Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Obsolescence

Tom Lehrer claimed that he gave up his public career and went back to laboring in anonymity as a math teacher because satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. I don't know if he meant it, but blogging about public health and health care seems kind of obsolete these days when the field is completely dominated by insane liars. I don't know what I can possibly contribute to this "discussion."

Kurt Eichenwald takes on the psychopathic Republican party in Vanity Fair, but I mean really, what's the use? A few tens of thousands of people will read it, most of whom are already pretty much tethered to reality, while 100 million will either get The Crazy mainlined by Faux News or, at best, be told by Chuck Todd that there is a dispute between people who are trying to stop Obamacare from destroying the economy and putting a government bureaucrat in every doctor's examining room; and people who are determined to have it take effect anyway just because.

The Republicans in congress are apparently determined to smash the U.S. economy and political system to rubble, half the people are cheering them on, and the corporate media are just transmitting the pictures. What is really weird is that the Camber of Commerce and most of the business establishment, which face disaster at the hands of the very monster they created, aren't trying to stop it. The vast majority of capitalists have everything to lose and nothing to gain from these nutjobs, but they still seem to think of them as their own tools and they can't stand to lose them. They will live to regret this very, very deeply.

For myself, I'm not sure what the future holds. I won't have a career, or even a job, if there isn't any federal funding for health services research. That's kind of sad since I've worked so long and hard to get to this point and I like to think that I'm starting to make a contribution in the public interest. But if the people don't want to pay for it, because government and knowledge are both equally evil, I guess I'll just have to figure out something else. It's on you, Chuck.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Possible outcomes:
1)ACA is a bad thing
2)ACA is a wash compared to current system
3)ACA is a good thing.

If 1), then the tea baggers are right, they'll take over the senate and, eventually, the White House. They can then rescind it
and turn the country into their idea of paradise.

If 2), then why the fuss if it doesn't matter?

If 3), then why do they hate the American people?