The Hollow Men of Hims

Some of it is that there’s a general breakdown in trust that makes a lot of people think that somebody who shot a healthcare executive is a hero, or that there is little outrage that a lunatic like RFK jr is in charge of HHS. I mean, there are legitimate reasons to think institutions are illegitimate but I think there’s something self-perpetuating about distrust, people find meaning in it. It reminds me of the 1980s and 1990s when there were all the stories right out of Rambo that there were still POW in Vietnam and you’d see those black flags everywhere because it wasn’t patriotic enough to fly an American flag.

I suffered for 25 years from chronic pain that was referred TMJ. I've seen a cardiologist who is fine and all but much of his advice is the exact opposite of what I read on PubMed (and not just one paper on PubMed but 20 or 30 papers.) I've had several psych evals that I learned later were of very high quality for the their time but it took about 45 years for a book to practically jump into my hands at my university library which explained how I'm different from other people. I was annoyed as hell when a sports medicine doctor wrote NAD [1] on my chart when I was complaining about my activities being limited by knee trouble.

I work for a large employer in a state where it is illegal to offer junk insurance. My story was not too different when I was on Obamacare except I was paying what seemed an astronomical amount in premiums. I know a lot of people have it worse.

Looking at the how high the stakes are, I mean, you are all you've got, it's no wonder that people can't look at the limitations of the system with equanimity. The doctors I work accept me being a partner in understanding my conditions and my care but the moment they hear the voice of a professional fibromyalgia sufferer I bet they wish they could quit their job if they didn't have debt for student loans or to start their practice.

A lot of people seem to think "it would be allright if we just got more resources", I wish I could wave a magic wand and let them change places with Michael Jackson. Nobody is doing Elon Musk a favor shooting him up with Ketamine every week as well as other controlled substances. A lot of people just won't take help. I know people with schizophrenia who have no insight into their condition. Others with serious mental health diagnosis who refuse to take any med that isn't a controlled substance. For that matter, families where you get the kids a lot of nice and appropriate stuff for Christmas and you come back in a week and they've trashed all of it.

Having a positive attitude and just some gratitude for being here and the miracle that people have figured out as much they have and that a $10 prescription can cure conditions that were a death sentence just 100 years ago goes a long way. [2] I've personally tried to help a lot of poor people who seemed to have a bottomless pit inside them but if you look at the likes of Elon Musk, rich people can be like that too.

[1] https://www.quora.com/What-does-no-apparent-distress-mean-in...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

The lack of institutional self-awareness is why it's not especially mental to find most humans more trustworthy than any institution. There's a bit of grandma's wisdom in not worrying about Kennedy or being a fan of Luigi.. then there are borderline cases like Shkreli or the CEO of UHC-- they seem to have the non-sentience of the upper-percentile institution (which btw includes almost every place of higher learning in the US, exceptions to be investigated for their unusual processes..)

I suspect the Ben Franklin thought of Congress as a bunch of his peers & not an institution (placeholder for one of PG's underworked cluster of ideas around informality)