Toxins and tonics
Environmental flip sides
Effects are highlighted on the inward edges of each quadrant: safety: fear; health: disease and scarcity; expression: repression; flow state: tedium.
The environmental factors are where we most easily and deeply affect one another. I like to think its mostly because we’re focused on our own paths, and not paying attention to how our decisions affect others. I like to believe that, but sometimes it’s clear that the harm is intentional.
Our butting heads isn’t an easy thing to understand or manage. There is very little we do as people that does not affect someone, somewhere as either a toxin or a tonic. A behavioral example is eye contact. In Boston, looking someone too squarely in the eye can be taken as an aggression. In Des Moines, looking someone in the eye — even if only for a few seconds — is the expectation, and the lack of it is a red flag.
Is eye contact a toxin or tonic? It depends.
A physical example is medicine. Digitalis can save someone from a heart attack in progress. Digitalis can kill someone with a healthy heart.
One person may be bullying a town to make sure that their product safely gets to market, like with the avocado farmers hiring militia in Mexico in 2021. But the people who live in the town no longer feels safe; they feel controlled, and like they are consistently living on a precipice of violence. One person’s tonic is a town’s toxin.
Kennedy, L. (2019, October 4). The Avocado War episode, Rotten. Netflix.
Sammon, A. (2024, June 11). Inside Mexico’s anti-avocado militias. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/jun/11/inside-mexico-anti-avocado-militias
Shortell, D. (2024, July 13). As cartels take a stake in ‘green gold,’ US and Mexico rethink how avocados reach American kitchens. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/13/americas/avocado-cartel-us-mexico-intl-latam
...digitalis medicine/poison...
Burchell, H. B. (1983). Digitalis poisoning: historical and forensic aspects. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 1(2 Pt 1), 506–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0735-1097(83)80080-1
Digitalis toxicity. Medlineplus.gov. Retrieved May 2, 2025, from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000165.htm
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2025). digitalis. In Encyclopedia Britannica.
...eye contact...
McCarthy A, Lee K, Itakura S, Muir DW. Cultural Display Rules Drive Eye Gaze During Thinking. J Cross Cult Psychol. 2006 Nov;37(6):717-722. doi: 10.1177/0022022106292079. PMID: 19122788; PMCID: PMC2613330.
Raeburn, A. (2018, September 12). 11 places where eye-contact is not recommended (11 places where the locals are friendly). TheTravel. https://www.thetravel.com/10-places-where-eye-contact-is-not-recommended-10-places-where-the-locals-are-friendly/