Obama did it. Trump does it. Trudeau does it too. Politicians talk about values as if they know what voters think.
A politician promotes his values to normalize his vision.
Tricky politicians use familiar words and give them new meaning. They use popular support for one thing to build support for something completely different.
For example, since everyone supports motherhood, it shows we support apple pie too.
On his quest for state medicine, Tommy Douglas told a story. Young Tom needed surgery. His family was poor. A surgeon fixed Tommy for free. It was great for Tommy, but what about all the other sick kids? Is it fair that farmers must choose between losing the farm and losing a daughter’s limb?
Compassion Not Equality
Most Medicare books start the same way. The author tells a story about disease and financial ruin, before Medicare. They appeal to compassion and inflame fear of loss. People should never suffer without care or go broke from medical bills.
Canadians agree. We are moved by suffering and loss. And that is where we get tricked. Douglas and company trades compassion for “equality” and fear for “care regardless of ability to pay.”
But compassion is not the same as equality. They are as different as colour and temperature. No one knows the temperature of purple. They are different categories. Compassion and equality are different categories also. It is a category mistake to conflate the two. Continue reading “Compassion Not Equality – Canadian Values in Medicare”