As y'all know, our current plans to go forward with a single-payer health care system is not exactly welcomed by all. Although there are certainly arguments that can indeed be made against it, perhaps licking the corpse of Ayn Rand is not the best way to go about it, when you're trying to make your case to those who don't share your "selfishness is a virtue" worldview.
From over at VTDigger, an op-ed from Tom Licata, who seemingly convinces himself that he's oh-so-damn-clever by rewriting a segment of Rand's gawdawful paean to Social Darwinism (and the real Bible to the current crop of DC GOP nutters), Atlas Shrugged, to frame his opposition to the new healthcare plan (in the voice of brain surgeon, Dr. Thomas Hendricks):
These legislators supposedly consider only the “welfare” of the patients, with no thought for those who are to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter seems regarded as irrelevant, selfishness; his is not to choose, they say, but “to serve.”
I have often wondered at the smugness at which Vermont’s Legislature asserts their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind — yet what is it they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands?
The Vermont Legislature’s moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims.
Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn.
To that, we say:
Licata may indeed think he’s being clever, but he certainly isn’t a brain surgeon. That’s for sure.
I don’t care what kind of product or service this self-important clown Licata provides (the name sounds vaguely familiar.) With his attitude, I would never expect to get quality, value or even fundamental interest in me, the customer.
Way to convince us not to employ you, Mr. Licata.
No matter how “independent” you imagine yourself to be, unless you are prepared to retreat into the woods, avoiding all roads and shared conveniences like telephone, internet, airports, hospitals, flood control etc.; you are, sadly dependent on others, and they have some right to be dependent on you.
in various places all over the web.
howard roark would be proud at the clever, individuality that all these commenters seem to have, quoting a work of fiction to further their agenda.
also,
http://www.greenmountaindaily….
My favorite works of fanciful fiction to rework as “argument” are more along the lines of Herbert, Heinlein, Carroll and Baum.