WHERE IS JOHN GALT?

One of my all time favorite novels is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (Random House 1957). Not only is it a great work of fiction, it is quite thought provoking reading. In a nutshell it is the story of the demise of capitalism in America. Government intervention in business becomes so pervasive and destructive to creativity and independent thought that the best and brightest, led by John Galt, go on strike. They just walk away from their businesses and hang together in Colorado. Meanwhile the country crumbles from within because the only people left are the mediocre freeloaders.

John Galt is the hero of the book. Galt informs citizens that the men of intellect are on strike, that they require freedom of thought and action, and that they refuse to work under the dictatorship in power. The thinkers won't return, Galt says, until human society recognizes an individual's right to live his own life. Only when the moral code of self-sacrifice is rejected will the thinkers be free to create, and only then will they return.

Government involvement in our lives took another huge step yesterday with the Supreme Court ruling on Obama's mandatory healthcare edict. I guess if you are a health insurance company it's great news. I mean how can you miss if the government decrees everyone must buy your product?

At the same time our ever more fascist government is forcing people to use establishment medical practices it is waging war on anyone who tries to offer alternative methods or grow clean food. I'm not usually a conspiracy nut but this is all very fishy to me. It is documented fact that hundreds of thousands of people die each year from hospital errors, physician errors, and dangerous pharmaceuticals. So why are we now being forced to use this most flawed system?

Instead of approaching healthcare from a sensible angle, like prevention, the government is now actually dictating people line up and get into the system. IMO, this is completely and utterly insane. If this government wants to be a dictatorship why don't they make it law that people must exercise thirty minutes a day? That would probably result in an enormous reduction in healthcare costs and it wouldn't cost anyone a penny, either the individual or the collective taxpayers. Oh, silly me. That's no good. The new American way requires that special interests must be enriched at the expense of the people .... ALWAYS!

I heard Donald Trump interviewed after the ruling and he said that many of his friends who own businesses would most likely just fold, they could not remain profitable with the added burden. Another nail in the coffin of entrepreneurship. Another win for corporate dominance. It's what got me thinking about Atlas Shrugged.

Ayn Rand knew a thing or two about the brutality of Communist tyranny. She was born in Russia in 1905 and witnessed first hand the Bolshevik Revolution, the Communist conquest of Russia, and the political oppression that followed. As I watch our liberties stripped from us one by one, day by day, I wonder where we are headed in this country. I wonder "Where is John Galt?"

If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged I recommend you read it. Even if the message doesn't resonate with you it is a highly entertaining novel.

©Kinsey Barnard

The Broken Healthcare System: Who's responsible?

I think we the people have to take some of the responsibility for the mess the healthcare system is in. These days we overload the system by going to the doctor for every little thing and prefer to hand off responsibility for our health to doctors and pharmaceutical companies instead using a little self-discipline and common sense.

When I was growing up, that would be in the fifties, a person didn’t go to the doctor all that much. In fact, if you were raised on a ranch like I was you hardly ever went unless something was too broke to fix yourself.  Epson salts, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda seemed to take care of most things.

Another lucky break for me was that my grandmother introduced me to Gaylord Hauser when I was either nine or ten. I’m certain of the time frame because my grandmother died in 1960 when I was eleven from lung cancer at the age of 74. Hauser was a pioneer of the concept that there was a direct relationship between diet and health. For many years he was considered a charlatan and a kook. Today he would be considered a guru. I would be surprised if any of my readers have heard of him.

When I was a teenager I purchased his last book called “Gaylord Hauser’s Treasury of Secrets” published in 1963. I made Hauser’s thinking a big part of my own and I believe it has paid major dividends in my life. I checked and Hauser’s books are still in print and available at Amazon.com.

I sure wish my grandma had lived longer. I’m certain there was much more that I could have learned. But, I’m grateful for all that I got. Notice, back when I was a kid young people respected their elders and listened to what they had to say. Well, some of us did.  I’ve always been a square peg in a round hole world.

According to Web MD a whopping 63% of Americans are either overweight or obese. I hope you find that number as staggering as I do. This statistic is as a result of overindulging in fattening foods whilst lounging in the Lazy-Boy and under-indulging in healthy foods and exercise. It’s a vicious cycle. You eat junk because you feel unhappy or depressed. You feel unhappy and depressed because you eat junk and sit on your butt. And, round and round we go. My goodness, 63% of us are on that merry-go-round and it isn’t very merry.

I feel there is just too much emphasis on care and not enough on health. If people would spend more time finding ways to live a healthier lifestyle they wouldn’t be so worked up about the healthcare system and the healthcare system wouldn’t be so overburdened. But, everyone with something to sell panders to our baser instincts and the something for nothing mentality.

