HEALTH: The Town of Allopath (ESSAY)

[Guest guest]

The Town of Allopath

 

There once was a town called Allopath. It had many people, streets and

cars, but due to budget limitations, there were no stop signs or traffic

lights anywhere in Allopath.

 

Not surprisingly, traffic accidents were common. Cars would crash into

each other at nearly every intersection. But business was booming for

the auto repair shops and local hospitals, which dominated the economy

of Allopath.

 

As the population of Allopath grew, traffic accidents increased to an

alarming level. Out of desperation, the city council hired Doctor West,

a doctor of the Motor Division (M.D.) to find a solution.

 

Dr. West spent days examining traffic accidents. He carried an

assortment of technical gear -- microscopes, chemical analysis

equipment, lab gear -- and put them all to work as part of his

investigation. The townspeople of Allopath watched on with great

curiosity while Dr. West went about his work, meticulously documenting

and analyzing each traffic accident, and they awaited his final report

with great interest.

 

After weeks of investigation, Dr. West called the people of Allopath to

a town meeting for the release of his report. There, in front of the

city council and most of the residents of Allopath, he announced his

findings: " Traffic accidents are caused by skid marks. "

 

As Dr. West explained, he found and documented a near-100% correlation

between traffic accidents and skid marks. " Wherever we find these cars

colliding, " he explained, " we also find these skid marks. "

 

The town had " Skid Marks Disease, " the doctor explained, and the answer

to the town's epidemic of traffic accidents would, " ...require nothing

more than treating Skid Marks Disease by making the streets skid-proof, "

Dr. West exclaimed, to great applause from the townspeople.

 

The city paid Dr. West his consulting fee, then asked the good doctor to

propose a method for treating this Skid Marks Disease. As chance would

have it, Dr. West had recently been on a trip to Hawaii paid for by a

chemical company that manufactured roadaceuticals: special chemicals

used to treat roads for situations just like this one. He recommended a

particular chemical coating to the city council: teflon.

 

" We can treat this Skid Marks Disease by coating the roads with teflon, "

Dr. West explained. " The streets will then be skid-proof, and all the

traffic accidents will cease! " He went on to describe the physical

properties of teflon and how its near-frictionless coating would deter

nearly all vehicle skids.

 

The city council heartily agreed with Dr. West, and they issued new

public bonds to raise the money required to buy enough teflon to coat

all the city's streets. Within weeks, the streets were completely

coated, and the skid marks all but disappeared.

 

The city council paid Dr. West another consulting fee and thanked him

for his expertise. The problem of traffic accidents in Allopath was

solved, they thought. Although the cure was expensive, they were

convinced it was worth it.

 

But things weren't well in Allopath. Traffic accidents quadrupled.

Hospital beds were overflowing with injured residents. Auto repair

businesses were booming so much that most of the city council members

decided to either open their own car repair shops or invest in existing

ones.

 

Week after week, more and more residents of Allopath were injured, and

their cars were repeatedly damaged. Money piled into the pockets of the

car repair shops, hospitals, tow truck companies and car parts retailers.

 

The town economic advisor, observing this sharp increase in economic

activity, announced that Allopath was booming. Its economy was healthier

than ever, and Allopath could look forward to a great year of economic

prosperity!

 

There were jobs to be had at the car repair shops. There were more

nurses needed at the hospital. " Help wanted " signs appeared all over

town at the paramedic station, the tow truck shops, and the auto glass

businesses. Unemployment dropped to near zero.

 

But the traffic accidents continued to increase. And yet there were no

skid marks.

 

The city council was baffled. They thought they had solved this problem.

Skid Marks Disease had been eradicated by the teflon treatment. Why were

traffic accidents still happening?

 

They called a town meeting to discuss the problem, and following a short

discussion of the problem, an old hermit, who lived in the forest just

outside of Allopath, addressed the townspeople. " There is no such thing

as Skid Marks Disease, " he explained. " This disease was invented by the

roadaceuticals company to sell you teflon coatings. "

 

The townspeople were horrified to hear such a statement. They knew Skid

Marks Disease existed. The doctor had told them so. How could this

hermit, who had no Motor Division (M.D.) degree, dare tell them

otherwise? How could he question their collective town wisdom in such a way?

 

" This is a simple problem, " the hermit continued. " All we need to do is

build stop signs and traffic lights. Then the traffic accidents will cease. "

 

Without pause, one city council member remarked, " But how can we afford

stop signs? We've spent all our money on teflon treatments! "

 

The townspeople agreed. They had no money to buy stop signs.

 

Another council member added, " And how can we stop anyway? The streets

are all coated with teflon. If we build stop signs, we'll waste all the

money we've spent on teflon! "

 

The townspeople agreed, again. What use were stop signs if they couldn't

stop their cars anyway?

