From: IN%"perry@piermont.com" 9-JUL-1996 07:29:49.72
get on with their lives. Maybe you would prefer to "help" them by not letting them get medication. Maybe its "unnatural". Could you explain to me, however, how you are making their lives better by not giving them their meds? I mean, what concretely is better about their lives?
Quite. Besides which, what's wrong with something being "unnatural"? If you define doing something to modify how one naturally thinks/behaves/whatever as "unnatural", then all education is unnatural, child raising is unnatural, etcetera; all these modify neural patterns in the long run. All this is more in the area of transhumanism than of cypherpunks, BTW, although I can see some _possible_ relevance. Mike Duvos writes:
Again, to return to the height analogy, doctors have to throw short parents seeking human growth hormone[...]
You miss the point. You spoke of involuntarily medicated kids. Most of the kids aren't involuntarily medicated.
I wasn't, and I won't be when I go back on it (shortly, I hope). I noticed the difference that it made (as did my teachers), and I preferred it.
The price of giving the patient (or the patient's parents) everything they want is [...] classrooms full of obedient citizen-units in Soma-induced trances.
Ritalin does not induce a zombie-like trance, as the numerous people on this mailing list who take it can tell you.
Most definitely agreed. While on it, I found myself much better able to do what _I_ ultimately wanted to do. -Allen P.S. Thank you, Perry.