Danielle Holliday”s kind and patient letter attempting to answer my rhetorical question as to the location of the Ten Commandments within the second set of tablets and Tom Lincoln”s two-part commentary justifying our current health care system have much in common.
Danielle, I believe unintentionally, misread my question and proceeded to enter her comfort zone casually ignoring continental-wide genocide, the pope”s prosecution of the crusades, and 1,000 years of the Dark Ages, to instead provide information about the contents of the Ark: those pesky tablets, Aaron”s budding rod, a pot of manna, and God”s dwelling place on earth to boot. Tough luck to have misplaced it!
Both of these commentaries display the art of framing, the refocusing of ideas to one”s own agenda, clearly displayed in Danielle”s response, and at the heart of Tom”s guest commentary. Tom”s description of the evils of changing our current health care system make the Armageddon in Revelation and Daniel seem like a minor inconvenience, ignoring the plight of forty-million uninsured men, women and children; allowing 70,000 people to die each year because they lack health care.
University of Virginia professor Jonathan Haidt has developed a Moral Foundation Theory which can shed some insight into world dividing framing. Jonathan posits that as humans evolved over the course of millions of years they developed just five moral precepts that are key to survival. These moral precepts work in a similar way our sense of taste works, automatically, quickly, and without thought detecting bitter, salt, sour, sweet and savory. In a nutshell these moral precepts are: Harm, Fairness, In-group, Authority, and Purity: is this action harming anyone?, is this action fair to all people?, hurray for our side!, respect for law and order!, and yuck, that”s gross!
Liberals experience mostly Harm and Fairness concerns while conservatives experience an equal combination of all five. Liberals are not concerned much about who does what to whom or where when gays get together, about total respect for the police, or about chanting our God”s better than your God. Conservatives are more concerned about these ideas. The interesting point is that these moral concerns are experienced instantaneously and only later does the rationale for these feelings appear.
As a liberal I feel health care should be as universal as education, just as it is in 29 of the 30 developed countries of the world, where health care is as important as education, defense and the post office. Shouldn”t our first question be how can we provide all Americans a right to proper care and respect along with the right to think and pray as we like, get an education, and to vote in free elections; is it acceptable that some people die because they can”t see a doctor when they get sick?
When we get sick isn”t everybody equal?
Greg Blinn
Kelseyville
