True, but it does not follow from what I said. I said that some level of expertise should be a required to make important policy decisions - but that does not imply that one particlar group of stakeholders with expertise should make all the decisions. Health care involves all kinds of expertise, from surgery to drug administration, to public health and prevention, to organizational and ethical issues - and experts from all these fields should be involved, as well as ombudsmen representing the patients. That is infinitely better than the current practice of politcal demagogues inciting the ignorant masses (yes the same folks who belive that there is hell, WMD have been found, Amerikuns are still held captive in Vietnam, and Elvis lives) to support their crooked deals.
Ian:
> So we can ignore them and get on with our lives of course. I
> think we should let go of the idea that politicians are
> stupid and simply embrace the notion that they are
> indifferent/malevolent to those individuals/classes who are
> not demanding that what the politicians do directly benefit
> them. This clearly is one of the reasons the rich keep them
> on a tight leash.
Either that or you can keep banging your head against the wall of ignorance and indifference. One gets what one bargains for. You can bring a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. It looks like most people in this country do not mind being kept on a short leash as long as they are lead by a dumbass who looks and acts like them and wraps himself in the old glory.
Dennis:
> Didn't this happen during the Maoist Cultural Rev of the
> mid-60s? Weren't "bourgeois" doctors and others of the
> "parasitic" class removed from their positions by Red Guards
> based on ideology rather than their professional ability? I
> know this was dramatized in the film "To Live" (a real fav
> among Maoists, I'm sure), but how often did it happen in
> reality? Thomas Seay? Anyone?
I lived in China during the Cultural Revolution and witnessed it. Professionals branded as criminals and carried on lorries like animals for public humilation, Shanghai conservatory professors dragged from their offices and their hands being broken so they could not play "bourgeois" music anyomore, high school teachers being "tried" and humiliated by their students day after day after day. There was no ideology - anyone who appeared smart of profesional was a suspect. Populist democracy in a full swing.
Wojtek