Note: this text is a translation by LO of an article in the Dutch Financial Times (see my blog of this morning).
Our health is the most important value in today’s society. Values like freedom and safety were once more important but have been superseded by health. While health is basically nothing more than a rather precarious human situation that will come to an end, sooner or later. In a distant past, people were looking forward to that ending as it was also the beginning of something wonderful, in those days. For a population that no longer seriously believes in an afterlife, the only meaning of our existence is to extend it as long as possible, and our most important tool is health.
Because we have learned to hold our health in such a high regard, we have allowed that the medical world holds us in an iron grip. The military-industrial complex, for which American sociologist Charles Wright-Mills warned in his book The Power Elite (1956), has slowly been taken over by a kind of medical-industrial complex. This has enormous consequences for all of us. The collusion of governments, the military and arms dealers didn’t have a daily impact on citizens, but the medical empire penetrates into the capillaries of our existence.
We have allowed that the medical world holds us in an iron grip.
The question one could obviously raise, is how healthy is a society that focuses on health. Last week, I read some scientific articles about a side effect which has gained little media interest in these hysterical pandemic times: the ecological footprint of global healthcare. It accounts for 4.5% to 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than – for example – the car industry or aviation.
On a national level, the differences are revealing. The US healthcare industry accounts for 7% of their greenhouse gas emissions. Poor countries usually account for 1.5% to 2% and our own country [LO: the Netherlands] appears to be in the middle. Of course, precise data are often lacking but I assure you: all data point to a dark-red direction.
Not to mention some other problems – like the production of chemical waste by the healthcare industry – but an inevitable question is: how much damage does healthcare cause? An inevitable initial conclusion is: worry less about taking a car or an airplane, take your responsibility, and avoid healthcare. Or embrace God and believe in an existence after this existence.
Original Dutch source: https://fd.nl/opinie/1397581/gezond-geloof
Note LO: this is a best efforts translation to reflect the article’s meaning.
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