Pills

Some time ago, I went to collect a prescription for someone and while I was waiting, I looked around the chemist and happened to notice the vast array of medication, especially all the different tablets and pills. There were all kinds of pills for headaches, painkillers of various sorts, pills to keep you awake, to make you sleep, pills for hay fever, asthma and medications for all different kinds of goodness knows what. Indeed, it struck me that people, not just in Britain but globally, seem to take pills for anything and everything in order to get through the day and the night. In such an age it is hardly surprising that washing machines and dishwashers also need tablets to function on a daily basis.

I began to wonder when pills were invented as they seem to be in every aspect of human life. According to the Los Angeles Times, pills have been around since 1500BC and were first found in Ancient Egypt. Prior to this, medications were mostly crushed seeds, plant resins and leaves which were then dissolved in beer. The Romans used to coat their pills in gold or silver which meant these pills went through the human digestive system without releasing any of their medicinal goodness. A bit like a Salt Bea Steak perhaps and maybe just as expensive.

The Roman scholar Pliny (23-79 AD) wrote about pilule which is where the word pill is derived from. Pills in the modern sense were only really created in 1843 by the British inventor William Brockedon, who patented a machine which was capable of compressing powder in to the pill form which we see and use today. As technology improved the pill making machines became more complex and are now able to make tablets of any shape, size or colour by the million. Pills also need to be strong enough to survive the process of pill making and soft enough for the stomach to digest, which is no easy feat.

pills - a selection

The top ten most common used or prescribed pills in Britain today include paracetamol, statins, aspirin, propranolol and codeine. Pills are being prescribed and used by increasing numbers of people in Britain not including the NHS spending, leading to £9.1 billion on prescription pills and over a billion prescriptions being issued in 2018. These figures are likely to be even higher as humanity stumbles through the post Covid era.

It would seem that, to paraphrase Noel Gallagher of Oasis fame, taking pills is as normal as having a cup of tea and this looks like it will not change any time soon. Indeed, pills play a part in popular culture in films such as 'The Matrix ' starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburn. In essence, 'The Matrix ' is a film about a dystopian simulated reality where humans are unknowingly imprisoned and their bodies used as a bioelectric energy source by and for intelligent machines. 'The Matrix ' has a scene where a freed human, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburn) offers the hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) a choice between taking a red pill or a blue pill. If Neo takes the blue pill, he ends up back in the Matrix and living his unknowing life as a bioelectric power source. If he takes the red pill, he stays in the “Wonderland ” of reality and Morpheus will show him how “deep the rabbit hole goes. ”

red pill or blue pill - still from The Matrix, 1999

The concept of taking a red pill or a blue pill has now spilled over into the “culture wars” of America where “taking the red pill” or being “red pilled” meant people could see the political biases in society including the mainstream media thereby becoming independent in thought. Conversely, “taking the blue pill” or being “blue pilled” means accepting without argument the current unreal biased situation.

It just so happens that in America the colour of the Republican party is red and the colour of the Democrat party is blue. There are no points for guessing how being “red pilled” or “blue pilled” plays out at election time and in the culture wars there.

Perhaps one day there will be a pill that allows or enables people to see “the truth” and everyone can live in peace and harmony. Or would this be a gold cage rather than a steel cage and humanity would still be imprisoned? Maybe it depends on who makes the pills and what their motives are. Or maybe we should just open our eyes and seek the “truth” for ourselves.

Pills

Red or blue, it’s up to you,
which one to take, which one
is fake, will shake you awake
or will keep you from looking
around, hold you wrapped in
the cold clutch of dystopian
dread, where all is fine, having
a good time, unknowing,
uncaring, no idea how to be
daring, to seek new vistas, what
new life you can have, can
achieve rather than be deceived,
wallowing in ignorance, dissonance,
just listening to the same old,
same old, blissfully unaware
of what’s really out there.
Red or blue, it’s up to you.

                                        DM, 2023

Thanks for reading, Dermot