τοξικὸν ϕάρμακον

The English word toxin comes from Latin toxicum which in turn comes from Greek τοξικὸν ϕάρμακον (toxikon pharmakon) which means a poison for smearing on arrows. τοξικὸν in the original sense means "of or pertaining to the bow".

When people think of toxins, they almost always think of material compounds consisting of chemical substances which are poisonous to living organisms.

But that conception of toxic is too narrow. A toxin should rightly be considered anything that is inducing of harm to an organism: Any metaphorical arrow with which a living organism can be shot and which results in physiological injury. When considering the suitability of any object or environment for living organisms, such consideration must extend not just to chemical agents, but to all aspects of such object or environment that can physiologically impact the organism.

To take into consideration the suitableness of an object or environment for living beings without this broader and correct understanding of toxin is a false view. When such a false view underlies any determination of the suitability of environments for living beings it will result in harm.

Sound itself can be a toxin. Sound is acoustic energy, and acoustic energy can be toxic to living beings. It can result in discernible and potentially serious or grave injury to organisms.

Even a level of environmental noise which scares an organism such as a bird sufficiently to cause it to flee its home environment may be enough to initiate a stressful process that can eventually lead to the death of the organism.

Being forced to flee its environment due to severe environmental stressors is a serious event in the life of an organism. The fact that human beings may be oblivious or indifferent to such severe stresses does not diminish their impact and severity.

Unfortunately, many if not most public officials who claim to be concerned with the well-being of living beings have a false view of toxicity and the result is that many environments they are responsible for protecting are harmful to life.

Humans and other organisms live in environments which are filled with toxic arrows consisting of harmful acoustic energy in the form of noise. Such a condition should not be considered acceptable nor satisfactory, yet sadly it’s often easier for incompetent or corrupt people in positions of authority to ignore it.

Just as no person would consider it reasonable to live in an environment that contains toxic chemicals, neither should living in an environment that contains toxic acoustic energy be considered reasonable. Toxic acoustic energy, oddly enough, is actually much easier to detect than toxic chemicals. It can be objectively determined with fairly basic measuring equipment. Yet that fact does not make it more clear cut to befuddled and incompetent legal authorities who fail to acknowledge its toxicity and harm to organisms.

Interestingly, in ancient times – back when the phrase τοξικὸν ϕάρμακον was actually employed and understood in everyday use – a measure of the honor and integrity of a ruler was how well those who ventured through the ruler’s lands were treated. It was considered the highest point of honor to a noble ruler when any traveler could pass through the ruler’s lands without coming to harm. The safety and well-being of all those in the land – especially visitors and travelers – was one of the highest points of honor to noble leaders in ancient times.

Sadly, that level of honor and integrity is utterly lacking in this sick society that is administered by ignoble, ignorant, and often corrupt officials. Thus, we live in a time when our living environments are filled with toxic acoustic arrows incessantly being shot at living beings, while evil dumbfuck and corrupt public officials don’t do shit about it.

These same evil, sick, often corrupt dumbfucks are often the first to pontificate to the rest of us about good and evil, about virtue and degeneracy, even while they preside over literal toxic death zones which are damaging to life.

The correct conclusion is that these people are evil and that this society has failed. Any regime which allows harm to those in its lands, which enables evil, corrupt, incompetent dumbfucks to occupy positions of public authority where they are able to neglect the well-being of others, is a de facto failure.