Hype is totally overrated. Like MJ coming back as a Wizard, Y2K, or global warming, it leaves you like a flat tire on the side of the road. And even though you know how to put the spare on, the thought of actually doing it deflates you even more, if that were possible.
What I mean is this...living in Florida, and maybe it's like this everywhere, I pass by about 20 billboards a day telling me - a la, telling everyone - that breast enhancement, liposuction, and cosmetic surgery are keys to happiness. In an hour TV show I'll sit through three Viagra-esque commercials, one penile enlargement ad, and countless half-naked body spots directed at both consciously and subliminally convincing me that if I don't look like Brad Pitt I ought to at least spend my life savings trying.
Don't get me wrong, I have a little man-crush on the guy, but I'm not about to go out and get hair implants just because some marketing windbag on the 33th floor somewhere has his own insecurities about the teasing he endured as a 4th grade schoolboy.
And yet there's this sense of entitlement we have that says we should be our own person, follow our dreams, don't worry about what people think. It sounds healthy but it's veneered over with a false sense of self because we fail to recognize that it's really not okay to be 5'2" and weigh two and a quarter, nor is it okay to go get lipo to take away the symptom without addressing the root problem.
I guess what I'm advocating is that if you really want to swim against the current, if you really want to "be your own person," then start by recognizing the illegitimacy of both extremes. God has not created us to be who we're not, but he hasn't created us to live a lie either. We've been exactly fashioned in imperfection, and it's only by acknowledging our shortcomings that we can see our strengths, thus enabling us to reject the hype of either spectrum's end.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Why Health Insurance is not really INSURANCE at all
I read an interesting article today regarding the Myth of Health Insurance (http://tinyurl.com/c7glos if anyone cares to read the whole thing). The long and short of it is this - health "insurance" has little to do with health and nothing at all to do with insurance. Before you dismiss him as a zealot, ask yourself a couple of questions:
1) The last time I bought car insurance, did I immediately go out and wreck it so I could make a claim?
2) Have I filed a homeowners claim recently with (Allstate, State Farm, etc) because the faucet was leaky, the downspout came off, or the flooring was dirty?
The truth is, insurance, by definition, is transferring the risk off of yourself onto someone else in return for paying a premium; that way they assume responsibility should something go wrong. In other words, no one buys car insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, or any other kind of insurance with the itching irrational desire to go out and use it! Yet that's the idea to which many subscribe - I pay a premium, the insurance company should cover everything!
The question we must ask ourselves is, is health care an inalienable right or is it a commodity to be sold on the open market place? The author's position is that is it "immoral and impractical" for us to reject personal responsibility for our health and take a position of entitlement when it comes to health. After all, why should I pay the same premium as you when you've drank your liver under the table, smoked your lungs to hell itself and ate your way into stardom on The Biggest Loser?
The moral dilema is not whether or not we should provide health care to all, but rather at what point our eschewing of personal responsibility becomes negligent enough to punish.
I have to say, he's got a point.
1) The last time I bought car insurance, did I immediately go out and wreck it so I could make a claim?
2) Have I filed a homeowners claim recently with (Allstate, State Farm, etc) because the faucet was leaky, the downspout came off, or the flooring was dirty?
The truth is, insurance, by definition, is transferring the risk off of yourself onto someone else in return for paying a premium; that way they assume responsibility should something go wrong. In other words, no one buys car insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, or any other kind of insurance with the itching irrational desire to go out and use it! Yet that's the idea to which many subscribe - I pay a premium, the insurance company should cover everything!
The question we must ask ourselves is, is health care an inalienable right or is it a commodity to be sold on the open market place? The author's position is that is it "immoral and impractical" for us to reject personal responsibility for our health and take a position of entitlement when it comes to health. After all, why should I pay the same premium as you when you've drank your liver under the table, smoked your lungs to hell itself and ate your way into stardom on The Biggest Loser?
The moral dilema is not whether or not we should provide health care to all, but rather at what point our eschewing of personal responsibility becomes negligent enough to punish.
I have to say, he's got a point.
Monday, August 24, 2009
People Are Mad at the Government...(and why I'm really not)
The month of August has seen town hall after bloody town hall, talking head know-it-alls from every news outlet you can think of, and political pandering from your favorite local representative (btw, if the Spirit moves you, contact your local representative - http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#fl).
On one hand it's been great to see the passion return to the heartland and not be dominated by the fringe outskirts of Los Angeles and New York, but in another sense it's disheartening to see such lack of self-control from so many of these good folk. And make no mistake, I think they're good folk, and when you tick off good folk for long enough, they'll fight back.
But really, the government isn't the problem. Don't misinterpret me, I didn't vote for our current president and wasn't too happy about how the former one spent his last 2 years in office. The real issue is not these institutions, but rather good ol' individual American apathy. We got so used to the glitz and glamour of the wealthiest nation on earth that we got arrogant; we felt entitled to such wealth, and assumed we'd continually increase it....increase it without acknowledging the One who enabled us to get here in the first place. Entitlement gave way to apathy, and before we knew it, our representatives - not all, to be sure, but many - hijacked power from the people who were too self-absorbed to care about whom they weren't electing. And now, it's an ever-loving mess.
So should people be mad at the government? Sure, knock your socks off. But I'm not - I'm mad at myself, because I fell into the same apathetic trap of everyone else.
Surely I'm not the only one who will admit it...
On one hand it's been great to see the passion return to the heartland and not be dominated by the fringe outskirts of Los Angeles and New York, but in another sense it's disheartening to see such lack of self-control from so many of these good folk. And make no mistake, I think they're good folk, and when you tick off good folk for long enough, they'll fight back.
But really, the government isn't the problem. Don't misinterpret me, I didn't vote for our current president and wasn't too happy about how the former one spent his last 2 years in office. The real issue is not these institutions, but rather good ol' individual American apathy. We got so used to the glitz and glamour of the wealthiest nation on earth that we got arrogant; we felt entitled to such wealth, and assumed we'd continually increase it....increase it without acknowledging the One who enabled us to get here in the first place. Entitlement gave way to apathy, and before we knew it, our representatives - not all, to be sure, but many - hijacked power from the people who were too self-absorbed to care about whom they weren't electing. And now, it's an ever-loving mess.
So should people be mad at the government? Sure, knock your socks off. But I'm not - I'm mad at myself, because I fell into the same apathetic trap of everyone else.
Surely I'm not the only one who will admit it...
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