We live in a world in which projected events are highly controlled by the corporate lobby and the Washington cabal so as to elicit a planned response from the people-at-large. The more tuned-in each one of us is to this unfolding course of events (or should I say, the more highly programmed our collective mind is), the more predictable each of our reactions become to these planned events. Of course, on these predictable reactions are what the power brokers have bet their bottom dollars, and these reactions give rise to the proposed "solutions".
Its been awhile since I've taken a look at current events and put forth my two cents within this forum. I for one, have taken a step back and put away the soapbox, to simply live my life as an objective observer to this unfolding set of recent events. However, by using Hegel's dialectic model, we can take apart much of what's been happening here and around the world.
Healthcare, for instance, has been the number one hot button issue lately. The problem = the medical establishment is slowly crumbling under the weight of its own inefficiency, unsustainability, and false promises of immortality/freedom from pain. The reaction = public outcry for healthcare reform. In truth, the government would in turn react to this situation by stealing from Peter to pay Paul, and to simply rearrange the deck chairs on this sinking ship. The system is sick and those who depend upon it for answers remain sick.
Not only does the solution to this outcry offer no real promises, but the power brokers seek to use this set of events to justify their stealing of resources from the people on an increasingly massive scale to pay for more "healthcare". Its not unlike the way they steal from us to pay for the nukes we've never needed. I place this term in quotes, because "healthcare," as a commodity to be bought and sold, as a product and service designed to redistribute the collective fruits of our labor into the hands of the few and powerful, is neither healthy, nor caring. "Healthcare" is a moniker given to what can only be described as a weapon which comes in the form of a beneficial service, a privilege for those with the means, or worse yet, a basic human right. But when this weapon is at risk of exposing itself for what it is, we begin to see a factionalization take hold.
Those who have stake in the "healthcare" system and stand to benefit most from its redistribution of wealth (the so-called "skim"), which is the main force of this weapon's attack, fear any change to the current system. It is indeed the fear of death and threat of losing the comfortable life to which these stakeholders have become accustomed! Meanwhile, those who respond favorably to the government's agenda for change are those who currently have comparatively little to nothing in the way of material wealth, but believe wholeheartedly in the promise of a better future brought to you by a "fixed" healthcare system (fixed, indeed). But what both factions have in common, the one factor that brings them to the brink of ideological warfare, is fear.
Any system that disguises itself as "healthcare", while feeding off of the fear, apprehension, and physiological dis-ease of its consumers, bases itself on false promises, guile, and deceit. The fact is that the "healthcare" system in our society is an abomination and founded upon the false cures not unlike those of the snake-oil and panacea salesmen of a time since past. We all know diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are the chief liabilities of "healthcare", while at the same time, their existence in epidemic proportions serve as "healthcare's" raison d'etre. "Healthcare" would seek to cozy up with the corporate pill peddlers to come up with a quick-and-easy cure-all to fix your problem, charge you some of the most egregiously marked-up rates in the history of the retail market, while purposely and surreptitiously ignoring the lifestyle choices and pathological default behaviors that contribute to our collective dis-ease (and rapidly expanding waistlines). Anyway, this is just a case in point, folks.
In reality, cost containment, efficiency, and process improvement are obtained by removing or abandoning the processes that simply don't work. I need not go into the facts and figures pertaining to the current system's egregious wastefulness, byzantine bureaucratic functions, bloated marketing budgets, princely executive compensation packages, unscrupulous benefit determination guidelines, and other forms of wasteful overhead and wheel reinvention. As a people, we do have freedoms and one of those is to opt-out of this soul-sucking system of greed and false hope. You may actually do better to pay out of pocket and work out a sliding scale payment arrangement with your provider; god forbid you encounter a real health catastrophe which breaks your bank, but if that were to happen, maybe you could write a letter to one of the CEOs of the "healthcare" racket and get him/her to cut you a personal check to cover the bill. Bill McGuire's (embattled ex-CEO of UHG) golden parachute alone could pay for more than ONE MILLION quadruple bypass surgeries. This figure is somewhat approximate, of course, because we still don't know the exact cost of this procedure due to the opaque fee structure of this and every other medical procedure in our managed-care dominated "healthcare" system. In a healthy, caring, system of healthcare, not only would the cost of services be transparent and commensurate with the value of said service, certain procedures like coronary and gastric bypass surgeries would never need to happen ... obesity and coronary artery disease is relatively unheard of in developing nations with plant-based diets. Thanks, McDonalds! Thanks, Tysons! Thanks, Hillshire Farms! Thank you, America!!
Real healthcare (and I now drop the quotes) is obtained by living cleanly, freely, and at one with the earth. It comes from knowing who we are, what we do, and what we put into our bodies. Most importantly, it is for us to abandon the fear that keeps us tuned-in to this unfolding course of events and trapped within the problem-reaction-solution paradigm. Leaving the system behind and emerging from the ashes comes with being aware and seeking the truth!
Of course, there is a slew of ways to productively address this issue in a way that benefits all of us, and that is a subject for ongoing discussion. What is important, though, is to understand the root of a highly complex set of problems, keeping a wider perspective of the larger, often invisible issues at hand, and responding to them intelligently and objectively. What is unfortunate is that most of America finds itself reacting, focusing on the non-issues, and polarizing along partisan lines, as reported and perpetuated by a mass media, which actually possesses a great stake in this ongoing controversy.
Let's propose our own solutions, the one's that come down to rational individual choices, wise public policy, preventive education, and common sense. Let's stage a walk out on the tired forum of the town hall debate, where creative thought is stifled and reality is suppressed. Let's leave no stone unturned in our quest for truth. While the system continues to crumble and the ill-fated public debate devolves into dashed hopes and wasted breath ... while the puppeteers retract their strings when the show is over ... we, as a people, will live on with the light of reason burning within our souls, ready to harness our potential and transcend the event horizon of a new way of being.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07142009.html |
