Arrogance, Incompetence and Cynicism: Bush and Those “Hated” Doctors

Joe Klein in the April 16th 2007 issue of Time Magazine in his Commentary section dissected the behavior (or should I say misbehavior) of President Bush and his Administration and for which Bush is solely responsible (“the buck stops here”). I was struck not only about the validity of the analysis about Bush but also that, by golly, the same analysis could be made about those “hated” physicians that my visitors are writing about in the various threads on my blog .

Klein writes that the mechanism of the collapse of the Bush Administration is centered in three qualities: arrogance (the decision to “surge” in Iraq similar to the motivation to initiate the Iraq war),incompetence (the recent Walter Reed Hospital and the long term care of the disabled American troops issue) and cynicism (in the removal of the U.S. Attorneys). Read the whole article in Time.

In the medical profession, arrogance equals paternalism: “As your doctor, I know more about you than you do and therefore you should do what I say.”. Incompetence equals not taking time or interest to understand the patient, examine the patient adequately and perform properly other professional duties for the patient. And finally cynicism equals having distrust regarding the ethical basis for the profession of medicine and in view of that distrust therefore behaving unethically.

It seems to me that as with our President Bush, self-interest is behind all these three unproductive and destructive qualities. Bush’s arrogance may have resulted from self-interest. Klein suggests that rationale for the invasion was to payback Saddam for the attempt on his father’s life. I think it also obvious that Bush has self-interest to see that his war in Iraq is won to preserve something uplifting in his own legacy thus keep the war going until it is won. I wonder if his attempt to strengthen his own political stature and that of his party along with making an effort to preserve his relationships to his friends in the Administration caused distractions in management and supervision and the resulting incompetence and cynicism that Klein describes.

Those “hated” physicians are those who are not working for their patients but actually are working for themselves and obviously patients easily sense that attitude.. What can we do about all this? Elect a President who cares for the people more than for him/herself and find a doctor who intends to keep the patient’s trust by acting in the patient’s interest rather than his or her own. Do you think that finding a President or a physician who meets that goal is almost impossible? ..Maurice.