Technology's Ultimate Curse
Thinking about how things used to be with regard to medical care throws some light for me on present problems not only with medical care but also with the other big bugaboo confronting Americans today, the financial situation -- aside from the one that they try to ignore in the same way that they would a bleeding, 5-inch, self-inflicted gash in their hindparts, namely the hapless and hopeless military adventures in and around Arabia.
Technology is a wonderful thing, but inevitably there comes a time when it badly overstays its welcome. It's like a fruit that stays on the tree far past the moment when it becomes ripe. Refusing to drop off, instead it merely changes its shape and appearance and grows ever larger, while obscuring the reasons that once made it a worthwhile food.
--I intended the two paragrahs above to be followed by several more illustrating what I was trying to say. But then came the end of one year and the beginning of another, marked mainly by constant cold that numbed everything for me. So I wrote those passages nearly two weeks ago, and now I can't fully remember what else I wanted to say, that is, in the fire of the early morning when I was thinking so much about it.
I do remember that first and foremost I meant to speak of how modern medical care involves such complicated and expensive procedures, equipment, medicines, facilities, and highly trained people that it looks to me as if most of us can't really afford any longer to stay healthy in case something hits, because things work out so that not nearly that much money comes our way so that, unlike in the past, we can pay our own way. And for sure there are lots of people who feel that the paupers, the involuntary ones as well as the voluntary ones, don't therefore deserve to get that care and therefore to stay physically comfortable or even alive..
But medical care isn't the only area where you see that principle at work, due to technology and stuff like efficiency getting too far ahead of itself. Look at computers. Look at automobiles. Look at telephones. Look at books and libraries. Look at grocery stores. Look at money managing. Look at warfare, modern American style. And that's not all.
Technology is a wonderful thing, but inevitably there comes a time when it badly overstays its welcome. It's like a fruit that stays on the tree far past the moment when it becomes ripe. Refusing to drop off, instead it merely changes its shape and appearance and grows ever larger, while obscuring the reasons that once made it a worthwhile food.
--I intended the two paragrahs above to be followed by several more illustrating what I was trying to say. But then came the end of one year and the beginning of another, marked mainly by constant cold that numbed everything for me. So I wrote those passages nearly two weeks ago, and now I can't fully remember what else I wanted to say, that is, in the fire of the early morning when I was thinking so much about it.
I do remember that first and foremost I meant to speak of how modern medical care involves such complicated and expensive procedures, equipment, medicines, facilities, and highly trained people that it looks to me as if most of us can't really afford any longer to stay healthy in case something hits, because things work out so that not nearly that much money comes our way so that, unlike in the past, we can pay our own way. And for sure there are lots of people who feel that the paupers, the involuntary ones as well as the voluntary ones, don't therefore deserve to get that care and therefore to stay physically comfortable or even alive..
But medical care isn't the only area where you see that principle at work, due to technology and stuff like efficiency getting too far ahead of itself. Look at computers. Look at automobiles. Look at telephones. Look at books and libraries. Look at grocery stores. Look at money managing. Look at warfare, modern American style. And that's not all.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 11:00 PM
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