[Ilya]

Originally Posted by medaille

I really agree with Zukin about this being an important issue, because the end result is that no one takes any responsibility.

That is a great generalization. I think that most people take a lot of responsibility most of the time. Many people, however avoid taking responsibility for difficult tasks. Even that is not true. We are responsible (again - being able to response) for the most events in our lives. Sometimes our response is effective, sometimes it is not. The truly irresponsible people are those who are called "not responsive" in accidents reports. Pun is intended. That's the irony with the immature people who try to give their responsibility away. They just can't! Instead they stay responsible but their responses get much worse. Inaction is one such response. But don't confuse inaction with being irresponsible. We usually use these interchangeably, but that's obscuring what's going on.

While this is true in many areas, I think modern medicine is one of the most disgusting areas to me. There is just so much for us to know just to live a healthy lifestyle in this confusing chemical ridden world, and almost all of it lies outside mainstream knowledge (although I think the 80-20 rule plays a big part here).

I'm surprised, how people from developed countries complain about their medicine. You don't realize how good your medicine meets basic needs. Of course there are cases of invented diseases and medications being aggressively advertised as commodities. But that's beyond the business of life-saving.
If you are unhappy with modern medications, think about this. In my country you can not be sure if the pill in the bottle is genuine. It can be a placebo made of flour and sugar, it can be counterfeit pill made from some poison, because it has the same color as the real pill, it can be some outdated pill stock, that has gone bad and simply repackaged. How would you go about that?
I'm not writing this to whine about the life here. It's not as bad as it sounds, really.
But I'll use it as a case study of acting responsibly. In US you may wonder if some pill may have an adverse side effect on your health. We are talking about very small risks here. (Risk, by the way, is defined by the expected damage of something bad happening times the probability of this something bad happening). So in case of US we are talking relatively small damage, times small probability.
In developed countries in addition to whatever risks you have in the US you are facing lethal or crippling damage with a much higher probability. And suddenly you must act responsibly. Every time you choose to use medication you must weight the risk of doing it vs. the risk of not doing it.
And you control these risks. You choose the pharmacy wisely, you look at the medication packaging carefully. You actively look for trusted sources of medications, preferably the doctor you know personally. And... you don't use medications unless absolutely necessary.

I think I can remember most of the medicines I've taken during my life. And I was not a particularly healthy kid. I was diagnosed with a variety of bone cancer at the age of 2. I've had a 2 inch hole in my scull. The main cure was radiation therapy, but all medications I was fed were calcium supplements to enhance the regrowing of the damaged bones.
I almost never was given medications for flu, colds, and usual kids illnesses. All you need is some tea with honey and lemon for sweating and baking soda plus table salt plus a drop of iodine for sore throat and running nose. No Coldrex, no nothing else. Of course you stay in bed for a week instead of not staying in bed at all, but that's how our immunity system works - it needs time.
So my point is that Pareto 20% in case of medicine is - don't take anything unless absolutely necessary. If a doctor prescribes something - ask what will happen if you don't take it and decide if you can live with it. That's acting responsibly without studying in med school.

Regardless of the the topic to be debated, I think the media does a tremendous job of stifling the discussion and make a polarized debate out of what should be a more organic exchange.

This is blaming. What can you do, despite whatever the media is doing?
Controlling your life is very easy, if your life doesn't have unnecessary parts.
If you have inherited the unnecessary parts from your parents - reduce them.
If you drink pure water - you are fine. If you eat simple, natural food, you are fine. If you teach your kid how to develop regardless of what school he is in - the kid is going to be fine. It's when you start adding strange things to your life, then you are taking additional risks, because making strange things involves strange processes. Then assess these risks and make a decision.

If you are concerned with the good of other people - become your own media. Do what Steve is doing. Those who are ready to listen, will listen. Well, you are doing it already, aren't you?