Fins-SD2-04 [Hypertext Document]
Global Civilization: Disintegration & Rebirth (Revised edition, July 2000)

GLOBAL CIVILIZATION: DISINTEGRATION & REBIRTH

By Vigdor Schreibman
Independence Day - July 4, 2000 (Revised July 14, 2000)

Capitalism: Homicide & Murder for Profit

Medical errors now kill more than 98,000 persons a year in the USA according to studies released last Nov by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. Indeed, this is an old problem. Reports going back a quarter century indicate that a massive proportion of all health problems were caused by the incompetence, negligence, or fraud of the health system itself, as described in a book by distinguished commentator, Ivan Illich, Medical nemesis : the expropriation of health (1975). The American health care system has, in significant part, emulated the profit-directed capitalist market enterprise system, which seeks to maximize profit while disregarding social and ecological concerns with deadly results. This reality makes a mockery of patient-centered medical ethics, Compare Jamie Court and Francis Smith, Making a Killing: HMOs and the Threat to Your Health (1999), with American Medical Association Code of Ethics E-8.021(1) ["Adherence to professional medical standards includes: (1) placing the interests of patients above other considerations, such as personal interests (e.g., financial incentives) or employer business interests (e.g., profit)."]

The US medical profession flatly denies that this horror story is the result of reckless (therefore murderous!) professional conduct. This is questionable. Medical murder is a significant part of the picture when a doctor "should have been aware" that their conduct creates a substantial and unjustifiable risk of killing a patient (i.e., homicide) and they "knowingly breach [their] duty" to protect this human life (i.e., murder), as reported in an article by Harold Stearley on the topic Murder and Medicine, published in Nurses Empowering Nurses, the new web based Nursing Journal. Knowing disregard for life in favor of profit is a law of the morality of the marketplace, which has infested the health care industry and other aspects of American life and government.

In addition to the massive death role produced by the American health system, for example, American TV broadcasters have a fiduciary duty to serve the "public interest" in their use of the great broadcast spectrum, which is owned by "the People." Nevertheless, guided by big business pressure to maximize profits the media has built a mass audience based on programming of gratuitous violence that operates as a setting to train children how to kill their classmates, teachers, and anyone else who gets in their way. Similarly, in a recent 5-4 decision, the majority justices of the US Supreme Court would distort the key facts and upset the settled doctrine of legislative delegation, to value big business profit from addictive cigarettes, without fairly reasoned judgment, disregarding the most deadly public health crisis ever suffered by the American people.

Risks of Anti-capitalist Advocacy

This reporter is an Internet-based news reporter, producing my own news columns, special reports and occasional papers disseminated via Internet under the masthead, Federal Information News Syndicate (FINS). FINS is a nonprofit publishing organization dedicated to the emerging philosophy of the Global Information Age. FINS seeks to confront the chronic excesses of savage capitalism, which serves the few, with a view toward supplanting this ideology with an ethic of democratic sustainability guided by "the will of the whole". This guiding ideal was first articulated by the early 20th-century sage of democracy Mary Parker Follett, who was also one of the first management scientists, celebrated as a "Prophet of Management" in a recent publication by the Harvard Business School Press Classics (1996)

A high degree of stress and risk to my well being and survival are associated with my style of news reporting, founded upon the spirit of democratic liberation, (e.g., Walt Whitman, William Lloyd Garrison), and related litigation, which I engage in to advance freedom of the press. This is particularly the case in a political environment in which actions by state police and national intelligence agencies in the USA modeled after the police action against dissidents during the Nazi era, now seek to destroy peaceful anti-capitalist advocacy by means of bloody violence, sabotage, and psychological warfare, see Jim Redden, Police State Targets The Left and Frank Morales, Report on Federal Anti-Activist Intelligence Network.

The new violent role of state police and national intelligence agencies is organized to support the multinational corporate structure of globalization. I am an independent reporter. I do not engage in illicit activities, nor do I engage in protest organization, only reporting via Internet news columns, special reports, and occasional papers posted at my website. This is clearly protected activity under First Amendment freedom of the press. Nevertheless, because of my political reporting US Secret Service agents ("SSAs") have kept me under surveillance during much of the past decade, according to informed sources. SSAs use various informants and agents based at the South Hall of the Eastern Market, on Capitol Hill, where I frequently shop.

