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While watching Congress wrestle with issues at the health care summit, I started to worry…have we crippled this government with our lazy palate for dialogue? What if the shock of modern media has blunted our taste buds to the point where real content now seems boring? Is this just another example of the original not being as good as the imitation anymore?
It’s the same way the fabrication of the modern meal seduces us: with the temptation of shortcuts. In In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan shows how the western diet leans toward refined grains instead of vegetables. The luxury of highly-processed concentrated doses of stored energy is that they can be sculpted into any form imaginable, namely, the funnel cake. How can leafy greens can compete with this flavorful figment of our modern appetite?
I believe that, just as in the production of food, it is in the process of democracy that integrity is upheld. But real debate on this country’s political stage is reduced to bland slurry because we are happy to settle for whatever bold impression can be dreamt up through clever packaging. I tell myself I want to see people having relevant, meaty conversations, but am still easily amused by the desperately-seasoned side dish of the mainstream’s bite-sized story lines.
Elected officials derailing each other in difficult political discourse is as surprising as professional athletes finding comfort in junk food during the Olympics. It is as if we’ve created a processing plant for social issues, choosing consistency over health. Is this simply a compromise inherent in government? The only way Congress can begin to communicate is by agreeing on a set of rules. But the boundaries that help legislators also limit the voices they represent. The very act of aggregating ideas, while meant to bring attention to them, requires a common format.
So what would be the vegetable version of government? Maybe it looks a little more messy than what we’re used to, maybe it has a shorter shelf life. But if we really engage in these issues, maybe we won’t be left with that endless gnawing hunger we’ve come to expect from well-rehearsed talking points.
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Health care reform is a culturally sensitive issue that will be best addressed on the state / commonwealth scale. Massachusetts has taken the lead, now the other 49 soveriegn states must follow. Health care reform is too big, too morally charged, and too complex for the Federal Gov't to handle. Because there is no constitutional right to equal access to health care (or education, for that matter), there is no truly compelling incentive or authority for the Federal gov't to dictate the terms of reform for each of the 50 states. So I say, plant your seeds of reform locally, and tend them as they grow….
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