Canadian Health Care
Comments
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Some people in this country are scared that the lives they knew and the country they love have disappeared. And they're right. The U.S. has been attacked on its own soil, we are involved in two wars that don't appear to be going well, and we have an African American president who was born in Hawaii (or Kenya, depending on who you ask).
Salaries are dropping like rocks and jobs are disappearing overseas. Most people no longer believe their children will do better than they have. Not as many people believe that the American dream is still attainable.
The problem is that a small segment of the population blames, in my opinion, the wrong people. They blame illegal aliens, they blame the poor, they blame organizations that try to help the poor (like Acorn), they blame unions. Basically, they blame the powerless.
Rarely do you hear them blame the corporations and Wall Street, where the money and power really are in this country. They blame Democrats (many of whom deserve it) but rarely blame the Republicans, in spite of the party's traditional alliance with money and power.
And media like Fox News encourage their anger at the powerless. Fox News works hard to divert their attention towards organizations like Acorn. Just look at the stories they play hour after hour. I know - I sit next to people who always have televisions on as part of their jobs. Many of them watch Fox News so I have a pretty good idea of what stories get air time. Disappearing young blond girls are popular, car chases are popular, as are stories about lazy poor people and illegal aliens getting welfare and health care.
It really is fascinating, this kabuki dance that goes on. Divert people's attention so their anger doesn't target those who reallly are responsible for wrecking the economy and sending jobs overseas.
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Rico, what you said is the confusing part for me. That some people choose to blame the powerless people and lump them together with the lazy fringes of society. That they say they belong to the best country in the world but insist that their gov't is evil and useless. That they not only accept the power that big business has, but they endorse it and want to preserve it. It is all very strange and confusing to me.
Edited to add that after rereading your post, I got a chill remembering another time in history when this type of thinking prevailed.
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PIP, I got goosebumps when I read your last line!
Does kind of seem it's all coming to a head, doesn't it? The problem is, the wrong head will roll! -
Rico - I was impressed with your excellent analysis - the whole thing make sense.
My question is what is the benefit to those who blame the powerless, since many indeed are the powerless. What do the Glen Beck wannabes achieve from their rants? What fuels this misplaced blame game?
I wonder about a segment of the culture that insulates itself from the world while enthusiastically misinforming itself about its own realities.
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There's a saying that goes something like "Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it" A society's strength is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable. We are not perfect in Canada but, at least with our health care system, we do try.
As far as the censorship goes on the threads .... the moderators need to help us understand what we have done wrong otherwise we can never get better and posts will continue to be deleted. Unfortunately, the mods are using a punitive system but without explanation, nothing will improve.
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A couple of thoughts on the disdain for the poor. First, I think that some people really believe that if you play by the rules, you will succeed - or at least get by. And if you really believe that, you have to have a corresponding explanation for poor people. The obvious answer is, it must be because of some moral failing on their part. Hence the popularity of the lazy poor person meme. They refuse to play by the rules so they deserve what they get.
I have also known people who firmly believe that they are more deserving than other people. They got where they were not because of some element of luck but because they, inherently, are better than people who have less. And their children are better than other people's children. So if some people are inherently better than other people, then a two-tier system of health care is perfectly fair. After all "they're" not like us so why should "they" be treated the same way.
It really is a form of superstitious behavior. If you feel that the world is out of control, hanging onto these kinds of rules is one way to feel in control. If I follow the rules, I will be okay, my family will be okay. It's very scary to think that these rules may not be true. That fear drives a lot of the anger.
A perfect example of this is the tea baggers who screamed at the woman who told the story of how her daughter-in-law and grandchild died because of lack of health care. They called her a liar. Why? Because it's scary to think that it could have been MY daughter-in-law and my grandchild who died. And that couldn't happen because I'm a good person and I follow the rules. So there must be something wrong with the people who had this happen to them.
The Becks and the Palins feed this feeling of moral superiority. Palin went on ad nauseum about the superiority of people from small towns. And the anti-elitism is another part of this. The elites always seem to be those who graduated from better schools, those who are the intelligentsia. But what good is all that book learning if you were raised with all the right values, if you know what rules to follow. It's just a bunch of nonsense that people with common sense don't need.
Palin is renowned for her intellectual insecurity. I know people at work who think she is wonderful because she is just like them and she doesn't make them feel intellectually insecure.
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A couple more thoughts to add to Rico's. (These'll look familiar to Leslie; I wrote them earlier, then discovered to my chagrin that I couldn't post. Hadn't realized this 5 posts/24 hrs business was a rolling 24 hours, so if you post late in the day one day, you can't post in the morning the next. Guess I'm still learning the ropes here.
)I think that part of the reason why people who don't have a lot of power themselves blame those who are even more powerless (the poor, immigrants) is that it's psychologically satisfying to be able to blame *someone.* And the powerless make an easy target. I actually think that a lot of the time, anger at the powerless and anger at the powerful get mixed up . . . so you'll hear the same people attacking both immigrants and the banking system. But "bankers" or "the Federal Reserve" are shadowy entities in most people's minds, and so the anger remains kind of vague; whereas the anger at immigrants and the poor is up close and personal.