In general pharmaceutical companies don’t give a fig about your health. They are in it for the money. Why do you think they bombard you with advertisements urging you to have your doctor prescribe some drug? And, despite a litany of horrendous side effects that should dissuade any thinking person, people are lining up to get them. People they aren’t kidding. They divulge that stuff because it really happens and they want to cover their butts. It’s utter lunacy. I suppose some doctors may feel like they are in a box. If a patient asks for a drug and is denied, what happens if the person has a negative experience with whatever it was the drug was for, lawsuit no doubt. I wonder how many prescriptions are written in self-defense? Now, along with the drug ads we see attorney ads asking for people to join lawsuits over these same drugs because the things they were warned about have happened. Wow, what a surprise. Who would have thought? How much do you think all that adds to the healthcare bill?

All my life I heard about the “joys” of menopause and it was just a given that when you reached a certain age you would go to the doctor and get your Premarin. I assumed I would too. But, I got lucky. In 1985 a friend recommended a book called “What You Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause” by Dr. John R. Lee. I bought the book and read it. It made a whole lot of sense to me. I went the natural route and sailed through menopause as though it never happened. I can’t say those who took the pharmaceutical route had the same experience. In fact I believe many had a lot of trouble with estrogen therapy.

My point for telling you all this is that you need to consider taking responsibility for your own health. Doctors don’t want to see you cut down on office visits. Drug companies don’t want you to discover natural, low cost remedies. They both need lots of sick people in order to make their businesses turn a handsome profit. Do you really want to be a tool? Is it really all that much fun spending your life in the doctor’s office, or worse, the hospital?

I’m no fan of the medical establishment, drug companies or health insurance companies. But, I really think we need to take some responsibility for the state of the healthcare system. I know we all want to believe that we can lead lives of sedentary gluttony and just take a pill to make it all better but that just isn’t going to happen. You have to make sensible lifestyle choices. You have to use a little self-discipline and your noggin. My father forever used to say to me “For heaven’s sake. Try using your head for something besides a hat rack”. I’ve been working on maximizing my health most of my adult life and, at sixty-two, I can honestly say I am in the best shape of my life.

I didn’t even know the healthcare system was broken until it was in the headlines so much you couldn’t avoid it. I didn’t know because I seldom use it. I’ve never been in a hospital except to visit someone else. I take no prescription drugs. I have no arthritis or other diseases associated with my age group. I truly believe that avoidance of the medical establishment has added greatly to my lifetime of good health.

For me it’s all about quality not quantity of life. I have already lived such an extraordinary life each additional day is just icing on the cake. But, for as long as I am on this mortal plane I want to be enjoying it to the max. The only way I know how to do that is to eat healthy and get plenty of exercise. I love cheeseburgers, French fries, ice cream and too many other not “healthy” foods to mention. I eat them all but in moderation. The trick isn’t what you do but how much of it. My mantra is all things in moderation. I’m not skinny. I’ve been a size twelve all my life, except for a period when I was a depressed, suicidal teenager. At that time I was a size fourteen headed for sixteen. I never sought help for my depression. Never took drugs for it. I did once take out a revolver, load it and consider very seriously using it. But, the very act shocked me so badly I put the gun away and never thought about doing it again.

I can hear it now “Yeah, easy for you to say you probably have great genes”. Actually, I don’t. My family is riddled with cancer on both sides and on my father’s side there has been quite a lot of mental disease in the form of manic depression and more than one suicide. But, I don’t dwell on it and do my best to live a sensible lifestyle, so far so good.  I could be crazier than a loon but living out here in the middle of nowhere, who would know? I’m certainly not depressed.


The bottom line is, not only are we smothering the healthcare system we’re dying to do it! Wouldn’t it be better to not be so dependent upon the system, leave it for the unfortunate people who really need it? With 63% of the population overweight or obese you can’t tell me people aren’t using the system as a crutch for an unwillingness to take responsibility for their own health.  Doesn’t it make more sense to focus on your health as opposed to needing care?

So, next time you let yourself get all worked up over the headlines about a broken healthcare system ask yourself if you are part of the solution or part of the problem. If you’re part of the problem get crackin’. When you’re healthy you’re happy.

Mark Twain said it best, “Nothing needs reforming so much as other people’s habits”.

Next week I'm going to weigh on on the deflation vs. inflation debate. Listen to the "experts" at your peril.


©Kinsey Barnard

PS: I added two new galleries to my photoshelter website this week SEA OTTERS and BIG HORN SHEEP