Eastern Market is a hotbed of counter-activist SSAs. These include (among others): "Jack" at Cheese for all the world (which is likely owned by the SS!); "Mary" (SSA who teaches music and dance to neiborhood children!) Saturday at Thos. Calomires & Sons; and "Jorge" at The Eastern Market Grocery, etc., etc., etc. I know from extended conversations with these agents and informants (and another not named here), that significant efforts have been made to harm me and sabotage my activities.

On two occasions during a period of Federal Court litigation (see below) , for example, "Mary" attempted to entrap me in illicit acts against the state, suggesting she would help. The likely purpose of this entrapment scheme was to have me incarcerated so that my law suit could be dismissed as moot, see Murphy v. Hunt, 455 US 478, 482 (1982), because I would then not be able to prosecute my demand for a Congressional press pass (an issue presented July 16, 1998, by the DC Cir Court’s own motion!). I rejected the invitation out of hand. On another occasion, I observed in conversation with "Jorge" that due to my political reports such SSAs, "would do just about anything to annihilate me." He responded, "You’ve got that right." (accent by informant)!

Political Stress, Hypertension, and Sleep Disorders

The life of an Internet-based political reporter in Washington, DC, under such conditions, can be stressful. I was diagnosed with a (stress related) sleep disorder, in July 1999, at the Sleep Disorder Center of Georgetown University Hospital. It was determined that my circadian rhythms were out of sync with my natural sleep-wake time, a disorder known as,"delayed sleep-phase syndrome" (DSPS). The consulting physician recommended that I treat this disorder with bright light therapy. This treatment was delayed, however, because of intervening Federal Court litigation involving freedom of the press.

During Jan and Feb 2000, I was prosecuting a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States in an effort to overturn a decision of the Congressional press galleries, denying renewal of my press credentials as the first Internet- based reporter. The case confronted a dictatorship of the "media aristocracy", repudiating first amendment protections guaranteed to Congressional reporters. In resolving this action adversely the Federal Courts abdicated their judicial responsibility, guided by 19th-century laissez faire ideology devoid of moral integrity, systemic competence, or Constitutional legitimacy.

This law suit was very stressful. I was hospitalized at Georgetown University Hospital (GUH), Jan 29, for undetermined causes (kidney stones was suspected). During this hospitalization I began to suffer from high blood pressure, and obstructive sleep apnea and hypopnea. (Apnea occurs when tissues in the upper throat collapse at intervals during sleep, thereby, blocking the passage of air. Hypopnea is continuous but slow and shallow breathing.) GUH aggravated my condition by refusing to accept the role of my primary care physician in the management of my hospital care, and instead, without my approval appointed an individual to fill that position who was unknown to me. This action placed GUH in a conflict of interest, violated my right to privacy, and violated my ethical right to freedom of choice. The American Medical Association Code of Ethics, section E-9.06 Free Choice, confirms that "Free choice of physicians is the right of every individual." In protest against this conduct I decided to walk out of GUH, Feb 3, against the advice of hospital officials.

I was subsequently also diagnosed by the Washington Adventist Sleep Disorders Center, in Mar 2000, with "moderate sleep apnea" (ICD-9-CM: 780.51-3). This diagnosis was based upon an overall apnea index of 2/hour and overall apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) of 15/hour. The simple device needed for treatment of my apnea and hypopnea is a Respironics SD BiPAP machine providing "bi-level positive airway pressure" (BiPAP). This device was used to diagnose my condition. I suffer from a weak breathing pattern characteristic of hypopnea, together with claustrophobia, and I need to use a BiPAP machine that adjusts to my breathing pattern.

Undue Delay of Health Care, & the Unsustainable "Free Market"

Undue delay of needed medical treatment in the United States is often caused by placing provider interests in maximizing profit and minimizing medical responsibility ahead of the interests of patients, which, in extreme cases, has led to death. This pattern of serving medical self-interest while disregarding the harmful impact on patients is the root of the American health care crisis, according to a statement published on the web by 31 co-sponsors of US Senate bill (S.6), introduced last year by Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD) Patients Before Profits: The Patients' Bill of Rights, "Faces of the Health Care Crisis".

On May 1, 2000, I informed my primary care physician, Dr. Daniel H. Waterman of Washington, DC, in writing, of my need for a BiPAP machine. His staff nurse, Ms. Veronica Wells recruited the firm Respicare of Springfield, VA (a Respironics provider, represented by respiratory therapist, Mr. Ryan D. LeTellier, and customer service representative Ms. Tracy Tyson) to provide the required device. However, on May 8, 2000, Respicare delivered to my home the wrong machine, viz, one providing "continuous positive airway pressure" (CPAP).

