There is an inimical power distribution curve that covers a
lot of area and devours all thought’s food. It is the charade of certainty. The
power exudes directly from the certainty of the word “certainty.” Projecting
something with the net of realism and a confined future within certain
artificial bounds is tantamount to being a prophet. And there are a lot of
prophets to behold. In fact prophesizing has now reached epic proportions in
the 21st Century.
Let us look at some of them with a critical eye.
1. Life Expectancy: In the United States, an adult
male expects a life expectancy of 80 years. Barring all the other natural
shocks that the flesh is heir to, that might not be too certain. Things happen.
There is no certainty here, except that projected and demanded by the experts
and lawyers. “ He should have lived…”
2. Regulations are for the Public Good: Nancy Thorner wrote about the Dodd-Frank
Bill; “Its purpose was to create a sound Economic Foundation to grow jobs,
protect consumers, rein in Wall Street and big bonuses, end bailouts, and
"too big to fail," as well as prevent another financial crisis.” Paul
Atkins stated, “…the 2,319 page bill is basically rubbish. Dodd-Frank
created thirteen new offices and agencies, the government only got rid of one
agency.” And according to Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee Committee
Chairman Rep. McHenry, "Rather than institute market discipline and a
clear rules-based regime, four years later Dodd-Frank's failed policies have
only worsened the risks within the financial system and recklessly handed
financial regulators a blank check for taxpayer-funded bailouts."
3. Quantitative Easing will prevent a financial
Crisis: Thus far the wealth of the nation has increased with fiat money and
aggregated in the 1% population. The median income and wealth effect has
diminished steadily since 2009. The United States Debt has ballooned to almost
$19 Trillion (around 108% of GDP) and counting. Someone will have to pay in
some form or another. Food hyper- inflation that matters to an average
individual is eating away at his or her meager earnings while adding energy and
electronics into the calculations makes the inflation picture appear tame for
the time being to the politicians and the economists. All good for the
forecasting experts. Hey if you cannot afford food, you can always take a
selfie. “We have continued economic recovery…”
4. ACA is a boon for Healthcare in the United States:
9 million souls are covered by the ACA while 33 million still have no insurance,
this from five-thirty eight. Meanwhile those that had personal or private
coverage have had to relinquish their insurance and are forced into a
substandard coverage with high deductibles and higher co-Pays. Insurance
denials are rampant and “Less is More” is the mantra of the experts. The tail
has wagged the dog into a state of panic. The experts keep drumming the virtues
of a failed system while the ordinary citizens walk around dazed and confused. The
countercoup injury to reason appears devastating at present. “The Affordable
Care Act!”
5. ACA affords Quality Medical Care: Physicians are
burdened by the morass of paperwork where they spend more time trying the
“Meaningful Use” of a computerized binary logic of medicine in an uncertain
human pathology, while the patient gets less and less time of meaningful
encounters. How does one measure “Quality” is the question asked often. The
answer still evades even the most sophisticates. Using metrics of cost and time
and resource usage is one way this is being calculated currently. “Call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever…”
6. Patients are getting quality Care: Patients who
are newly forced into the Medicaid system are unable to find doctors who
participate in the overly regulated Medicaid environment and thus are left
seeking help many miles away from home, leading to delay and detrimental care.
If that is quality, there is a bridge in Brooklyn ready for sale. “If you like
your doctor, you can keep your doctor…”
7. Electronic Medical Records: A physician’s time
is spent trying to get reimbursed for rendered care so as to continue feeding the
managerial beast of burdensome regulations within their private and hospital
practice. The demands by the regulatory body for compliance and the need for
the hospitals to make a profit to pay for the 3000+% increased managerial staff
pits the doctor against the patient in providing the best care. All that time
spent in clerical computerized tasks is, time away from the patient; time is
wasted in the bureaucratic jungle. "Initially you drop about 30 percent
[of productivity following an EHR implementation], sometimes more.” John
Rodgers MD.
8. A Purell in every corner to arrest spread of
germs: When did washing hands become a rarity in everyday life before eating?
The simplest and best form of defense against acquiring infections from others
is still Agnes Simmelwies’ well documented and proven “Washing hands to prevent
transmission of infections,” in “Die Aetiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers” (“The Etiology, the Concept, and the Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever”) Purell unlike hand-washing might have unintended consequences; might
help mutate the exposed bacteria at a faster rate to gain access to the human
body. The dream for another antibiotic is kept alive. Just a thought, take it
for what it’s worth. Purell in every Walmart and Grocery store.
9. Vaccination will lead to eradication of viruses:
Although vaccination is an important landmark in population health against
disease, it crackles the imagination that a virus will acquiesce and lay down
its arms for survival against this sea of defense. Viruses mutate and they will,
to find a foothold again. Eradication is impossibility, because paramount in
the viral code is its own survival. Polio virus keeps making a comeback as does
the tuberculosis bacterium, the devastating mycobacterium. The human immunity
learns to live over time with microbial adversaries. The elusive dream of
certainty remains elusive. "There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented." - World Health Organization. Unfortunately pockets of Poliomyelitis still exist but with a more virulent mutated form of the virus. (here)
10. The Food Pyramid: That pyramid was responsible for the current
obesity rate in the world to a large extent! It was a well-meaning platform by
some health experts. What it touted was the fairly excessive use of
carbohydrates. The hunter gatherer had not so easily transitioned from the
meats to the carbs so quickly and storage of excess not-utilized carbs turned into
fats for later use. The human girth exploded as a consequence. Since there was
little chance of a famine given the burgeoning racks of food varieties in the
supermarket, more and more fat storage occurred that is now threatening chronic
illnesses, heart disease and cancer in 36% of the population? The Big Gulp addiction
continues. Again an ill-advised certainty gathered on the shoulders of giants
in the academia has now become the bane of existence. And a new industry is
born; wearables! The uncertainty of human certainty creates a new uncertainty!
11. Volkswagen: The bosses were almost certain that
the cool software that fooled the emission standards software was undetectable,
were proven wrong once again. Back to the Enron days a similar set of rules
were used and we know what happened there. The confirmation bias exists only in
the mind and uncertainty has a habit of redressing it. "I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public,"- Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen's CEO."
We live in a world defined by the Fallacy of Anecdotal
Evidence used as a surrogate for certainty. An anecdote is cited and the
drumbeat follows. The poor are richer by world standards in the United States
but they are told they are poorer. Healthcare in the United States has spawned
the most innovation and continues to do so yet we are told that we have the
worst care in the developed world by using some arbitrary metrics that satisfy
the academia and the politicians for their personal fortunes. Even Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle about Nature's fuzziness seems to have escaped the minds of the elite to their own peril.
There appears only one certainty in this world today and
that is the certainty of invoking fear. The media is complicit. The politicians
love it. The experts spawn it and the populace drinks their Kool-Aid. Disaster
looms at the sound of daylight. Fear rides at the tick of the second and citizen
helplessness is the all-encompassing fait accompli. Entitlements abound, hope
is touted, change is demanded and through all this the human dignity suffers a
little with each passing moment. The only certainty in life is death. Life is a
terminal disease.
Maybe we might consider that certainty in an uncertain world
is the utopian creed. Chaos is the norm, admit it! Certainty is a human mind
construct to feed it’s sense of security. After all it is in the uncertainty
that innovation is made and progress stimulated. In certainty, life becomes a
mournful indignity, a known, known; an exposed drudgery.
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