From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sat Jul 23 2005 - 02:52:57 BST
Hi Arlo,
> I do think one next big hurdle is addressing the issue of health care, and
> I know from your ongoing exchange with MSH that topic is potentially too
> "heated" to make any progress. Let me ask it this way. "Health services"
> compromise everything from EMT responses to Viagra, from the Red Cross to
> Blue Cross/Blue Shield, from life-saving angioplasty to cancer screenings,
> from skin grafts for burn victims to boob-jobs.
Yes. Thanks for defining "health services." It saves lots of time.
> While there are extremists who argue that "everything" in the health-care
> umbrella should be provided "free via-taxation", and those that argue that
> "everything" in the health-care umbrella should be privatized and sold only
> to those with capital-means, I think both of these positions are somewhat
> strawmen-positions. My personal feeling, and I think yours may be too (if I
> understand correctly that you do not object to EMT services being funded by
> tax dollars), is that some health-services should be supported by a
> community, and others should be left to the "free market".
Yes. You have read my mind.
> One way to think about this is a continuum from "life saving" to "life
> enhancing". Having an ambulance crew available to perform CPR on a
> heart-attack victim is what I would call "life saving", and so I opt to
> consider this a valid use of community-supported health care. Viagra
> prescriptions I would call "life enhancing", and using our "Freedom is not
> the absence of necessity" I would say this is not a valid use of
> community-supported health care.
As I've argued before, "life saving" is a term with different meanings to
different people. You and I may agree as to what constitutes "saving" as
opposed to "enhancing," but others will disagree. So the approach I would
take is, following Pirsig's belief that democracy "established the
intellectual order over the social order" (and our own agreement to appeal
to the intellectual level in trying to come up with ideas for a moral
society) would be to leave such decisions up to local communities. Some
will opt by democratic vote to tax themselves for more health services
than others. If an entire nation votes for universal health services, so
be it. From my knowledge of how other countries have fared under
government health programs, I would fight and vote against it. But just as
I vote to be taxed to support local firemen and policemen, I would vote to
support ambulance service and a nurse at the local public school.
Do this seem reasonable to you?
> [Arlo now adds]
> Something that struck me yesterday (while out riding) was that according to
> Csikszentmihaly, "Flow" requires a sustained level of challenge. That is,
> you can't "Flow" if some necessity isn't driving you forward. A cyclist,
> for example, finds flow in those times when her/his current skills are
> being pushed at just the right degree to sustain motivation and push
> her/his skills further. A mathematician will not find flow in solving basic
> addition problems, but in a zone between what s/he knows and that next push
> to something more, a push brought only about by some meaningful necessity
> or goal. I just point this out because I know we've both expressed interest
> in Csikszentmihaly's ideas.
Glad you reminded me of this. It's been awhile since I thought of his
"flow" thesis (you typed his name twice, I don't dare even once), but I
agree all over again that he's on to something important. As you may
remember, I'm into watercolor painting. From experience I know if I don't
challenge myself by attempting something new, either subject matter or
technique, I can get bored rather quickly. Of course, in painting there's
such a wide gap between my meager abilities and that of the great ones
that I sometimes wonder why I bother at all. Still, the old siren song of
DQ keeps egging me on.
Platt
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