'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell

Re:'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell by travisoneill1 on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @05:39PM (#20159769)

> If a drug like Soma existed (yes there is a drug called Soma now, but I mean a substance that acts as the one in Huxleys book does) it would be aggressively and hatefully prohibited.

It's called Xanax and it's handed out like candy

> The wholesale cost in the United States is less than US$0.03 per dose as of 2018.[15] In 2016, it was the 19th most prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 27 million prescriptions.[16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alprazolam

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Re:'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell by Trilkhai on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @12:52AM (#20161871)

Soma in BNW is described in a way that matches a combination of opiates and hallucinogens -- it artificially elevates mood, makes everything seem wonderful and pleasantly exciting, causes sensory hallucinations similar to synaesthesia, and so forth. That's a whole world away from Xanax, which merely controls anxiety & nausea with a side-effect of feeling sedated.

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Re:'1984' at Seventy: Why We Still Read Orwell by dfrage on Wednesday June 12, 2019 @10:00AM (#20164692)

And Soma wouldn't be useful in pacifying a population if it induced tolerance in a few weeks like Xanax and the other GABA influencing drugs do.

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