Posted on 08/17/2020 8:10:26 AM PDT by EBH
My research in bioethics focuses on questions like how to induce those who are noncooperative to get on board with doing what’s best for the public good. To me, it seems the problem of coronavirus defectors could be solved by moral enhancement: like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior. Could a psychoactive pill be the solution to the pandemic?
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But I believe society may be better off, both in the short term as well as the long, by boosting not the body’s ability to fight off disease but the brain’s ability to cooperate with others. What if researchers developed and delivered a moral enhancer rather than an immunity enhancer?
Moral enhancement is the use of substances to make you more moral. The psychoactive substances act on your ability to reason about what the right thing to do is, or your ability to be empathetic or altruistic or cooperative.
For example, oxytocin, the chemical that, among other things, can induce labor or increase the bond between mother and child, may cause a person to be more empathetic and altruistic, more giving and generous. The same goes for psilocybin, the active component of “magic mushrooms.” These substances have been shown to lower aggressive behavior in those with antisocial personality disorder and to improve the ability of sociopaths to recognize emotion in others.
These substances interact directly with the psychological underpinnings of moral behavior; others that make you more rational could also help. Then, perhaps, the people who choose to go maskless or flout social distancing guidelines would better understand that everyone, including them, is better off when they contribute, and rationalize that the best thing to do is cooperate.
(Excerpt) Read more at theconversation.com ...
Can I say that perhaps they've already started doing this? I mean they clearly state they have no qualms of doing it secretly to our water?
Let's add on to this thought about all these blue city folks. A lot of them take psyche-medications. And when you are living in a high=speed, fast paced lifestyle...you might need a little mental health help. Is it possible that what we see as these crazy big blue cities is really a side-effect of an over medicated society?
If only we were made to be ants, Socialism would work!
Karen knows best.
Hey author, you expect to much. I never promised you a rose garden.
So....the solution is to take pills that make you want to wear a mask.
Did I just read that???
Now they want to drug us into compliance.
How can someone claim to be an “ethicist” — and have such a poor understanding of mortality?
Note to self: In the coming revolution, after we’ve shot all the lawyers, remember to shoot all of the ethicists.
Oh, so “moral” = “cooperative”.
Oh for the days when moral meant honest, sober, generous, and not sexually obsessed and depraved.
REad the article in full. It is horrifying!
It’s time to put the water purifiers to work.
And the image used is a handful of “right wingers” protesting. Uh...I don’t think a handful of people are the reason the virus is spreading.
Yegeny Zamyatin’s book “We” ended with everybody getting brain surgery towards the same end. It was written in 1920s Soviet Union, I recall. The author did manage to get out. The authorities seemed to think he’d be more trouble dead than released, I guess.
The book was supposed to be a horror. Though Lazmatazz would like it as carnal relations were parceled out socialist style with reserve tickets, with any body.
BIG PHARMA likes that...MORE pills. Karens and Kevins should get some anxiety pills.
Jack Kevorkian is DEAD. BILLIE & TONYA are still alive though.
Code blue: medical emergency!
Aldous Huxley already thought of that. In his book ‘Brave New World ‘, he called it “soma”.
Mortality? Or morality?
Who decides this?
Thank very much for “We” post. I haven’t read it...yet. Most interesting, Dr. Sivana.
Morality.
Sorry.
The clown has not idea of morality. Particularly if he doesn’t see how immoral it would be to force people to take brain active drugs.
Democrats.
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