Screw chicken soup. That’s for pasty white people living in temperate climates. When I was a kid, every kid ailment from fevers to headaches was treated with Aspilet and a reassuring hug from mom. Though in my case, if my parents had the case of modern day potty-mouth, it would’ve probably been in the lines of “Take some Aspilet and shut the f*ck up!” The funny thing is, I remember it working.
I miss those days where one single remedy fixes everything. Not unlike today where you have a tablet or a pill for every sort of ailment known to man in your first aid kit. It’s like drug companies have decided to dilute Aspilet to make it less effective and synthesize other drugs from the Aspilet essence.
And what’s more worrying is that drugs have started to not work anymore. Doctors seem to resort to surgery as the first line of treatment even for the most common of ailments. You have diarrhea? Let’s slice you up and probe your colon. Acne? Oh you need a skin graft. Headache? Brain surgery.
Motoring repair isn’t that different. Back in the day, people can get their car running with a wrench and some WD-40. Cars are so complicated these days with all those electronic witchcraft of sensors and microchips that a liberal spritz of WD-40 under the engine bay would most likely destroy the engine than lubricate that one stuck bolt you need loose. Makes you wonder if even MacGyver would be able to change a tire.
Like doctors, mechanics don’t know how to do intelligent diagnosis and repair anymore. The whole process has been reduced to hacking away at old parts and replacing them with new ones. At least for doctors, only specific organs are replaced and that’s for extreme situations. For mechanics, whole systems need to be swapped out. It’s no use tightening a single loose bolt, you have to replace the whole engine. Might as well buy a new car.
The first sign something’s wrong, you have to send your car to an authorized service center where it will be “confined” for several days before you get the news that your car has a busted dome light bulb and the whole electrical system needs to be replaced. Your car then gets into the “transplant list” as it awaits for parts to be shipped from somewhere far far away. At least people just wait for a rainy day until a motorcycle-driving idiot gets wheeled into the ER.
So you see, the idea of simple is pure and pure is easy and cheap to repair is thrown out of the window for the modern driver. There’s no more point on resorting to some good old motoring Aspilet.
But what about motoring Viagra?