Organizing for America | May The Force Be With You: Beyond the Paralytic Meme of 'Right or Privilege'

Beyond the Paralytic Meme of 'Right or Privilege'

By Stephen Miller - Nov 1st, 2008 at 5:02 pm EDT

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You will hear the question of universal health care, something which all other modern industrial states have implemented, broached in the frame: "Health care- right or privilege?".

This is a paralytic meme. By that I mean it works to paralyze debate and effective action. Few would argue that health care should only be a privilege of a monied elite. The proposition is obviously unsupportable on ethical grounds. But arguing that health-care is a "right" sounds, to those who can afford it, like they'll have to pay for those who can't. And so there is resistance there too. The debate is paralyzed.

The same meme is applied to education, pensions, job security, vacation time, even gun ownership.

In fact, single-payer, affordable universal health-care coverage is the smart thing for a nation's people to do for the good of the nation, and in democracies the people act through their chosen representatives, that is, 'the government'. It's a smart investment in the country's future. Overall good health increases well-being and prosperity.

It would also be smart to offer everyone the opportunity to study through college and degree programs; that would be a smart investment in our future.

To rapidly develop and deploy alternative energy sources, the ones based on free, unlimited, and locally harness-able sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal; that would be smart, a smart investment in our future.

And, while we're at it, the elimination of nuclear weapons; that would be smart. This sword of Damocles doesn't have to hang over our heads, it's not smart.

Smart is a way of thinking.

Which is smart.

Stephen Miller, Dvmx
also: Notes Toward an American Renaissance (2006)

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