idiocracy

I have deleted my bookmarks to news sites.  I do not want to read commentary on this idiotic nation anymore.  The ignorance of this nation, be it symptomatic or willful, is something that I have no control over and no amount of news-following and being irritated on my behalf will resolve it.  There are online communities and forums where the informed can gather to debate and share ideas, but this is is a minority population in our nation.  The majority population is one that is violently content with anti-intellectualism, fairy tales, and obesity.  I will not have their misadventures fouling up my daily psychology anymore.

elections

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views.  This gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.” –Noam Chomsky

machina

What we have here is a machine complex beyond our imaginations—an infinitely intricate conglomerate of water, chemicals, carbon, and even metal—a miracle that has been developed, crafted, and honed for an amount of time that we can not even conceptualize.  For all I have studied and for all that I care, what I can do for you equates to little more than screwing in a few bolts and changing your oil.  You see, what we are dealing with here is the engineering of God, of the cosmos itself—and I am neither of those.

three pieces of advice

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. If you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is rare and don’t throw it away.” ~Stephen Hawking

there’s something rotten in denmark

I am inherently very suspicious of people.  I used to think this a troublesome trait as it interfered with the breadth of people I would interact with, but I am beginning to appreciate how it is an incredible strength.  This tendency coupled with (or perhaps resulting from) my incredible empathy-based intuition into the motivations of others enables me to deftly filter troublesome people out of my life.  This trait is the foundation of my formidable defense against the demons of drama, frenemies, and outright betrayal.

a tree hemmed in by giants

Trying times are crucial to the development of one’s strengths.  Adversity is the soil of greatness.

Why Occupy Wall Street?

The top 1% hold 42% of America’s financial wealth.  Over the last 30 years, average CEO salary has increased from 50x that of workers to over 300x (http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html).

Job growth is actually the worst in this last decade with a 35% top marginal tax rate compared to other decades with 50%, 75%, and even 90% (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/06/marginal_tax_employment_charticle.html).

The Glass-Steagall Act, a bank regulatory law enacted in response to the first Great Depression that separated retail (your savings) and investment banking, was repealed in 1999.

Citizens United v. FEC (2010) grants corporations the right to spend unlimited sums of money on politics on the grounds that they have “personhood” and so have free speech rights.

Income inequality has been increasing since the 1970s: The “top 1%” are getting wealthier while the poor stagnate and the middle class shrinks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States).

The solution:  Campaign finance reform.  Get corporate money out of politics.

yo

“Our inability to come to terms with people, whether they be our loved ones, or others that we co-exist with, is a product of our self-righteousness.”

suffer

“I want to suffer a little.”  A curious thing that a colleague of mine said at lunch today.  It struck me not only because it was odd and profound, but also because I held a similar sentiment—only worded differently.  In both of us is a dissatisfaction with the lavish comforts of our lives.  He voiced a willingness to practice ungodly hours (say eighty or more) for at least a fraction of his career.  I want to practice medicine in the third world.  In both these paths, there is discomfort, hardship, challenge.  Challenge and purpose—thinking about it this way, it no longer surprises me that there are many others who want to suffer.

Suffering purposefully—to suffer for a purpose.  It appeals to the romantic in me.

i hate this school

This curriculum is crap.  I wish I were at a different medical school.