Angry mobs make me nervous.
That's right boys and girls, it's that time again: the time where we all gather 'round the campfire and tell scary stories of illness, health, and the greedy insurance companies that stand in-between the two. Yes, that's right, let's talk about health insurance!
I was talking with a co-worker of mine about the current health-care situation in the states. The conversation had been stirred up by the frenzy of political activity. He was talking about how easy it is to get screwed by the system if you don't stay in jobs that offer good benefits and generally complaining about the brokenness of it all. And, it's true really. Having a baby, for example, is a monumentally expensive process if done outside of insurance. And, while the rules vary a bit from state to state (not to mention different countries), the general story is that if you are in dire need of health care and you have no insurance, you are probably fucked.
Naturally, here come the politicians to the rescue! It doesn't take a great effort to find one or another political figure decrying our current system and touting the just-over-the-horizon glory of one or another universal health care system. And, in a way, I can't help but like the idea that everyone could receive the care they need.
But for better or worse, my general uneasiness with the ugliness of mobs makes me question this apparent trend (gg Canada) towards universal health care. All of the hoopla brings two important questions to my mind. First, what do you deserve, and second, what do you need?
To the first point, I would say the answer is probably 'nothing'. Yes, it's a tragedy to see the poor suffer because they cannot afford care that would alleviate much suffering. But who am I to say what you deserve? What grounds would I use? Maybe because you are American? Are the poor of Togo or Mexico really so different or less deserving? That seems pretty pompous and shortsighted. Is it because you are human... I confess I don't even know what that idea would mean. And even if it does mean something to be human, are we not treading the 'irrational' territory of religion? Certainly man can solve this problem!
And what do you need? If a hospital is full to capacity, does the man with a broken foot need treatment more than the man with a broken hand? What if you were dying? Do you need to live? I would reckon that most if not all the people who will die this very day believe that they need to live. Yet, they will not. So what actual ground do you use? Really, there are no purely humanist grounds. We get health care because we want it really badly... and that's about it.
See, there's this one little teensy-tiny problem: health care is expensive, really really expensive. The duration and difficulty of personnel training is great and the sciences (biological and technological) involved are complex. It takes a long time for doctors to get enough training where they reach our standards. And we crucify these same doctors when they don't reach our standards. Why? BECAUSE WE DESERVE LIFE DAMMIT!
Ok, now you are starting to think I’m a pretty cold bastard aren't you? Well make no mistake, if I suddenly had cancer, I would want treatment no matter what the insurance situation is like. I would want to live and I would want the best treatment. And I would only want all of this more if it were my child who had cancer. And I know full well the potential for greed in the corporate insurance system. And yes, other countries do have more universal health care.
But all of this is skirting a real problem that lies underneath whatever solution you choose. If we sorta zoom out of particular situations and look at the broader problem, I think it's easy to see that we have a nation of people not only desiring an extremely expensive thing that they do not have, but also declaring that it is their right that they should have it.
This is where the danger lies in the mob mentality of our desire for health care: we reject suffering. In fact, we are almost completely intolerant of suffering. And if science ever manages to solve the problem of illness, humanity will have one more item to scribe into its list of rights: self-governance, sexual freedom, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and now freedom of health. And humanity takes one more step towards independance.
You see, it's not that I dislike being healthy or that I think everyone should suffer. That would be silly. But focusing on the material reality forces you to miss a critical issue here. The problem is simply deeper than physical affliction. We will go to any lengths and stop at nothing to control our world and bring everything one step closer to our ideal utopia. I'm all for progress, but not if its foundations are intertwined with this ideal of independence.
No, no one will listen. All of us (myself included) will go on trying to make our lives better. It's human I suppose. But I can't help but notice how much uglier things are getting the greater man's power becomes. So tell the people what they want to hear. Let them live for a thousand years. The prodigal son wanders a bit further.
It was with almost-ravenous intensity that the Democratic National Convention cheered for Mr. Obama when he made the barest mention of health care for everyone. And my guess is that the other political associations will not be very different. But I wonder, when the new tower is complete and the king shoots his arrow into the sky, will the skies remain silent?
"I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy." --Uncle Screwtape
