Category: Culture Change

Medical associations only work if members agree to work together. It takes more than great structure to hold us together.

If members get drunk on victimhood, then associations will crumble. Thinking that everything-is-about-power guarantees ruin.

We must value each other, without resentment or fear of someone else’s apparent power or privilege. Not to be polite or cuddly; we need to value how differences further a common cause.

Feeling the Hate

The only truly awkward presentation I had to make as president was a welcome and update for a sub-group of the Ontario Medical Association.

Everyone was a doctor. Everyone was an OMA member. And almost everyone appeared to hold deep resentment—even spite—for my physical presence.

I have faced many rooms full of angry doctors. Individuals who yell or curse care enough to get mad. You can work with them. But frowns, scowls, and icy silence rule out conversation. (Bested only by morons chanting in unison.) Continue reading “Medical Associations – Victimhood and False Hope in Structure”

Being tough is out of style, except in sports and criticizing doctors…soccer notwithstanding.

Trudeau’s tears make the front page. It is woke to cry.

Canada used to be tough. Life was hard. You needed grit to survive.

Parents wanted children to grow up and leave childish things behind. Life is better now, softer.

Toughness has less value in a world of Starbucks and Superstores. Why celebrate pioneering toughness when there is no pioneering left to do?

Toughness also has a dark side. Grit without compassion is cruel, heartless. Humans are born cruel and learn compassion. For those raised poorly, “Grow up,” might mean, “You are nothing.” Continue reading “Victimhood Culture”

I’m offended.

You’re offensive.

I’m offended that you are offended!

Two train wrecks have collided around free speech in medical politics right now.

The first has to do with the politically correct/social justice warrior/virtue signalling/identity politics movement.

Proclaiming personal offence has replaced sticking out one’s tongue in the schoolyard of adult conversation. Signalling solidarity with every oppressed group is the new morality.

Thou shalt show empathy.

Thou shalt not ask rational questions such as, “Why can’t you afford meds, but you upgrade your iPhone every 6 months?”

Brace yourself. People will take offence. Listeners will join a mob to signal their own virtue at your malfeasance.

There is only one accepted view. Questions are out. Debate is unwelcome.

The second train wreck has to do with the Summer of 2016. It was a dark and nasty time for doctors in Ontario. Continue reading “Offence, Free Speech and a Code of Conduct”