Plus, if you allow your anger to settle on Wall Street and corporations, it raises all kinds of tough questions -- what *should* we do to rein in corporate power? what would a more just economic system look like? -- whereas Glen Beck et al have the advantage of offering what seem like easy answers.
Mix that together with denial ("my employer would *never* treat me unfairly!") and aspiration ("maybe *I'll* be rich enough to worry about estate taxes some day!"), add a dose of ideology ("markets, good! government, bad!") and, well, you see what you get.
. . .
I've taken a break from cookie-baking (or thinking about cookie-baking) to try a recipe for apple-pine nut fritters that sounded kind of intriguing, seeing as how it's Hanukkah and all. It's the sort of thing that's either going to be wonderful, or a complete and utter disaster (batter oozing, oil splattering). So please wish me luck as I fire up the oil . . . and happy Hanukkah, everyone!
Linda
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Linda, I think I'll make some latkes tomorrow in honour of Hannukah!
Did anyone watch The Daily Show yesterday? (By the way, my cable doesn't carry Fox News or MSNBC so I only get to see Beck's ravings via Jon Stewart!). You can catch a replay on HuffPost or at Comedy Central.
And the funniest news of the day -- Palin has been booked by a Canadian public (socialist??) hospital (in Hamilton) to speak next year at a fundraising event! Wonder if her talk will centre on privatizing healthcare in Canada?
I've never understood the reason some people give for voting for someone who's "just like me". Heck, I want someone who is head and shoulders above me to lead my country -- someone with the education and intellectual capacity to which I could only aspire.
Hugs from the other Linda
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You've got to be kidding -- unless it is a celebrity roast fundraiser. Now, that would be fun!
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I also read in the Toronto Star that Palin has been invited to speak at a Hamilton area hospital. I think she's paid about $200,000 per speaking engagement. That's probably why she gave up being governor .... there's no money in that. And this is not a roast .. it is a serious talk. I don't know why Canadians invited her.
There's a lot of danger in "scapegoating" ... it might start with the poor, or the illegals ... but the danger is that it never stops because there will always be someone else to blame and that is what history has demonstrated over and over again. The world is going to continue to change and evolve. The culture of each country has to evolve as well. Nothing stays the same. But if countries take care of basic human needs - eg. health care, then there is a better chance for the future.
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I was joking about the roast -- I just cannot see why she would be invited for a serious talk about anything at a Canadian hospital. Well, it will generate funds for the hospital...but kinda like sleeping with the devil to get money.
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Rico, what an amazing post! Your analysis of fear is really outstanding. I can understand the fear. The world is changing, and some people keep repeating that the change, any change, is bad. There is a great documentary I watched after the last US election. It is titled "Right America: Feeling Wronged." It showed how certain people feel that the US has changed so much, and that there is no place for the regular working-class person. Manufacturing jobs are disappearing, and they see immigrants and minorities moving ahead of them. They feel disenfranchised, and that they and their children do not have the same opportunities that others have because they feel the gov't is NOT on their side.
As the child of immigrants, and an anglophone/allophone (person whose mother tongue is English or neither French or English) living in a predominantly French-speaking province, I see this sentiment sometimes. Their are some who are angry that immigrants and immigrants' children came to Quebec and succeeded when they didn't. It is not the majority, but there is a segment of the population who cannot reconcile the Quebec of their childhood with the reality of Quebec today.
Linda, I LOVE Jon Steward! I also don't get Fox with my cable provider (I don't think I'd subscribe anyway! I would spend too much time screaming at the TV!
) On a happier note, Happy Hannukah everyone!
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I used to love reading novels of how an imigrant landed in NYC and started a psuh cart with rag cloth and then became a department store maven after years of honest hard work and sacrifice. To me, those were the dreams of the USA. Now people seem to sit back and wait for the hand-outs! What the hell happened to healthy ambition?
To change is inevitable: To grow is optional.
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Good morning, ladies. I hope everyone is well.
I, on the other hand, indulged in a bit too much Christmas cheer last night. And I have the headache to prove it. But the wine was fine and the egg nog was to die for. It had rum in it that somehow tasted like kahlua. Absolutely amazing.
I agree completely with Linda. The powerless are a much safer target than the powerful. And let's face it. It's normal, especially in competitive American society, to compare ourselves to others and to feel better if we look better than someone else.
The problem, of course, is when that translates into policies and legislation against the powerless. Or when it is used as an excuse to be selfish.
I think that the most disheartening part for me was hearing some people at the town halls flat out ask why they should have to help pay for someone else's health insurance. But the good news is, it's been months since I last heard anyone claim that the U.S. is a Christian nation. Pretty tough to make that claim these days.
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The whole us-and-them thing is disheartening. But it is a kind of tribal mentality -- go back in history and it's how the city-polis got started -- protect our tribe from those other tribes. People have got to expand "the tribe" to include the entire country, the entire globe. It's easy and comfortable to exclude the unfortunate or "difficult" tribe members. A bit of effort and often sacrifice is required to make it work. That's my philosophising for day, week, whatever...
