I just can’t go there. I can’t join them yet. Being an open-minded person, still leaning toward caution than risk, I’m not yet convinced vaccines do more harm than good. I can’t cross that line of thinking the medical establishment is pulling the wool over our eyes. Can’t yet join the millions who say they and their family will never be vaccinated against anything ever again. I ponder yet admire that level of brazen. These are musings from a political radical—well, maybe in my 30s. Now I’ve mellowed into a liberal … but medically maybe a moderate.
Who thinks they’re smarter than a doctor? Nowadays everyone does. Who needs a licensed educated insured cautious practicing physician to diagnose human ailments and diseases when we have the internet in the palm of our hands? We can diagnose ourselves silly with research from the worldwide web and of course indulge presumed courses of treatment.
Does this make sense to anybody? How reckless can people be assuming they know more about anything and everything that goes wrong with the human body than a doctor? Today millions trust the internet over a doctor. Even Kramer said so on “Seinfeld” back in the ’90s. Kramer. He also said the alternative media is where the real news is. So there you have it: Do you wanna be a Seinfeld or a Kramer? I’m still a Seinfeld.
What kind of idiot says medical schools make doctors stupid?
This is actually an internet meme. As a retired educator, I don’t like it. First, I question the young guy in the picture, the dude sitting laid back at a table outdoors with that sign which also beckons anyone to ask him why. We know the millions of dollars it takes just to become a doctor, still the one group with double and triple the required education than other college graduates. Say what you will, think what you will, but more education makes you smarter not stupid, dumb dumb.
What really bothers me about some guy out there claiming medical school made him stupid is the impact it has on our young people. They will never forget that meme. When they come of age to start planning a career path including college, that meme buried in their subconscious will hinder aspiration toward the top of the medical profession. America already has a hard time getting anyone to seriously pursue the career of physician, simply due to the astronomical medical education cost.
The most important thing for us to remember about anyone who pursues medicine and the admirable path of MD—whether family practitioner, pediatrics, OB/GYN, neurosurgeon (that means brain surgeon) or by far the most lucrative, sports medicine—they all have to be highly intelligent people. Come on now. Few of us are born with or develop the inclination to ace chemistry. So, knock that chip off the shoulder and admit none of us know more than a doctor. That said, the medical establishment has long been suspect for its sustaining financial bond with the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
Who said watching TV makes you stupid?
Ah, now we’ve come to the reason people today think they know more about their bodies and the goings-on within than a doctor. Slick pharmaceutical TV ads—with fine actors in real-life scenarios as background music touches the heart, ensuring memory recall—cost big pharma a bundle. More than one generation now believes the ads offer any cure and treatment for an array of conditions—some conditions a lot of people don’t even have. I’d say most of us don’t have. That’s hitting the nail on the head. See, I remember when the pharmaceutical industry was prohibited from advertising prescription meds on TV coast to coast. Why? Because people are highly susceptible to hearing repeatedly about headaches, fatigue, mental illness and cancer, so much so that some viewers start to think they have those conditions, too, and then ask their doctors for the specific prescription … before a diagnosis. Smart doctors know how best to deal with such a patient. Shady doctors would play along.
The generation of taking a pill or pills to feel better, however, is dying out. No pun intended. My generation and younger asks questions first before taking medicine or undergoing treatment just because a doctor says so. Perhaps we’ve created a generation of pseudo know-it-alls who at this point in medical history just don’t believe a word that comes out of a doctor’s mouth. But that was not the Baby Boomers’ intention.
Hey, when I’m sick, I’m the first to seek natural healing and aromatherapies, say prayers and positive affirmations while clutching crystals and crosses—anything than take the time out of my job to wait in a doctor’s office with coughing sneezing wheezing sickies, then strip down in the exam room and 30 minutes later tell a doc what’s wrong and then get dressed to head to a pharmacy. But, my experience time and again is: I always end up doing just that, along with taking natural healers, too. It’s a vicious cycle getting sick or injured or old and enduring a newly developed chronic pain. Still, I go to a doctor because sometimes I cannot heal myself, and I get sick of being sick.
Along with pharmaceutical TV ads, people are on to the cost of health insurance. Remember when we thought something was going to be done about that with each presidential election starting with Bill Clinton? Then Barack Obama does just that, upends the system. And there was hell to pay. Turns out, Americans love their insurance. That was NEWS TO ME. The only people who love their insurance are the lucky who work for huge corporations and businesses. Otherwise, the rest are screwed by premiums and deductibles that the Other Half would consider simply a lie. The cost of health insurance is no lie.
So now I’d say the Boomers, hippie dippies that they once were and some still are including yours truly, have produced a couple of generations who have taken our natural skepticism of authority and The Man to a whole other level. It is not just question everyone about everything. It’s shooting the bird at an educated segment of the population. In the end, the doctor will see you now. And if not him or her, then the funeral biz awaits us all.