16-11-2009, 11:26 AM
Gary McGowan Wrote:I don't doubt or have argument with anything you say, David. I have also heard reports complementing the UK system by visitors to the UK. And thank you for the history/background.
As far as I know, LaRouche and colleagues have never said nor intended to imply that "the British NHS ... is an inherently fascist system" (Quote from Jan's post). What they are saying is that the system has recently been subject to austerity measures affecting significantly large numbers of people who are judged as being close to death, and that those (fascist) austerity measures are being promulgated in the U.S.A. and many other countries. Further, they show who is involved in this operation. Details in my post above.
Thanks Gary. But there are still horrible and inaccurate "designer" flaws in the LaRouche statements. My mother is 86 and recently suffered a very nasty internal injury that brought her close to death. She was treated with great care by the NHS staff and is now back on her feet, hale and hearty. This was the second major operation she has had in the last two years. There were no "austerity measures" in her case.
Likewise, my wife's mother died fairly recently from lung cancer. She choose not to be treated at 79 years of age. The NHS practitioners tried to convince her otherwise but, in the end, accepted her decision and were able to guide her nursing over her last few days with consideration and dignity. There were no "austerity measures" there either.
I could go on and on with cases of friends and others who are elderly and who receive NHS help.
The only austerity measures I have ever come across is the NHS food which is widely regarded as awful. Admittedly there are also not usually the nice comfy private hotel rooms that one gets in a private hospital.
A member of our family who is a GP advises that anyone who benefits from private health insurance should certainly use it, but when it comes to major surgery or life threatening issues he repeatedly recommends patients to use the NHS as private hospitals do not have the staffing or expertise available to them and are not very effective at those levels and should be shunned for that reason alone.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14