a new weapon in the arsenal of a repressive state

Polemic Empire

"The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years.
These nations have progressed through this sequence.
From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance,
from abundance to complacency;
from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependence,
from dependence back into bondage."
- Professor Joseph Olson

we are bringing them the plague

Mana Machina

Water water everywhere... but not

Painted Rust

"warfighter enhancement program"

a new program designed to dull the moral sensibilities of American soldiers in combat-
magic pills to chase away the horrors of war
the neuro/genetic re-engineering of soldiers' minds and bodies
to create what the Pentagon calls "iron bodied and iron willed personnel":
tireless, relentless, remorseless, unstoppable.
the "Psychological Kevlar Act,"
aimed at reducing the alarming spread of soldier suicides and post-traumatic stress disorder
heavily dosing soldiers with Propranalol, which, "if taken immediately following a traumatic event, can subdue a victim's stress response and so soften his or her perception of the memory,"
no difference between offering injured soldiers penicillin to prevent an infection
and giving a drug that prevents them from suffering from a posttraumatic stress injury for the rest of their lives.
Council on Bioethics, object to propranolol's use on the grounds that
‘it medicates away one's conscience…’
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Barry Romo, a national coordinator-
"That's the devil pill," "That's the monster pill, the anti-morality pill.
That's the pill that can make men and women do anything and think they can get away with it.
Even if it doesn't work,
what's scary is that a young soldier could believe 'it' will."