I questioned the suitability of this device because I could not exhale against continuing positive airway pressure. My use of CPAP is, therefore, intolerable but I was nevertheless assured by Mr. LeTellier, "You’ll get used to it."

This advice was erroneous. Further unsuccessful attempts at home to use the CPAP machine extended during May 2000. At the end of May, I complained in writing to my physician about this intolerable situation and requested that he take steps to "expedit[e] acquisition of the BiPAP machine to help me treat this disorder, which is threatening my well being and my life."

Dr. Waterman and Nurse Wells, were explicitly informed about my need for a BiPAP machine. They should have known about the use of this device, and taken steps to assure that I had necessary and timely treatment. Respicare told Nurse Wells that they must provide a certificate of medical need and pressure setting for a BiPAP device before they would deliver the machine to me. Dr. Waterman says he was uninformed about using BiPAP, and he took no action.

Anyone can inform themselves about the difference between BiPAP and CPAP devices, by a distance learning course freely available via Internet. My need for treatment with a BiPAP machine was not questioned by Dr. Waterman or Nurse Wells. Instead of making the necessary decisions to provide the treatment that I need, however, they all engaged in tenuous argument back and forth over who was going to call whom to advise about the medical situation, and each attempted to limit their responsibility by requiring the other to certify the medical need in this case and provide the (initial) pressure setting to be used, etc. The recommended pressure setting for BiPAP is similar to that of CPAP; ironically however, Nurse Wells and Mr. LeTellier were able without delay to set the pressure for CPAP, the wrong machine, but they unduly delayed providing the necessary pressure setting for BiPAP, the correct machine.

Failure to make the necessary decisions concerning relatively simple matters, unduly delayed my receiving necessary treatment, and compromised my health care. Without that treatment I have experienced chronic daytime fatigue and sleepiness, diminishing capacity of my eyes, and an increase in memory loss, with increasing risk of heart attack or stroke. I terminated the appointment of Dr. Waterman as my primary care physician on June 20, 2000, at 3:50 p.m.

What makes this case special is that the possible exposure to medical malpractice and fraudulent self-dealing by GUH. in its unilateral appointment of my primary care physician, and the increased risk of heart attack or stroke caused by undue delay of needed treatment by Dr. Waterman, Nurse Wells, and Mr. LeTellier, are particularly alarming when these acts may have occured in cooperation with the insidious machinations of state police and national intelligence agencies that, an informant has confirmed, "would do just about anything to annihilate me"!

When human beings are ultimately reducible to interchangeable objects under capitalist "free market" principles, reason can impose no limits on perverse behavior no matter how insane, criminal or merely immoral, as existing conditions corroborate. Gratuitous violence programmed by American TV, for fun, has led to a counterculture of madness. More than 400,000 Americans are killed each year by addictive cigarettes promoted by corporate deceit. Medical errors that kill some 98,000 persons a year, delay in treatment lying at the core of the death role, are derived from profit-directed values of the medical system, which treat social concerns as "externalities," in conflict with medical ethics that place, "the interests of patients above other considerations..." The same morality of the marketplace produces an ever widening gap in income inequities in the United States, with admittedly rising levels of absolute poverty in the world, and these "afflictions of inequality" lead to unhealthy societies, which cannot be sustained.

This killing field is bereft of legitimacy: delay the treatment of deadly sleep disorders; inflict the burden upon children of growing up with TV murder; push a puff of your favorite brand of cigarettes upon youngsters, by deliberate deceit, enough to get them hooked for life. With the exercise of the laissez faire marketplace sustaining profit over life -- before you know it the global people will be on the chopping block, ready to be dispatched on a moment’s notice with but a nod from the "New Slave Masters". Like the great and glorious before the days of Charlemagne, the "New Slave Masters" claim the right of life and death over their vassals.

The revolutionary cause of America first arose from "a long and violent abuse of power" but as John Keane observes in his biography, Tom Paine : a political life (1995), "Power ultimately emanates from below." That power, personal and civic, is once again the front line of defense.

Global Civilization: Disintegration & Rebirth

A personal wellness odyssey. A battery of disturbing bright lights mysteriously coming from vacant neighboring rooms have been shining into my bedroom window at night, playing nasty games with my circadian clock. I have now shut them out with shades. Interestingly enough, bright-light therapy using neodymium based incandescent lamps (a rare element, which filters out harmful light rays), is the prescribed treatment for DSPS. I acquired the prescribed "Sunbox" lamp, which can deliver an intensity of 10,000 lux. The lamp is used for 30-minutes in the morning to administer my own bright-light therapy. The treatment is simple, but getting the timing right and producing a stable readjustment of my circadian clock, has not been easy.

