Posted by alexandra_k on November 6, 2017, at 23:39:07
In reply to Re: politics, posted by alexandra_k on November 6, 2017, at 19:03:28
I guess what upset me was this idea that government departments (or health agencies or whatever) use advertising strategies to try and get the public on-side.
So... Providing 'information' that is more like advertisement - since communications is more about persuasion than anything else.
So... How do you get the people to accept that there won't be publically funded treatment for this rare kind of leukaemia, or whatever. Since every now and then there is some public outcry about some kid (usually) who didn't get treatment... So private fundraising... Goes overseas and gets the treatment...
And it was particularly upsetting to me because today there was something in the paper about how people in this country don't get their cardiac surgery (it gets postponed 4 times or whatever) and then people die.
And it upsets me that we think it is a better idea to put all this money into having a bunch of people employed to figure out how to get the public to simply accept that this choice (to delay delay delay until the people go away or literally die of a broken heart) is better than putting that same amount of money into the actual treatment of people.
All the f*ck*ng conferences for managers. All the f*ck*ng 'support staff' whose job is to delay delay delay. All the paperwork in triplicate and so on... All the f*ck*ng busy busy busy work. Hiring people to be f*ck*ng obstructive because obstruction saves money (somehow). Just... Redistributes it differently. Me-wards.
There was this idea of... Maybe if the people didn't have a comparison. Maybe if the people didn't know that certain cardiac surgeries existed (for example) then they would be just so very much more accepting of the government not funding that treatment for the population. Some little glimmer of interest in that...
And I remember how for so very many years of my life I was so f*ck*ng miserable. So very f*ck*ng miserable and unhappy and I wondered why I ever had to be born and wished I'd never been. And I didn't know what was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it. I couldn't blame anything in particular (I mean it was me - right? There was something irrevokably wrong with me - but not something that meant I should be treated, clearly)... And what was wrong was... That life was sh*t. I didn't need a comparison class to see that. Life can be nasty, nasty bruitish and short and it's just as nasty bruitish and short whether or not there are other people living like queens...
But seeing other people living like queens... Wasting money here there and everywhere... Making stupid decisions and unlucky decisions and psychopathic decisions... It's vinegar in the wound, to be sure.
And of course it isn't fair to blame public health academics (or similar). Not even the economists or managers. Most probably. And of course there are similar frivalities in government spending all over the place and it's silly to get upset about health, in particular. Only... It's like how you (or I, anyway) EXPECT MORE of certain people precisely because they are involved in certain professions.
I guess the public health people are about a public health system - where they are not expected to / are not required to use that system themself.
And the people who work in housing aren't forced to live in a rental property that is managed similarly (with same laws applying and being enforced) to the tenants whose interests they supposedly serve...
I guess people are just trying to make a living. And it has been decided that it is a better use (in some sense) of funds to divert funds to busy-work to keep people meaningfully (in some sense) employed. Maybe... If they are good enough at preventing others from getting the things they need they'll get enough such that they can afford the things they need for themselves.
I have a horrible view of teh world, right now. It's not about a comparison class.
There is this whole focus (I think obsession) here on hierarchy. I think it is a British influence sort of a thing. Biblical, even with the idea of God and then the King and then power filtering down through more and more. And this idea of a hierarchy pervades other aspects of life. There is this idea that life, generally, is something of a hierarchy. And things like evidence... Hierarchy of evidence with everything being arrangable on a scale of better or worse or best. Anyway...
This is something that has come up for me... This idea of absolute and relative wealth... I think the idea is that in terms of absolute wealth we are doing great in NZ. That's the marketing. That's what we persuade people. 'Don't be silly! Stop your wining and complaining! Things are doing great! You have enough food (actually, nutritionally empty calorie dense rubbish that will kill you - if it wasn't only temporary!) what are you complaining about? What is wrong with you! We are so rich here that people are dying of obesity (it's their own fault they only eat rubbish!) and so on... We are so rich here that people waste money on alcohol (actually a way of self-medicating because there is not much of another way to block out the nasty rubbish in your neighbourhood and damage to teh frontal lobes is pretty mjuch the only thing helping you come to see the light that things are really wonderfully terrific and only temporary!!)
My point being: We are very poor. Lots of people in the US, too. Addicted to sugar and corn syrup and salt... To the point where they can't handle the detox and we sell them 'it's your own fault for not being able to moderate consumption'. We tend to not blame people (anymore) that they can't moderate... Cocaine use etc. We get that certain substances are addictive... But we don't get it for food...
So most people here don't actually eat a nutritoinally adequate diet. And it is killing them of all these 'developed nation' diseases and we WILL NOT face up to the obvious fact that they are NUTRITOINAL DEPRIVATION illnesses...
No... This would be me not understanding (oh please don't let me fail public health AGAIN).
But this idea of relative poverty...
There was this thing about people trying to get fans in sweatshops someplace overseas. The sweatshop people don't want to spend the money on installing them and running them and so on... So the people were trying to make a case on economic (rather than humanitarian) grounds. Sayign that the workers would be more productive if they weren't delerious with heat exhaustion. They offered to install fans in one of the workshops. The sweatshop owners wouldn't accept that, apparently. They said that they could do that - because the workers who were assigned to the control workshop (without fans) would be jealous.
So this idea that a better world is a world where everyone lives in sh*t rather than a world in which less people or a lesser proportion of people live in sh*t.
It was probably more to do with the fear that they would be forced to install them / maintain them.
But this relative poverty thing, again.
Most people would rather be head of a hierarchy. Most people would rather be best house on the worst street.
That is odd, to me. I always thought the idea was to be worst house on the best street. Becaue then... Your environment is conducive to your getting better. You are ALLOWED to get better, at the very least. You would actually be allowed. Neighbours would approve of your efforts to improve.
We see that some people in some countries have access to x or y or z in their health system - but we don't.
What do we need to do to make that happen, here? How can we make that happen here? Why do certain things in healthcare cost so much? Especially surgeries (if you can reduce the reliance on medications and medical devices and patiented technologies)... Why can't we clear the surgical waitlists for routine procedures?
Instead... Lets try and restrict access to information... So the people don't even know these procedures exist... People won't be upset they are dying if they don't know that what htey are dying of is preventable...
ANd of course the vultures circling... Always...
I feel sad, today. I don't want to piss off the public health people. There are good people, I'm sure. I... Couldn't work in it, that's for sure.
Of course they should have nice conferences and so on. And the government should also fund the arts. And there are perfectly nice managers and so on who are doing their best to make an honest living and so on... And no, I don't suppose I do want to see them out of work...
But I'm scared about whether I'll find a suitable house, I guess. I think it is more important to me than most people to have my own quiet private space.
Which is of course why I never seem to have one.
It's a nasty world. I don't like it very much.
It will be okay.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1094248
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20140225/msgs/1095769.html