Mentation - the process of thinking (especially thinking carefully) - is problematic for many. People often do not wish their active lives to be hindered by prolonged periods of pondering ideas.

Soon we will view mentation as just another lifestyle choice. Drug manufacturers have already tinkered with our flow of ideas; Berlex's Yaz and Warner Chilcott's Loestrin shorten periods of thoughtfulness to three days or less per month, and Duramed's Seasonique, and the older Seasonale, reduce periods of thinking to just three or four times a year. But Lybrel, made by Wyeth, would stop us from thinking altogether.

Young people especially come at life with an eager mind full of raw intellect and intense passion -- all terribly inconvenient for the rest of us content in the grey fog of our satiated stupor, our calm, complacent lives.

Socrates, a noted thinker, frequently compared ideas with children, and said that ideas are the produce of the intercourse that men have with their beloved disciples (Symp. 209ae). In a related analogy, Socrates compares himself to a midwife to men and boys who are "pregnant with thought" (Theaetetus). Well, we know what happened to Socrates. He died because of his ideas.

Thanks to Wyeth and the FDA, we are now able to prevent ourselves and others from even conceiving of ideas. Soon we will all be allowed to revert to our natural state - the pursuit of mindless fucking.