Medical science is making such remarkable progress that soon none of us will be well.
— Aldous Huxley
I guess we could call this the fallacy of intervention, which I also discussed in this journal entry about things getting more complex. The idea that spending time thinking and "addressing" problems within a system will always improve the situation, when in reality doing nothing can actually be better. For instance, the belief that putting more regulations on the road will reduce accidents and make driving a smoother experience, or that spending more on healthcare will make people more healthy.
Ignoring the opportunity cost of the investment, more intervention can be actively bad, because the fundamental problem with institutions is that they have their own agenda, meaning that pouring more money into them has no guarantee that human quality of life will actually improve, since it is decoupled from what maintains the institution, which is funding and staffing.
A world where people can diagnose and heal themselves, and only need professionals for specific interventions would be amazing for individuals, but it would be disastrous for health institutions, which is why the direction has always been towards more disempowerment of the individual, specialized knowledge reserved to an elite, and black box "solutions" to symptoms rather than addressing the roots of the issue, in the form of pills. 15
8 I keep using the word "ego" from that point onward, which should be kept distinct from "self", using the terms as Darren Allen would. Self is the sense of “you” as a human being, which is separate from other things, and which allows you to feel the external world, think about it and act upon reality through your body and will. Self is a tool which helps you navigate life, and as such there is nothing wrong with it, but when the tool becomes a machine and no longer has a conscious user, that is when self becomes ego and troubles begin. Ego cannot turn itself off, and as such it believes to be you and will do everything to maintain itself, which is why it is so insensitive, power-hungry and prone to addictions.
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2024-11-30