Food Pills and the American Dream

You either understand why the idea of "food pills" strikes me with violent resistance, or not. It's the worst concept the progreNot only food pills were ballyhooed in the United States of America, but certain other promises were made. And the nature of those promises tells a story.

Oddly, it all peaked in the '60s. People who aren't from that era may think the violent reaction against such mechanization was overwrought. I suggest they should re-think the situation.

We were also promised new drugs that would banish sleep; and flying cars, which would presumably transport us from point A to point B without having to bother with the world outside our futuristic capsule at all. In the end, right about when they realized they had been "outed," they were even proposing reproduction without touching.

A curious quest indeed; to lower human consciousness to the level of the present-day machinery, rather than the different, later proposals to do the opposite, and improve the consciousness of machines.

Although America ultimately expressed its rejection of the poisonous tenets of blatant dehumanization, for a brief time this philosophy openly took root in the USA and Britain and lingered through the postwar and cold war periods. And it is assuredly not dead yet.

To lose the experiences of flavor, and dreams, and touch. To gain "efficiency." No wonder people like C.S.Lewis freaked out.

The food pill is not a uniquely American proposal. But assuredly the meme survives here. And there.