The People's Affront or .. Irk me Granville Street
A couple weeks ago I posted my disdain for the treatment of children as a class. Just after that I saw a large fundraising ad for Children's Hospital on the side of a bus that read.
The smaller the patient the bigger the need.
I saw red. What??? Seriously, what does that mean? Save a life good. Save a baby better?
Then, today I saw a modest poster near the barista station at Starbucks that advertised: "Fall Prevention Program"... again what?? Do you know what this is? It is an in-home consultation to advise seniors how to avoid falling down and hurting themselves. This seems to me a wholly bald-faced cash grab. Stop people from falling down? For $$$. Where do I sign Granny up?
Don't get me wrong I am not trying to be all up with old people here. My rancour does not root in some anti-ageist diatribe. No. Rather it is that I am out to write off the patter of the humanists. Who do we think we are? Well why don't we all just think and think and think about it. This sort of stuff irks me... oftenish. The only ones worse for it than the hospitals and doctors are the teachers and schools. They are like the new church, to which I say.... Don't oppress me!
I'm no great spiritual believer but I wish I was at times like these. I am sick to death of the over-intellectualizing of existence. The empty promises of knowledge and information to overcome. (And, me a librarian?)
But seriously can anyone convince me that we can pay our way to defy vulnerability? Defy gravity, even?
Sometimes I preferred it when I just didn't get out much.
ps.. You can perhaps thank the fact that I read 470 outstanding emails from my leave today for this rant. That can make you a tad psychotic. fyi... Re: Yours truly... cheers!
The smaller the patient the bigger the need.
I saw red. What??? Seriously, what does that mean? Save a life good. Save a baby better?
Then, today I saw a modest poster near the barista station at Starbucks that advertised: "Fall Prevention Program"... again what?? Do you know what this is? It is an in-home consultation to advise seniors how to avoid falling down and hurting themselves. This seems to me a wholly bald-faced cash grab. Stop people from falling down? For $$$. Where do I sign Granny up?
Don't get me wrong I am not trying to be all up with old people here. My rancour does not root in some anti-ageist diatribe. No. Rather it is that I am out to write off the patter of the humanists. Who do we think we are? Well why don't we all just think and think and think about it. This sort of stuff irks me... oftenish. The only ones worse for it than the hospitals and doctors are the teachers and schools. They are like the new church, to which I say.... Don't oppress me!
I'm no great spiritual believer but I wish I was at times like these. I am sick to death of the over-intellectualizing of existence. The empty promises of knowledge and information to overcome. (And, me a librarian?)
But seriously can anyone convince me that we can pay our way to defy vulnerability? Defy gravity, even?
Sometimes I preferred it when I just didn't get out much.
ps.. You can perhaps thank the fact that I read 470 outstanding emails from my leave today for this rant. That can make you a tad psychotic. fyi... Re: Yours truly... cheers!
Labels: advertising, red getting purple, society
posted by mo-wo at 10:10 p.m.
3 Comments:
I would have read "fall prevention" as some global attempt to stop autumn from coming back. I could get on board with that.
The little routine we do at our house goes:
- why should I give money to X as opposed to Y or Z?
- because children are our most precious resource!
- more precious than coal?
- oh yes, far more precious than coal!
then we feel better.
I worked with a woman whose portfolio was "injury prevention" basically it was a) seatbelt enforcement b) suicide "prevention" and c) fall prevention because it's something like the 3rd leading cause of death in people over 75 (right behind age and cancer I guess?) but I'd be willing to wager that it's not the falling down that kills you but instead the inordinate amount of time you have to wait for your surgery in a germ encrusted hospital emergency room or best case scenario out in the hall on a gurney also occupied by people with wicked staph infections.
You don't really have to read all 470 emails do you? Couldn't there be a little "select all / delete" accident? Or would no one believe it of someone techy like you?
warm regards...
"Oh look, that car has a 'Baby on Board' sign in the rear window! I was going to crash into it, but now that I know there's a BABY in there, I won't. Good thing they put up that sign."
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