Smoke grenades in culture wars

Smoke grenades in culture wars

There’s an old saying that the truth is the first casualty in any war. The point is that national leaders often whip their subjects into an aggressive mood with propaganda that portrays those whom they plan to attack as evil and dangerous. The same thing happens in America’s “culture wars” between conservatives and liberals or Republicans and Democrats — you never concede that people on the other side could have reasonable ideas or good intentions.

Thomas Sowell’s May 12 Vindictor essay, “‘Duty to die’ not just an idea,” is typical of this strategy. It begins, “One of the many fashionable notions that have caught on among some of the intelligentsia is that old people have ‘a duty to die’ rather than become a burden to others.”

Let’s pick that sentence apart. To begin with, we should always beware when a writer habitually begins his pieces, as Sowell does, by sneering at people who disagree with his opinions. The term “The intelligentsia” is often used sarcastically to insult people who think for themselves.

“A duty to die” is a gross oversimplification of a complex, value-laden social and economic problem that becomes ever more challenging as technology improves and our population ages. Such questions are often complicated by issues of the value of prolonging end-of-life suffering as well as the moral and religious beliefs of the patient, family, friends and professional caregivers. Each person must be managed in response to his or her own set of facts and values .

Are there actually American “elites” who favor and promote “a duty to die?” Sowell doesn’t identify any. There are still a few clueless folks who claim that the earth is flat, so there could be some who favor “killing Granny.” However, the notion that either group could gain political power in America today is absurd.

I’ll admit it – this is partly a personal matter for me. My parents, sad to say, were both smokers, and both died too young as a result. My mother passed away peacefully in her own bed. My father, admitted to a hospital with a smoking-related lung disease, pulled out his intravenous feeding tube and refused to let it be reinserted. I myself abhor the thought of leaving this world in a high-tech hospital setting with tubes in every orifice and flashing, beeping video displays overhead. That would be true even if such treatment would prolong my life for a few days or weeks.

Life has important dimensions other than its length. We all need to think about these things, calmly and with open minds and hearts.

Robert D. Gillette M.D., Poland