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This article from The Guardian is of great interest. I have some familiarity
with cancer treatment, costs, etc. Imagine that I had had to pay bribes for
someone close to me to have surgery, receive radiation and chemotherapy, and to
have regular check-ups. Besides all of the other healthcare corruption
mentioned in the article's description of healthcare in Ukraine, how would I
have felt. Enraged would be putting it mildly. And suppose that I had radical
sentiments and knew that all who got healthcare had to bribe the doctors and
hospitals. That this meant most people, much poorer than I, got no treatment at
all. Pure blind hatred and a desire to radically change things would be my
feelings.
Next imagine how you would feel if your entire family but for you was killed by
a bomb dropped from a government plane. Or your mother and sister were
tortured. And on and on it goes in this vicious world.
It seems elemental that we should be concerned with suffering people, alleviate
their suffering if we can, but as in most cases we cannot, at least cheer them
on when they rebel, revolt, protest. We all know that those with power will do
what they can to subvert, coopt, and otherwise derail opposition, and they
generally succeed. We all know that various unsavory forces will infiltrate
opposition movements and that the leaders of such movements are themselves not
immune from betraying what they once stood for. We certainly know that the U.S.
and the other big powers will be knee-deep in opposing any and all attempts by
the people to liberate themselves. The CIA and like organizations never rest
and their operatives are everywhere. But even with all of this, we must side
with the people rebelling against oppression. we must see suffering for what it
is--suffering. As Carl Sandburg wrote, "The People, Yes." Naive? Perhaps. Too
simple, yes. Aren't the people a mixed bag? Yes. When the p
eople are victorious, don't they often make a mess of things? Yes. Are new
leaders sometimes worse than the old? Yes. Still, though, if we take the view
that all will turn out worse than what was hoped for at the beginning, then
there really is no hope is there? And if we think that full-blown socialism
must be established immediately and no kind of reform can ever work in any
interim period, then we're no different than the libertarians who say that only
total and complete "free market capitalism" can succeed in generating maximum
social welfare.
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