Sicko

Saw Sicko tonight and liked it more than any of Moore’s other agitprop interventions. I can’t say I learned anything new, since I’ve long thought universal health care is a requisite human right. A profit-driven (un)health system is criminal and barbaric. That part’s a no brainer, but of course getting there is the heart of the matter. Tony Benn states it forthrightly: when the people demand it they get it. That’s democracy, not the charade we have now. Of course an anxiety-ridden, fearful, demoralized, unhealthy, debt-bondage populace trained to think as if they are the problem, that's most difficult to organize. The power against us, a system profiting off our very bodies and actual lives, is tremendous.

Moore’s point that it’s all about “we” instead of “me” is right on. We already know how shared social costs like fire and police protection work. Wellness and health should be no different. We know that public institutions like schools and libraries are key to democracy. So's health: it’s “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” after all. We know that some of us already have aspects of socialized -- i.e. costs borne across society -- medicine: look at Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, and the great healthcare Congress gets.

Stand and demand it, people.