Becoming Desensitized to Pending Doom
by John Reit (May 2, 2006)

Sometimes, when I see someone well into his 40s who has a real weight problem (I mean obese or at least well on the way to obese), a little scenario runs through my mind. I think of a time - probably in his mid 30s - when this person went to the doctor for a checkup, after which he was told, "lose weight or you're in for an early death." The man was obviously scared and asked how long he would have if he doesn't change his lifestyle. "Twenty. Maybe twenty-five years," the doctor replied. So the question that comes to my mind is, "why is this person still fat?" Surely every time he goes to the doctor, he is given the same diagnosis - change your ways or die early. Then it hits me; that's the problem. He hears it too often. So often that he's become desensitized. It's no longer scary. He feels fine so he puts it in the back of his mind and continues his life of gluttony and sloth. After all, it is twenty-five years. It's not like the doctor told him he would die next week.

Like this fictitious dead-man-walking, America has become desensitized to its own fatal diagnosis.

Since the mid 1990s - oddly enough from the Clinton administration - we've been hearing about the coming collapse of Social Security and Medicare. Alan Greenspan warned several times during his last few years as Federal Reserve Chairman about terrible times to come for America's socialist programs, and for Americans. More recently, President Bush made it his initiative to push for Social Security reform. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina came along and dampened his public image (mind you, I blame this on the ignorant masses… not Bush). After that, I guess he didn't feel it prudent to go back out and allow the Communists in Congress to accuse him of wanting to take money away from Ma and Pa Kettle. Now, just this week, Social Security and Medicare trustees issued a statement saying that these two beloved entitlement programs are headed for bankruptcy even sooner than expected.

Relative to the unhealthy-fat-person scenario, this is probably our umpteenth diagnosis. We've heard this time and time again. We've heard the problem, the consequences, and the solutions. Congress knows what must be done, as does the President. In truth, much of America knows, as well. But like our doomed obese friend, we'd rather live in the moment than live for our futures. We'd rather do what feels good now despite the threat to our health.

What feels good is to keep the money flowing. And both parties are indulging in this excess of ignorance - giver and the beneficiary. We gladly fill our stomachs on delicious entitlement, and the politicians grow fat from our heart-clogging votes. Even while many of us complain about the state of affairs, very few of us are willing to give up our piece of the pie. Can you think of any special interest group that would give up its benefits for the good of the country?

What's worse, we seem to welcome our fate. Remember the State of the Union Address? Remember the Communists that stood up and applauded after President Bush mentioned that Congress failed to act on his Social Security reform? Not only are we killing ourselves, we're nurturing our doom!

Have we truly become like the man who ignores his doctor's warnings? Maybe we are indeed desensitized to the doomsday about our economy. Typical of most human beings, we seem content enough to sit back and wait for our problems to do something about us before we do something about them. We won't really worry about our economic health until the fiscal heart attack hits.

I'd like to think that such a catastrophe would shock us back into rationality. Unfortunately, I simply can't picture America as a whole giving up government cold turkey. I don't see a time when we say, "no" to government handouts and go on a diet of personal responsibility. And I certainly don't see our politicians eager to cut us off. In fact they will most likely convince us that what we need is more government assistance. And we'll probably eat that up, too.