It boggles my mind that the same people who cry ‘foul’ about rationing an instant later argue to reduce health care benefits for the needy, to defund crucial programs of care and prevention, and to shift thousands of dollars of annual costs to people – elders, the poor, the disabled – who are least able to bear them.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the hypocrisy in how some people advocate for fairness while simultaneously supporting measures that harm the vulnerable.
Donald Berwick's quote underscores the contradictory nature of social discourse regarding healthcare and support for the needy. It points out the irony of those who complain about limitations in resources yet endorse policies that take away essential health services from society's most vulnerable populations. This reflects a deeper philosophical inquiry into morality, equity, and the societal responsibilities towards the less fortunate, questioning the integrity of arguments that espouse fairness while perpetuating injustice.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about healthcare policy during a community meeting.
Factual truth is always related to other people: it concerns events and circumstances in which many are involved; it is established by witnesses and depends upon testimony; it exists only to the extent that it is spoken about, even if it occurs in the domain of privacy. It is political by nature.
If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life.
Our society is dependent on some precarious mechanisms, and they are very dicey. They can easily collapse.
Seal the openings, shut the doors, dull the sharpness, untie the knots, dim the light, become one with the dust. This is called the profound union.
The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it's only intangibles, ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die.
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