don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

When you bleed, you know you have a health problem. If it's a little cut, you rinse the affected area and put a band-aid on the wound. If you break something, you have a health problem--you seek medical attention. If you're fat, if you smoke, if you have high blood pressure, if you are a nervous wreck- -in these and countless other acute and chronic adverse health states, you know you need professional assistance, specifically, medical help, whether for physical or mental situations or combinations of the two. 

There are other challenges that affect the quality of life or health status, of society. However, many grievous societal cuts, wounds and breaks are ignored or not recognized as problems at all, or at least overlooked, by our leaders. Many of these challenges are profoundly important; most will surely affect quality of life in this country for years to come, much more so than is already apparent. The problems are interrelated. No single organization or governmental body had responsibility for dealing with them. I'll list a few--I'm sure you can think of many more right off the top.

• On the whole, Americans are overwhelmingly fat and astonishingly dumb. According to Peter Strupp, author of Fat, Dumb and Ugly (Simon & Schuster, © 2004), 33% believe in ghosts (up from 16% in 1978). As Irvin D. Yalom notes (The Schopenhauer Cure, Harper Collins, 2005) regarding the superstitious beliefs of the masses, "the lust for magic, mystery and authority" exerts a hold that usually cannot be overcome.
  
  
• Americans elect people like Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, who, in turn, pander to "those who don't even believe in evolution." (Thomas L. Friedman Op-Ed Column in the NY Times, April 29, 2005 entitled, 'What, Me Worry?')
  
  
• American high schools are obsolete. Bill Gates told a governors' conference at the end of April, "By obsolete, I don't just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed and under-funded. ... By obsolete, I mean that our high schools - even when they are working exactly as designed - cannot teach our kids what they need to know today."
  
  
• Many people with horrific lifestyles have little or no medical protection. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 20 million Americans WITH A JOB are uninsured; in Texas, over 30 percent of adults under 65 have no insurance. Despite the fact that no other nation spends as much per capita on medical care as the US, we rank low among Western societies in life expectancy and high in infant mortality. According to Paul Krugman (Op-Ed Column in the NY Times, April 29, 2005 entitled, 'A Private Obsession'), "over a 12-month period, 41 percent of the uninsured were unable to see a doctor when needed because of cost." The Republican government is deadest against a national health care plan like Medicare for everyone; vested interests in the insurance industry and elsewhere remain devoted to a market-based system. 
  
  
• Polls consistently show an overwhelming majority of Americans (90 percent or more) say they believe in the existence of some super-human phenomenon, however vague (in other words, "higher power"), for which there is no scientific proof. Give credit where it's due--this shows religions have run the most successful PR campaign in the history of the world.

One economic quality of life consequence of such grievous societal cuts, wounds and breaks is that we will soon be ill-situated to compete with low-wage, high-human-capital communities in countries like India and China. We are losing our "sustainable edge" on the competition. (For an elaboration of this theme, see John Hagel III and John Seely Brown, The Only Sustainable Edge, HBS Press Book, © 2005.) 

The social quality of life consequences are even more consequential. In a society that becomes less open, pluralistic and democratic, dogma and the morality of absolutes will allow untested claims to knowledge to prosper, pessimism will overwhelm optimism, despair will be more common than hope and dogma will replace learning. There will be more guilt than joy, fear than tolerance, indifference than compassion, selfishness than generosity and faith will be extolled over reason and objective inquiry. 

Only the heroic few will be able to manage or get away with enduring commitments to levels of excellence and nobility of which they are capable. 
 
In any event, don't you agree that if any of this comes to pass, it will clearly rise to the level of becoming "a health problem?" Come to think of it, this state of affairs does not seem so far off anymore.
 
Oh well, just the same, always look on the bright side of life and be well, if you can.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of applied wellness. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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