September 6, 2009
(The Swamp) - I don't always agree with Sen. Lamar Alexander. He's a moderate
and I'm not. But he said something on one of the Sunday news talk shows that bears repeating:
"Health Care is a complex system."
I agree.
Buried beneath this simple statement is the amazing fact that over 400 people we should
be able to trust, in that majestic building in Washington, actually think they can solve this
complex puzzle by adding to its complexity. The hubris and the arrogance is canny and unbelievable.
Complex systems have been studied by scientists and mathematicians for over 7,000 years.
Not one complex system has been completely mapped or understood. We do not know all
there is to know about medicine, the effects of prayer on healing, or even why Heisenberg's
Uncertainty Rule is so pervasive in the argument about Schrödinger's Cat. We do not know
all there is to know about the stars, or our own weather, or oceans, or why a car's mileage
per gallon cannot accurately be measured (your government made its 55mph conclusion based
on variable exhaust patterns at various rpms, not actual mileage - they do not take into account
variable torque or gear ratios or inertia over variable surfaces).
Now comes a handsome, bright, hip, and extremely persuasive occupant of the White House
who maintains that he has a solution to the complex system of Health Care. The very fact
that extant Health Care is already a beast of Federal fooling around doesn't phase him or
his folk at all. They can fix it, they say.
On the other hand, there is that bothersome thing, called Chaos Theory, which pervades
every discipline, like the boogey-man in the shadows of reality, waiting to jump out and scare
you with the eternal scientific question, "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?" How many irate
fly-over people will it take, asking that question, in order for someone to wake up and realize
they are defeated already by the complex system?
And folks, politicians are not rocket scientists. Even the scientists they do use are tenure-haunted
people who are desperate to agree with anything that continues their salary or federal grant.
What we need to garner from this admonition is the fact that there is only one way to solve
a complex situation: it must sort itself out, without government intrusion.
No longer can judges rule from a position of an organic Constitution. Lawsuits must be paid
for by the losers. Health should be paid for by those who can.
The money raped and ravaged from the everyday taxpayer, rich and poor, must be returned
AS promised. And the government must no longer think itself the PREVENTER of troubles
- only the helper after problems, and that, by voluntary means.
Complex Systems are not just hard to solve. They are IMPOSSIBLE to solve by any human
means but acceptance or avoidance.
- Dick Anderson