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OR....you could think of it like Hitler's "culling of the herds"....the weaker will die off and then the nation is stronger. Scary thought, eh?
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Gotta step in here about the "tribe" thing....Isn't it interesting that the native American tribes -- especially those throughout the northeast -- actually worked quite well together. They had established a peaceful co-existence, which was sadly disrupted by the Europeans who decided the North American continent was "free" to invade, settle and eliminate the natives. Even then, the tribes were so trusting of these "white men" that they were cheated out of just about every land treaty ever made with them. Ronald Wright's "What is America" is a brief but totally engaging read, dating back to pre-Columbian days. So very well researched, there are as many pages of footnotes as there are in the body of the book!!
One of the books I got for DH for Christmas (yes, we still hold on to the tradition!) is "Champlain's Dream", a pretty hefty tome about settlement in Lower and Upper Canada. Am looking forward to reading it after he finishes it -- could be a few months!!
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Elizabeth, love your comment about the need to expand who's part of our "tribe." How often do you hear "we need to take care of our own first"? (Well, maybe you hear it less in Canada than I do in the States, but still, I'm sure it's not entirely unfamiliar.) It almost always comes up in discussions of foreign aid, and the people who say it always act as though it's self-evident who "our own" is . . . but of course, it's not. Is it our families? People who look like us? Our city, state/province, country?
I, too, wish we could get to a point where we think of the entire planet as "our own."
Linda, your reference to "Champlain's Dream" reminds me yet again of how little people in the States know about Canadian history. As you know, I live just across from Canada, can listen to Canadian radio stations, watch Canadian TV, and like to think I know at least a little about Canada . . . but when my partner and I vacationed in Quebec this summer, we explored various historical museums and exhibits (he's even more of a history buff than I am), and I discovered that I knew embarrassingly little. Less, probably, than I know about England or France or Germany.
Linda
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I do understand the reasoning of "taking care of our own". It all comes down to who we include in "our own". In a terrible disaster "our own" would be our immediate family -- parents protecting their children over all others. It also reminds me when a friend was applying for CSIS -- the Canadian equivalent to the CIA. She was asked about loyalties to Canada. She said that if Newfoundland (her home province) wanted to separate from Canada she'd have a hard time not going with Newfoundland! Our "own"-- does it include all people? All living creatures in the big picture of our existence -- we don't live in isolation even as a species. It's something we could ponder and never come to grips with...still waxing philosophical...
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Just to add -- I think this whole tribal/"our own" thing explains why so many Canadian women are interested in the healthcare reforms going on in the US. We have a tribe of BC women that crosses geo-political boundaries -- we are concerned about all the women in our BC tribe, not just the Canadian ones.
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Or, to use another tribal analogy -- "misery loves company"
. But seriously, when we start thinking of our own situation in national terms, we forget that women with BC exist throughout the world. Fora such as BCO keep us informed of what's happening in other countries; hopefully we can learn a thing or two from them!A good friend who is VP of Research at Princess Margaret Hospital/Ontario Cancer Institute (and who is from New Jersey) told me that serious scientists regard themselves as citizens of the world. Those few who choose to work in isolation (nationally speaking) don't get very far in their careers. I think the same can be said these days for every other human concern, industry and commerce.
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Good morning, everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful evening.
Montreal is blanketed with snow, and everything looks sparkly and festive. More snow is falling this morning, and the forecast is another 5cm. I love snow in December, but I want it gone after the holidays. LOL! Not a chance of that happening. I don't like the snow in February - March. By that time, I am tired of winter and am dreaming of spring.
Forgive the ramble.....
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That was a pretty short ramble Mary!
I hate snow AND Christmas decorations after January 1st.
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LOL Barbe!
I am with you about hating snow after Xmas! I take the Xmas decorations a few days after January 1.
Barbe, I read on the other thread (Sarah Palin coming to Hamilton) that you were a police officer! Impressive and a little scary...lol. You must have some amazing stories to tell.
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I do!
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Barbe, SPILL!!! You cannot dangle a carrot like that!! Share a couple of stories. I want to live vicariously!
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Barbe -- with a big stick and cuffs...OK, hands on the hood and spread 'em!
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It used to be called a "tonfa" stick. I don't know what they use now. We had to learn all sorts of holds and ways to fight. Very interesting....
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Snow, snow, snow!!! I love it in December too. I also don't mind it because I like to x-country ski. I do hate it when it goes below -5 and when the wind kicks up. By March I'm ready for some sun though.
Elizabeth - love the image of Barbe.
c'mon Barbe, just give us on juicy story, you can change the names to protect the innocent.
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Rinna, below -5! It gets to below -40 with the windchill sometimes here!. You walk out your door, you take a breath, and the nostrils of your nose get stuck! I am NOT kidding!! (yes, I am being childish--it's colder her..nah nah...lol)
Because it gets so cold here in the winter, Montreal has an amazing underground city. You can take the metro (subway) downtown, and shop, go to restaurants and watch a movie all without going outside. It is truly amazing.
Elizabeth, great image of Barbe!
Barbe, give us something!!
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