 

The hermit replied, " But the stop signs will eliminate the need for

teflon. People will be able to stop their cars, and accidents will

cease. The solution is simple. "

 

But what might happen if stop signs actually worked, the townspeople

wondered. How would it affect the booming economy of Allopath? Realizing

the consequences, a burly old man who owned a local repair shop jumped

to his feet and said, " If we build these stop signs, and traffic

accidents go down, I'll have to fire most of my workers! "

 

It was at that moment that most of the townspeople realized there own

jobs were at stake. If stop signs were built, nearly everyone would be

unemployed. They all had jobs in emergency response services, car repair

shops, hospitals and teflon coating maintenance. Some were now sales

representatives of the roadaceuticals company. Others were importers of

glass, tires, steel and other parts for cars. A few clever people were

making a fortune selling wheelchairs and crutches to accident victims.

 

One enterprising young gentleman started a scientific journal that

published research papers describing all the different kind of Skid

Marks Diseases that had been observed and documented. Another person, a

fitness enthusiast, organized an annual run to raise funds to find the

cure for Skid Marks Disease. It was a popular event, and all the

townspeople participated as best they could: jogging, walking, or just

pushing themselves along in their wheelchairs.

 

One way or another, nearly everyone in Allopath was economically tied to

Skid Marks Disease.

 

Out of fear of losing this economic prosperity, the townspeople voted to

create a new public safety agency: the Frequent Drivers Association

(FDA). This FDA would be responsible for approving or rejecting all

signage, technology and chemical coatings related to the town's roads.

 

The FDA's board members were chosen from among the business leaders of

the community: the owner of the car shop, the owner of the ambulance

company, and of course, Dr. West.

 

Soon after its inception, the FDA announced that Skid Marks Disease was,

indeed, very real, as it had been carefully documented by a doctor and

recently published in the town Skid Marks Disease journal. Since there

were no studies whatsoever showing stop signs to be effective for

reducing traffic accidents, the FDA announced that stop signs were to be

outlawed, and that any person attempting to sell stop signs would be

charged with fraud and locked up in the town jail.

 

This pleased the townspeople of Allopath. With the FDA, they knew their

jobs were safe. They could go on living their lives of economic

prosperity, with secure jobs, knowing that the FDA would outlaw any

attempt to take away their livelihood. They still had a lot of traffic

accidents, but at least their jobs were secure.

 

And so life continued in Allopath. For a short while, at least. As

traffic accidents continued at a devastating rate, more and more

residents of Allopath were injured or killed. Many were left bed-ridden,

unable to work, due to their injuries.

 

In time, the population dwindled. The once-booming town of Allopath

eventually became little more than a ghost town. The hospital closed its

doors, the FDA was disbanded, and the Skid Marks Disease journal stopped

printing.

 

The few residents remaining eventually realized nothing good had come of

Skid Marks Disease, the teflon coatings and the FDA. No one was any

better off, as all the town's money had been spent on the disease: the

teflon coatings, car parts and emergency services. No one was any

healthier, or happier, or longer-lived. Most, in fact, had lost their

entire families to Skid Marks Disease.

 

And the hermit? He continued to live just outside of town, at the end of

a winding country road, where he lived a simple life with no cars, no

roads, no teflon coatings and no FDA.

 

He outlived every single resident of Allopath. He gardened, took long

walks through the forest, and gathered roots, leaves and berries to feed

himself. In his spare time, he constructed stop signs, waiting for the

next population to come along, and hoping they might listen to an old

hermit with a crazy idea:

 

....that prevention is the answer, not the treatment of symptoms.

 

*

 

This fable was authored by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. You may

reprint or repost, as long as appropriate credit is given to Mike Adams

at www.NewsTarget.com

 

***

[Guest guest]

It is a few days ago since someone posted

Mike the Health Ranger's essay. This was sitting in

my draft file.

 

Hilarious, thanks!

 

Missed it at Mike's.

Health Ranger is a fave place of mine,

partly because he loves Amazon Herbs.

 

Here is an idea for an essay in like spirit

that I had been working on.

 

The AMA and its international counterparts had

their origins as trade unions.

I believe Jon Barron has the story on his website

http://jonbarron.org

 

That got me thinking.

 

Imagine....

 

An alternate history of the internal combustion

age.

 

The powerful Teamsters Union has managed to

garner a monopoly on transportation.

 

All transportation is provided by highly

trained and well-paid professional drivers.

 

Private cars never made it to the open market.

Your choice is a public bus or a taxi.

 

Bicycles are strongly discouraged, since they

interfere with the making of money by the union.

 

Every now and then someone has the idea

that we should be allowed to own cars

as individuals.

 

The union responds with dire warnings

about the dangers. Imagine the carnage

on the road if just every Tom, Dick and

Mary were allowed to drive!

(they have a point)

It is bad enough we have those pesky

bicycles to put up with.

 

Whenever a cyclist is involved in an accident,

the cyclist inevitably gets the blame for being

in the same place as the car.

(The knee-jerk reaction to herb/drug interaction

is always to remove the herb)

 

The accident is also written up and publicized

widely, to serve as a warning for those fool-hardy

idiots who want to take their transportation

into their own hands.

 

Are we getting the picture?

How come we all put up with it?

 

Ien in the Kootenays*************************"Never mind what the book says.God gave you a brain."~A.T. Still, founder of Osteopathyhttp://freegreenliving.com

**************************