The Herbalist's Conundrum ~ Dichotomies, bifurcations, and polarizations of our world

Having practiced herbalism for 15 years I have always been aware of dichotomies in regards to overall perceptions of reality and the polarization that ultimately ensues. What I mean is, people all the time ask me, “Do you go to the doctor?” in which I reply, “Well, yes I do”.

Why is it either or? Why do many see the world as black or white? Why would I, as an herbalist be against the idea of ‘going to the doctor?” Is it conditioning? Is it human nature? The answer is clearly I am not, but lets dig down a bit, shall we?

In this crazy world we live in, with mass media messaging and corporate take over of our health, food, money, etc, it clearly makes sense for corporate interests to polarize the masses. Divide and conquer, right? Since the dawn of modern medicine in 1913 or so, with the Flexner report began the vilification of homeopathy and plant medicine (in which many of our medicines are procured I might add). In order for these monied interests to come into the market of ‘medicine’ they needed an enemy to bolster compliance since most people opted for the more natural approaches. Messaging vilifying natural medicine helped their cause and it became an either or scenario: either you take our petro-chemical medicine or you are a loon. Messaging is POWERFUL. And so began the dismantling the old and into the new. This of course made people more dependent upon these medications and created generations of people who put doctors on pedestals and weakened the power of the individual. Isn’t this the corporate way? Isn’t this what Bill Gates does all over the world? One example comes to mind…. in Africa. Gates had the idea of making chickens ‘bigger and better’ for the African people (giving them no opinion I’m sure) and decided to ‘give’ them all these amazing hybridized chickens, which made these African villages dependent upon certain food and vaccines for the chickens. Bigger and better right? Safe and effective, right? Subsequently, bird flu became a problem. Sound familiar? Our increasing dependence upon mono-crops with their pesticides, vaccines with their clear toxic affects, genetically modifying etc etc. All these things do, in the name of producing more for the masses, is make us dependent upon these ‘bigger and better’ products.

I say all this because the indoctrination around modern living is insidious. The idea that people think nutrition and herbs do not contribute to a healthy lifestyle are only furthering this polarization of ideas. Just because I am an herbalist doesn’t mean I am anti-doctor. I am PRO HEALTH. And many people GET to health by dumping their doctors advice. I JUST had a conversation about heart disease and doctors saying to drop the fat and red meat because that contributes to heart disease. Umm….no. I mean really. And I also JUST saw a post on social media about how 100 grams of red kidney beans has the same amount of protein as red meat. WHAT?! Ummmm, no. And people kept commenting on all that fat and horrible-ness of red meat. (why are we vilifying red meat!?) Beans and red meat are not at all similar in their protein content. To me this is just another attempt to indoctrinate the masses to stop eating meat, and reduce their health more. (Gates probably wants to buy all these beef ranches and make a GMO soy farm for his ‘better’ burgers ) I am no vegan, but have many lovely vegan friends. Any good vegan supplements their diet with protein and B12, otherwise, they don’t get enough. End of story. But I digress. I don’t want to get into a vegan/non vegan debate as it can get ugly (yes, I am a murderer). Do what you want, but please don’t share information about comparisons to animal protein and protein from plants. (and as an aside, I am an herbalist AND I eat meat! Can you believe it!?) So the conundrum comes down to this: why must we polarize topics? Why, as an herbalist, can’t I in many people’s eyes not go to the doctor all the time for every little thing, and NOT be anti-doctor? Well, I don’t go often (except for Paps and if something comes up) because I don’t need to. Some run to the doctor for a sniffle. A cold. The flu. An ache or a pain. I find this a bit sad really that people don’t know what to do to take care of themselves nor do they know what it is TO take care of themselves. We have a society full of dependent people on the system. Our food system. Our health care system. Our governmental system (backed by their corporate sponsors). I have no doubt that my path on this earth is to help people become less dependent, and I will damn sure do it too! Now here’s a pretty picture of food. Eat this stuff daily and reduce your dependence on the system. Grow this stuff (or find someone who does) and reduce your dependence even more. And don’t forget to talk to your local herbalist about what you can do to balance out your body and maintain your health.