Procrustean Healthcare

Myths endure because they tap into universal truths of the human psyche. Thus, Procrustes, Attic bandit who availed wayfarers of his iron bed. Unwelcomed hospitality, since he insisted that they fit the bed -- ensuring so by rack-stretching them were they too short, and amputating excess height if too tall. It would be the exemplar of one-size-fits-all, except Procrustes had two beds -- assuring himself of the need for alterations. Ensuring, assuring -- but let's not be coy. Insuring.

Says Mark Styne, we are to have nationalized healthcare "because of the however many millions of uninsured, yet this bill will leave about 25 million Americans uninsured. On the other hand, millions of young, healthy Americans ... will be forced to pay for coverage they neither want nor need. On the other other hand, those Americans who have done the boring, responsible, grown-up thing and have health plans Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid determines to be excessively 'generous' will be subject to punitive taxes up to 40 percent."

Again we find insight in the tales of the past. Not too hot, not too cold -- tepid, which is juuuuuust riiiiiight. Montaigne in an essay tells of the eastern potentate who brought his courtiers to a field of poppies, where he commenced with a stick to lop off the heads of those flowers that stood higher than the rest. None were to excel, in his kingdom.

The Left adheres generally to the creation myth of Evolutionism. Fine. Far be it from your humble servant to mock or denigrate or find in any way wanting, the faith of some religionists. I'm all for islamism. It's almost my own religion. Except for the terrorism part, and the worshiping Satan. But is it rude of me to notice that the highest sacrament of Evolutionism is Natural Selection? They want to preserve the weak, however, because that's how they guarantee the required non-excellence. So my understanding of their theology was flawed, when I misidentified just now their highest sacrament. My bad. The herd must be just the way they want it, almost -- perhaps a tad too robust still -- correctable in a few more generations by maintaining the breeding viability of the mud-skimmers of the gene pool. Survival of the fitting-in-est.

But, perhaps in the face of such inconsistency and hypocrisy, I'm being insincere. I'm not an Evolutionist, so I can't really argue from that perspective. I'm stuck with compassion, a most uncomfortable and ill-fitting bed. So, yes, care for the sick. Care for their health. First part of which is to promote health, but that may be a closed barndoor after escaped livestock thing. Once sickness has happened -- using our most passive of grammatical voices -- who best to do the caring? Hirelings? Yes, in the absence of family. Which is absent, in our increasingly non-traditional society. But which hirelings.

Oddly, the Constitution dictates the answer. In our one-time federated system, those powers and duties not expressly assigned to the National Government are reserved, and entrusted, to the Local. But that is yet another tale from the past, and reality is what it is. So at least some portion of healthcare is now under the mottled aegis of our national bird, the turkey.

That's all. It's about identifying, not changing, the situation. I care more about meaning than results. Because I'm all about compassion, and so the more misery there is, the more meaningful my life must be.

Amen.


J