "religion"/"going to church" with spirituality; in my experience, people who score the highest on "religiosity" are the least spiritual people. According to the science of inherited preferences, 40% of the population are SJ/Conservatives; 40% SP/Artisans; 10% NT/Rationals; and 10% NF/Idealists. The SP's and NF's together are what the Conservatives call "Liberals", with the Rationals pretty much ignored in the national debate.

The problem isn't that there are these four groups, or that each one has certain characteristic qualities; the problem is trying to force the other groups to be like you. In my personal experience, the SP's, NF's, and NT's are all open to learning about this, and accepting the need to not force the way they are on other groups or individuals. The SJ/Conservatives, however, don't seem to want to know about it; they just see the way they are as the right way to be, and they think all the problems of the world are because of lack of conservatism.

The Conservatives are high in shame but low in compassion (their lack of compassion matches the psychopaths' lack of compassion, hence the Unholy Alliance). The SP's are the mirror image of the SJ's in this regard: high on compassion, but low on shame (the Conservatives like to decry the Liberals as "shameless"). The SJ's obsession with stability and security can bring benefits to society, so they do not need to be eliminated; however, their genetic inability to feel compassion means they cannot be allowed to be in charge, at any level, in business or government.

The rest of us - who make up 60% of the population - have a right to defend ourselves against the threat that the Conservatives represent. The culture of leaving people to fend for themselves is an environment that selects for the qualities of the psychopath: ignorant, arrogant, shallow, greedy and callous. People who love that culture are evil people, and should not be treated with respect or given the benefit of the doubt.

There is no limit to the value of the scientific method. America is not magical. Reality does exist here. Everything that everyone does affects everyone else in some way to some degree; so, you are not free to do whatever you want. You are not free to be whoever you want. You are not free to believe whatever you want. The truth is good; the lie is evil.

Choose.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Schizophrenia Is A Physical Ilness

With Obvious Mental and Non-Obvious Physical Symptoms

"Listen to me, coppertop."
- Switch, to Neo, in The Matrix

The term "schizophrenia" was coined by Swiss psychiatrist
Eugen Bleuler in 1908 from Greek words meaning "split mind." This has led to the public confusion with "split personality" - now called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) - when the split Bleuler meant was a mind split from reality.

Unfortunately, the mistake is far worse than that; we now know after a century of science that so-called schizophrenia is not a "mental" illness at all, but a physical illness. The Medical Business (which markets itself as "the health care system") now says that what is inherited is a "susceptibility" to developing the disease, and that something in the environment "triggers" the illness; but without the physical illness, the alleged triggers don't have anything to trigger, so what role does the environment really play? The fact that all books on schizophrenia are in the Psychology section of bookstores and libraries only perpetuates the public's misconception.

Thanks to the pioneering work of two medical doctors who were also both Ph.D.'s - American Carl Pfeiffer and Canadian Abram Hoffer - and others, we now know that 80% of sufferers of so-called schizophrenia have inherited a combination of genes that makes then metabolize copper at either a much higher or much lower than normal rate. This unusual copper metabolism throws off brain levels of nicotinic acid (the original name of what's now called niacin/vit B3). The same number - 80% - "self-medicate" with tobacco cigarettes; wouldn't taking a niacin pill be better?

50% of so-called schizophrenics inherited a combination of genes that makes them metabolize copper at a much lower rate than normal. Thus a normal intake of copper builds up the copper level over many years (typical onset of mental symptoms 18-25 for men, 25-35 for women - estrogen seems to protect the women from the copper longer); this excess copper has a cascade of effects, including destroying zinc directly, and increasing the metabolism of various B vitamins, thereby lowering histamine (B-6 is needed to make the enzyme that converts amino acid histidine into hormone/neurotransmitter histamine, folic acid and B-12 together raise histamine). So, they need to:
1.) avoid copper like the plague
2.) take a B-50 after breakfast
3.) take at least 100mg niacin after lunch (Abram Hoffer used 1-6 grams/day; those amounts require doctor supervision)
4.) take 30mg zinc (Optizinc) after dinner (300mg magnesium recommended also)

Another 30% of so-called schizophrenics have the opposite problem: they inherited a combination of genes that makes them metabolize copper at a much higher rate than normal. This raises zinc and B vitamins, thereby raising histamine. This group must:
1.) strictly limit B vitamins (except for niacin)
2.) get copper
3.) no need to take extra zinc

Another 10% of so-called schizophrenia is caused by hypothyroidism (itself under-diagnosed and under-treated), which leaves only 10% from all other causes (physical and/or psychological).

What if cancer patients were told they have a "little understood mental illness", and prescribed psych-meds, which they have to take to get government benefits, but which don't help the actual problem, and which do have severe negative "side effects" (aka "effects") incl. weight gain (40-50 pounds) and dysfunction of glucose metabolism causing type 2 diabetes, and then when the cancer patients have high rates of non-compliance, the only response from the Medical Business is to repeat "It's very important to take your meds." Wouldn't that be EVIL?

Q: Then why isn't it EVIL to do that to the most vulnerable people in our society - sufferers of so-called schizophrenia (because the mental effects of their physical illness makes them unable to defend themselves against the Medical Business' predation)?
A: It IS, you sick Evil fucks.