During all of this process, suffering for months with sleep disorders, I have only begun to learn how to adjust the setting of my circadian clock to bring it into sinc with my actual sleep-wake timing. As I learn how to overcome my insomnia the stress from sleep deprivation may be diminished somewhat, but I continue to suffer from obstructive breathing. A BiPAP machine remains urgently needed.

The diagnosis of "moderate sleep apnea" is not in question. The need for simple BiPAP treatment is clear when, as in my case, CPAP treatment is intolerable for me. Yet exclusive control over the decision to certify medical need in this case, to entitle one to Medicare coverage, is held by medical providers who are, thereby, enabled to engage in undue delay serving their own personal, business or political interests, in extreme cases, killing or murdering with impunity. A sane and reasonable health care system, one with a viable Patients’ Bill of Rights, would not impose such unnecessary and deadly threatening conditions.

Civic Advocacy. Doctors place blame for the horrendous existing situation on "flaws in the way the health system is organized" and it is suggested that "financial and regulatory incentives ... will lead to a safer health care system." This is not serious. The living spirit of health-care, and a democratic society itself, cannot be renewed by a strategy, which obstinately persists in relying upon the grossly inequitable, unhealthy, and deadly morality of the marketplace, which governs the existing situation. Professor Arnold J. Toynbee addressed these conditions, within the archetypes of human culture, in his six-volume study of the laws of the rise and disintegration of civilization. He wrote:
schism in the soul, schism in the social body, will not be resolved by any scheme of return to the good old days (archaism), or by programs guaranteed to render an ideal projected future (futurism), or even by the most realistic, hardheaded work to wield together again the deteriorated elements. Only birth can conquer death--the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new.

A.J. Toynbee, A Study of History (1934): Vol. VI, pp. 169-175, quoted in J. Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bolling ed. 1972): p. 16.

In a sustainable democracy, which must supplant human relations based on the morality of the marketplace, the dynamic practical antidote to "schism in the soul, schism in the social body" lies in the idea that people whose lives are affected by a decision of public or private organizations must be part of the process of arriving at that decision. This is the democratic model of social system organization, the preferred basis for design of organizations for the 21st-century, as articulated by Professor Russell L. Ackoff, in his book, Re-creating Corporation (1999): pp. 38-39. This model recognizes that responsible government and big business can be secured only by the constructive power of the main body of citizens, as Mary Parker Follett observed early last century, by "the living democracy of a united, responsible people." It is not morality of the marketplace but a transformative civic sector that is the key to a sustainable post-capitalist polity. This strategy is now advanced by Ralph Nader, a leading consumer advocate and Presidential Candidate for the Green Party, and that same strategy is also included in, Post-capitalist Society (1993): p. 171, a book written by Peter E. Drucker, the well regarded business management authority.

One may speak or write in hopeful terms of the promise of democratic organization and decision making, following the prophetic insights of past and present gurus of democratic management systems (e.g.,, Follett, Nader, Ackoff, and Drucker). Securing such a democratic process within the reality of the everyday lives of Americans, is another matter altogether.

After more than two-centuries of democratic rhetoric the laissez faire marketplace in health care, television broadcasting, and global commerce have all but destroyed citizenship, as Drucker confirms in the above mentioned book. Dramatic change is now "blowing in the wind," however. Tens of thousands of citizens from around the word protested globalization at Seattle99, to stop the millennium meetings of the World Trade Organization, and at Washington-A16, confronted the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Barely a month later, in May 2000, tens of millions of citizens expressed their fierce resistance to capitalism in many cities around the world. The action shifted in June 2000, to France, Anti Globalization Mobilization. Meanwhile, the world wide news coverage by Independent Media Centers of resistance to capitalism and globalization - a major media revolution itself - expanded exponentially.

We shall have a democratic rebirth of citizenship, or else, disintegration of civilization. Brutal defiance by the state on behalf of global corporate interests, of just demands by the global citizenry, can only lead to the collapse of legitimacy of the state and an expression of outrage by the people spinning out of control. Citizens will not support any state that is knowingly engaged in their destruction. In such a war one must fight or perish. This is the ancient parable of the tribes, described by Andrew Bard Schmookler (1986).

--DEMOCRATIC SUSTAINABILITY AND CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE VIA INTERNET--

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