Manipulation as medicine

We selected the best moments, the smiles, the achievements. We frame selectively. What a refreshing...

Medicines are becoming more and more sophisticated. The first medicines were extracted from the blood of animals and leaves, so man could draw on the walls with stones and bones, a way of expressing himself.

Afterwards, man improved pharmacology. They began to store, in addition to hunting and gathering, "hoarded" for medicinal purposes. Wheat tamed men, so they were numb with the comfort of a sedentary lifestyle.

Then they reserved women for a group. They created rules for the crowd, wrote and rewrote them. Defeats, apogee and decline and, with that, they used overcoming and revenge as a medicine.

In history, they built the idea of the warrior man. They created values and personified them so that they literally took risks to defend a group. Notably adrenaline appears as a medicine.

Many say that Humphry Davy discovered the anesthetic effects of nitrous oxide, disregarding prehistoric acquisitions, much less modern and contemporary hallucinogens.

This time radio and television arrived with great force. They treated several people (instead of them being trapped in existential questions), they collaborated to escape reality, boredom and anguish.

They overlapped Opium and Morphine in the 19th century. They brought a colorful one, they taught us how a happy family should be, what to believe, what to buy and what to think.

Today, the great medicine is Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram. In these places we can be what we never were, who we are not and what – very likely – we will not be.

We cut, crop, add colors, adjust brightness, select the best moments, smiles, achievements... We selectively frame.

What a refreshment!

Jorge Gomes.

Pedagogue.