I have a 10yr history with a bad upper back that likes to pay me a visit from time to time. The last few weeks it's gone to another level. I wake up every morning at around 5am gritting my teeth in pain. On a side note I am seeing a specialist on the 26th which will hopefully help matters. I could not help but notice the parallels of pain tolerance and tolerance of unjust activities in our lives. For a week, waking up with this excruciating pain I was close to tears. Fortunately after I am sitting upright for an hour or so the pain leaves me. Now that I've dealt with this for a couple of weeks I no longer wake up gritting my teeth and fighting back tears of pain and frustration, I simply get up and go into the lounge where I sit up and wait for the paIn to leave. In some cases I have to drug myself with diazepam and codeine to relax the muscles and quieten the pain signals. Ultimately I am adapting and learning to live with the pain. Each day becomes more normal than the last, and it's just the way it is so I carry on. Today I realized there is a correlation of physical pain tolerance and how we learn to tolerate other negative events in our lives. This same psychological trait applies itself to all of our daily lives. For the majority we learn to accept politicians out for themselves and not the people, corporations ruling supreme, animal cruelty or atrocities of war and famine. Each day becomes more normal than the last. Our tolerance level rises and we become desensitized, after all what can we do about it? We now exist in a mode of learning to tolerate the cesspool surrounding us. Instead of dosing up diazepam or codeine to ease the pain we dose up on 300 TV channels, fast food, anti-depressants, video games, sport, the next amazing cellphone or gadget. How long can it continue? Is there any end to our level of tolerance and are the powers that be counting on that tolerance to further their agenda even more? It seems Humans are designed to adapt and in a physical sense this is beneficial, however in day to day life it could be our undoing. I have huge respect for those out there who feel the pain in this world and face it rather than tolerate it. What do you guys think?