Re: a political being

Allow me to chime in here. In my view, you got it right on the head,
Scottie. How we live our lives is a political statement. We've all heard
the maxim that choosing not to choose is still a choice, or some permutation
thereof. How we choose to use our respective internet links is a political
choice. Choosing not to own a computer and using an internet cafe to talk
to Bananafish is a political choice.

You speak of corruption, good-ole-boy networking, and so on. What are these
if not politics?

Insurance? Surely as in-your-face political as I can imagine. One must
carry insurance to drive a car in this country. A good idea, in embryo.
Yet, as far as I know, it is the only law that requires us to do business
with the private sector. That leaves us vulnerable to insurance companies.
Here in Colorado, they're, as of this month, no longer covering personal
injury in auto insurance policies. This will save the insurance companies
truckloads of money. Do they pass on the savings to the consumer? No, the
rates are going up, increasing their profits even more.

I just saw an article on how many high level politicians and cabinet members
during the Viet Nam war owned stock in defense contracted companies.
Staggering. The man currently in America who owns more stock in defense
contracted companies than anyone else is... (drum roll please) The
Secretary of defense, Rumsfeld. About 4rth on the list is the Vice Pres. I
wonder how many congressmen own stock in insurance companies.

Back to the point. Every action, every decision that we make is a political
one BECAUSE those in power make it so.
"anarchist" tina

> By your definition, it seems to me you’re damned (or political)
> if you do & damned (or political) if you don’t. 'For evil to
>flourish,
> it requires only that good men to do nothing....etc’. Yet surely,
> to be at all useful, the word must imply some degree of active
> participation.
>
> The decision of our then government, several years ago, to limit
> the insurance cover for patients in private psychiatric hospitals
> meant that the outfit where I worked was forced to close down.
> The overheads had become too great. The management boards
> of the other similar institutions in the country made various
>approaches
> to the ministers concerned. In the event, they were unsuccessful &,
> in our case, a few old ladies & gents had to move into less tender-
> minded homes while my buddy & myself took semi-retirement into purely
> outpatient practice where we made rather more money for a very great
> deal less work.
>
> You could, I suppose, call these approaches ‘political’ acts,
>though
> they seemed to me more like good old golf-club networking, backstairs
> corruption ... whatever ... made by people who thought – mistakenly
> as it turned out – that their incomes were threatened. In our banana
> republic they were the most realistic steps to be taken - & they
>nearly
> worked. They certainly came much closer to succeeding than have
> the ‘political’ outcry, the speeches & party manifestoes which act
>as
> conscience-salvers & crocodile weepings to accompany the continuing
> & gradual subsidence of quality in the psychiatric services for our
> public patients.
>
> Scottie B.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>-
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Received on Thu Jul 31 23:27:01 2003