Asokan Illogically Logical

The Ills of Society and the Best Treatment
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5439-4627-7
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 164 Seiten

World, our country, its citizens and people in power; divided we stand, unable to solve the social problems that plague us. Politically and socially, we are stuck on a Rodent wheel (guinea pig), going round and round with no end in sight. We and politicians list the problems, blame the other party,compound the problems by kicking it to the next election cycle and then to the future generations. Treating a patient for an illness a doctor, often hurts them first ( like an operation) to fix them. This book is a summary of information gathered by the author over the past 50 years with history looked and evaluated as a neutral third party. Few pages in the beginning of each chapter will explain,who,why and what caused heath care crisis or foreign policy crisis like Iran and Syria. He offers solutions, applying his perspective as a Doctor and a Surgeon with a single objective of common good and survival of future generations. It deals with varied important issues like health care reform,education,foreign policy etc.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Asokan, R.

Leseproben

Chapter 1

History Lessons—Irony and Stupidity

For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

—John F. Kennedy

The only thing new in the world is the history that you do not know.

—Harry S Truman

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

—Mark Twain

We look at our country and it is not a stretch to say that it is sick. It shows all the symptoms. Yet we are often unwilling to admit this, particularly if we find ourselves on the winning side of a divisive political issue. It has been said that the victors write history and in that way, we will never truly know how sick the country is. The downtrodden don’t get a voice. But the best way to find out what’s really going on is to think for yourself. Too many people don’t do that; they simply accept what they are told without questioning the agendas of the source of the information. There is a better way: think, investigate, and then decide for yourself.

Our country has many myths we hold as truths. Through the generations, they grow and propagate, gaining believers. The first chapter of the book addresses many of these myths and ironies—beginning with Columbus—and debunks them for what they are: convenient stories we tell ourselves “without the discomfort of thought.” If history really is written by the victors, nowhere is that more true than in the history of the United States.

There are a whole host of historical myths that we believe and retell to subsequent generations. For instance, we celebrate Columbus for discovering America, when in fact he never set foot on the mainland. He also did not “discover” a landmass that was already populated by numerous Native American tribes.

We claim that President Abraham Lincoln fought a civil war to liberate the slaves when, in reality, his intention was to keep the Union of the States together; the abolishment of slavery was a side effect.

We consider President Ronald Reagan to be a modern savior who reduced taxes, when in fact he raised them by rescinding tax breaks. Lionized as a hero, he also doubled the federal deficit, lost two hundred soldiers in barracks bombings in Lebanon, and remained in the office of the president when mentally incapacitated. He was pro-choice when he ran against pro-life Mr. Carter and during his second term, he was pro-life when he ran against Mr. Mondale. He was a great union buster who served as six-term president of the Screen Actors Guild, a union. He fired thirteen thousand air traffic controllers, causing the air safety administration to suffer, and he increased our deficit from $197 billion to $2.85 trillion, yet we still keep naming airports, roads, and buildings after him.

President Barack Obama, demonized by the conservative right for raising taxes, actually reduced them.

We are quick to lay all the blame or glory at the feet of the president, whom we believe enacts all laws and passes all spending bills, when in reality Congress decides. The popularity, “success,” or “failure,” of any given president is decided by the news media. As a result, the myths often become repeated facts that are later considered whole truths.

What we must constantly strive to understand is that our founding fathers were not infallible. And the Constitution, written over two hundred years ago, is still the basis for our modern times. We cannot claim to fully understand the meaning and intent of its framers, so different are the lives we lead today. Yet we are all too quick to criticize those who either believe that this antique document should be interpreted literally or that it serves only as a guideline for our modern lives.

Accordingly, our views and laws about guns defy logic. Humans are emotional and impulsive beings; having guns in their hands often creates tragedy. Clubs and knives are slower weapons. Killing with them takes time. It gives us time to pause and think and gives time for the innocents to defend themselves. We do not have gun control in this country but we want it for the world. At the same time, we selectively provide guns to other countries to kill and suppress their own people and to use them against their neighbors or our soldiers in future wars. President Reagan’s gun sales to Iran are a prime example. It is interesting that it takes two to three weeks to get a phone landline or electricity turned on in your house, but there is no waiting period to obtain a gun. We didn’t think about what would have happened in the stand-your-ground controversy in Florida if Trayvon Martin also had a gun.

The second amendment as read and ratified by states reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” If this statement is given to English-speaking people of various countries and they are asked to interpret its meaning as written, will most of them agree with our present interpretation? When the same law was shown to schoolchildren who could read and understand English, it was interesting to read their various answers. Many of them interpreted that the way we allow people to bear arms indicates that the United States does not have a well-regulated military. Another interpretation indicated that in order to bear arms, a person must be well trained, disciplined, and well regulated. If that’s the case, why are we against regulation of people and their guns, but, as the saying goes, it is useless for sheep to pass a resolution in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.

Often, people who criticize a policy rarely offer solutions or alternatives. Politicians frequently talk about what “needs” to happen and how “things must change” without offering specifics. Many times these same politicians forget they were in favor of the same policies and actions a few months before. Change becomes fashionable, and demanding change—regardless of specifics—is the rallying cry.

By far the biggest myth we believe is that everyone has an equal opportunity to get ahead in this world. In reality, that is far from the truth. There are only a limited number of job opportunities, college admissions slots, and CEO positions. Doors open based on the color of your skin, the shape of your face, your sex, the color of your hair, or for other superficial reasons. We don’t like to admit this because we claim to be a postracial and postsexist society, but that is far from the truth.

Many of us claim not to have inherent prejudice, but if we truly and honestly examine our reactions, we’ll find implicit bias. If a black man and a white man were walking on opposite sides of the street toward us, which side would we choose to walk on? If we have the choice between a black nurse and a white nurse, whom will we choose? If we have the choice between a teacher who wears eyeglasses and a teacher who does not, will we choose the teacher with glasses because we believe that wearing glasses is a sign of intelligence? We have preconceived notions about many things, some of which we are not even fully aware of. But that is the shortcut; that is the easy way out. Acting according to these ingrained opinions allows us to avoid thinking, examining, and combatting our internal prejudices. And yet changing things because we truly understand the fallacy of these reactions is difficult; it is hard. In the 240 years of this country’s existence, we’ve taken only baby steps toward combatting these issues. We’ve got a long way to go.

There are many contradictions in the way we live. We want to go to heaven but we are not willing to accept the inevitability of death. In our country we spend more money treating old age than we do treating diseases. In the past ten years, we’ve created eight to ten new drugs for depression, four new drugs for erectile dysfunction, and only three new drugs for infectious diseases. We are focusing on the wrong thing. Infectious diseases kill both the young and old; about 200 million people are affected and around 180 million people die of infectious diseases every year, and yet we are focusing our resources on erectile dysfunction—a condition that has not killed a single person.

Following this kind of behavior stops research in its tracks. One company buys another company that has gone bankrupt, and they find patent infringement opportunities and file a lawsuit. This is not progress.

We make puzzling decisions and then wonder why things do not turn out as we hoped. And this has long been the case. President Thomas Jefferson said, “The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.” The truth is that no one wins in a war. No one wins in an argument. The last words spoken are the loudest, but that does not prove their veracity. And yet we continue to engage in arguments and war, talking louder and hoping to be the strongest. And still, no one wins.

We have never had so much difficulty finding common ground. If we don’t agree with someone else’s ideology, we label that person a conservative or a liberal, the words carrying an implicit...