A Powerful Culture of Denial

.... that we have literally sunk into, during the last century, coupled with an even more powerful CONFLICT OF INTEREST, makes awareness difficult. Conflict of interest is the most contagious and virulent disease that we are suffering from. What has happened to the tobacco industry, needs to happen to the pharmaceutical, chemical, petroleum and power industries as well. Cigarette manufacturers have, for decades, denied that there is any danger in smoking. We, the people that smoked, denied that there could be anything wrong with it. Even today, when cigarette companies are paying out billions in compensation, these companies are denying that they are putting dangerous and addictive ingredients into their products. They probably feel that they are quite safe now - after all, we have been warned! Every packet carries dire warnings -if we are still foolish enough to use them, at least now we can't blame the manufacturer! So the denial continues.

An interesting story was told to me recently. A young couple, smokers, found that they were regularly complaining about stomach aches. Someone suggested that they stop smoking Australian made cigarettes. When they did, soon, the aches went away. However, imported brands, particularly from Europe, are not available everywhere. Soon, they were forced to buy their old brand again - you know how 'desperate' a smoker can get - well, the aches came back the same day. They have smoked the imported brand ever since and the aches did not come back.

The same day I was told this story, I heard a report on the radio, about caffeine in all the soft drinks on the market. It was questioned as to why is there so much and in fact any caffeine in soft drinks? The answer from the industry, was 'taste'! It tastes better. In an experiment, they tried the same drinks with and without caffeine. 'Expert' drinkers could not detect any difference. The obvious conclusion drawn was that the caffeine is not added to enhance the taste but to give the customers an extra 'lift', a high, if you like from the caffeine and to make sure you keep coming back for the same brand - in other words, to make you an addict.

Back to denial. Obviously, for the tobacco companies, as for the pharmaceutical and chemical companies, to admit that their products 'may' be harmful, would be a conflict of interest. So the denial continues. Until we all stop listening to them, until we stop believing them, until we stop living in fear of them. Until we also stop denying.

Take the conflict of interest and denial regarding x-rays: