The other day, I read an article written by a Dr. Robert
Baker on “Medicine needs its soul back." And it got me thinking about the “soul.” After all what is soul? Like the mind,
soul has no form or structure, but as humans we believe there is such a thing
as soul. After all a former president seemed to have seen the “soul” of a
former KGB agent. What he deciphered was only the front of the great red
curtain. The stuff behind remained hidden. Yet we as humans are aware of this
“essence” called the “soul.” The definition in the dictionary is no better in
defining the soul: “the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or
animal, regarded as immortal” or “the essence or embodiment of a specified
quality.” We are again tempted into the world of ether. Yet we all feel and
think there is such a thing, for all of us in one way or another has seen it.
Mostly in the form of another human being. The Hebrew word neʹphesh or the Greek word psy·kheʹ are mentioned widely in the
older testament. The term soul has been around since Socrates, Thomas Aquinas
and Aristotle, who all battled with the essence of human life. A pause is
required to gather the moment into the basket of understanding, perhaps. Marcus
Aurelius asked us to listen to our goodness within,’ “the very god that is seated in you,
bringing your impulses under its control, scrutinizing your thoughts.’’ Perhaps
he meant our “soul?”
It does in the final analysis mean being human. The soul of
a human is what drives the desire of that human. But sometime the term is also
taken literally as well. For instance, in Air traffic Control (ATC) lingo when
one files a flight plan the question posed by the ATC in asking for the number
of occupants in the aircraft is, “how many souls on board.” So the FAA takes
the term quite literally as materiality.
But getting back to Dr. Baker’s question there is a larger
point that he makes; “Searching for the Soul of Medicine” is like searching for
the soul of all human beings. At least in the case of medicine, one might look
at the physicians and their interaction with the patients. Unfortunately, as
the current environment is dictating, a thick and almost impenetrable barrier
has been created between the physician and the patient. The physician does not
“see” the patient because his eyes are glued to the computer screen that is
dictated by the Insurer mandates and the patient cannot in reality “see” the
physician because of the insurer wants. Where once insuring was actuarial-based
risk pools, now those have devolved into “stake-holder” and “share-holder”
benefits all to the detriment of the patient. But that is another story for
another day. Adam Smith remarked, “morality
could be understood through the medium of sympathy,” but today the whole
meaning is wrapped under the influence of peddling sympathy to deceive and
obfuscate. The preaching of ‘do as I say’ has nothing to do with ‘do as I do.’
Meanwhile the society continues to creek and moan as the
gears are greased by the soulless Victor Hugo’s Morlocks. There is a pause in
the state of humanity these days. One can see it on the streets with “road
rage” and “anger” belched out in large doses of expletives. It is rampant in
the business world, where cronyism caters to wealth, in the scientific world
where “studies” are done more for the self and not for the sake of enhancing science
but for the sake of tenure and popularity, in law where the client is a means
to an hourly pay and in the government where the individual is dragged for the
sole purpose of extracting their earned livelihood and pursuing a higher salary
and promotion. Many examples abound on all these events that unfold on a daily
basis, but the best one is a judge who on presiding over a poor couple’s
divorce simply said, “here sign this, the both of you. It’s a simple matter,
you don’t have any assets, so no lawyers are involved.”
It appears that the world has also divided itself into camps
of sorts. The battles are being fought not for survival but by the survival of a
dying or dead ideology; socialism. Those not versed in history are
indoctrinated and lulled into the virtues of “free things” and “free time” and
“life of leisure” without effort. What they have failed to realize that history
is full of such promises of the past that ended poorly. Even today there are
examples in the South American continent of a failed state, milked on the potential
future of freebies. In 3rd century BC, Zeno of Citium’s “Stoics”
held ‘four cardinal virtues;’ wisdom,
justice, courage and temperance.
None of them seem to apply today to the governors or the governed. Today’s
“wisdom” is a panoply of whispers, “justice” is in the eye of the beholder or
case law, “courage” is a mass riot and destruction of other’s property and
“temperance” is guilty of absence.
About the soul, we turn to dissecting it again. Those
ideologues of yesteryears and some today are the soulless monsters that promise
the world to the masses and amass power to control the future for their own
benefit. Hitler, Lenin, Marx, Mao, Castro, Chavez all come to mind as
ideologues with the soulless trait of mind.
Losing one’s soul is the last vestige of reason in our
current state of our humanity. If one loses that, which having makes us a species
of benevolence and kindness, not having that makes us monsters. Remember Kermit Gosnell, MD a Philadelphia
physician who was charged with multiple counts of murder. ( http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/15/gosnell-gets-life-in-prison-no-parole.html
)
This man seems to embody a soulless human shell with a mind
writ large with banal ideations. Unfortunately, there are too many more to
count.
Why does our society seem to appear directionless and filled
with anger so suddenly? Perhaps it is the lack of human contact? Perhaps it is
the plethora of digital things that govern our daily lives? Perhaps the parents
are equally interested about the next “like” as the child is and neither knows
the travails of the other. Soon the “likes” don’t carry the day and depression
sets in. Among physicians, depression is an epidemic. The doctors who have
governed and honed their lives in the art of healing are now being told to
spend 40-50% of their time answering meaningless questions on computer screens
so they can get paid for services rendered rather than tend to their patients.
The artful managers have positioned themselves right in the middle to control
the flow of capital between the patient and physician. The third-party insurers
now control the conduit via the managers and what costs $50 for an evaluation
is now $200. And interestingly, $170 of that goes to the intermediaries. This
has forced physicians to leave medicine in early retirement, others to seek
help to fend off depression and still others to commit suicides. An analogy of
the numbers of physician suicides suggest one year’s worth of a medical school
graduates a year are lost to suicide. The patients too, walk like zombies from
office to office and hospital to hospital in search of a meaning for their
suffering, all the while the levers and gears of injudicious commerce move
effortlessly, greased for full efficiency.
Where has the soul gone?
It still exists but in small pockets. The larger domain is
riddled with soulless deformities. The soulless beings are anchored by their
virtue-signaling and holier-than-thou proclamations, yet in that verbosity and
displayed anger is the insecurity of one and the desire to be recognized. The
fleeting 15-minute of fame, is fleeting. And once that fame evaporates
depression sets in. The society as a whole continues to be harmed through the
puppeteering by a few hypocrites. Strong words, these, but believe me the
monsters exist in our midst. They will take from you what is most precious to
you without a blink of an eye without remorse.
So where is the soul?
Find it within yourself. Nurture it. Feed it with goodness
and kindness. Find that medium of sympathy and morality and you will find the
peace and harmony that accompany them. In there you will find your soul. Live
out virtuous lives worthy of a tale told by your progeny by a campfire of the
future.
“You have power over
your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” –
Marcus Aurelius
