Interventionism

     Some years ago, Dr. Robert Mendelsohn wrote a provocative book titled Confessions of a Medical Heretic. Dr. Mendelsohn’s thesis was essentially that the trend toward medical interventionism – i.e., the willingness of doctors to intrude into the processes of the human body for ever vaguer and less compelling reasons – was accelerating at a frightening, even pathological rate. He argued that the trend should be opposed by everyone, whether inside or outside the medical profession. I don’t know what kind of circulation it received, but it certainly stirred things up for my little family.

     Dr. Mendelsohn’s arguments should receive renewed attention in our time, especially given the proliferation of stories such as this one:

     In a heart-wrenching incident, Melody Rain Palombi-Malmgren, a 15-month-old girl, tragically passed away two days after receiving routine vaccinations. Her mother, Katherine Palombi, recalls the shock and sorrow of losing a child who was the epitome of joy and health.

     On October 17, during a routine 15-month well-visit at the Herbert Kania Pediatric Group in Warwick, New York, Melody received three vaccines, News12 Westchester reported.

     Just two days later, she suddenly stopped breathing and suffered cardiac arrest despite exhibiting no warning signs.

     As a scientifically oriented thinker, I must say emphatically before continuing on that correlation does not prove causation. It cannot do so. However, deaths of this sort – very young children, just after receiving a barrage of vaccinations – have been increasing and should be studied closely.

     Great numbers of infant vaccinations are a relatively recent phenomenon. Some of the diseases for which infants are vaccinated have historically been regarded as routine childhood experiences, and relatively low risk. Why are such vaccinations deemed close to obligatory for children in our time? Why do medical institutions put pressure on new parents to accept such vaccinations for their children?

     But then, medical interventionism is only one form of the development. Just about every sector of society has absorbed the notion that such outsider decision-making for others is right and necessary. More, resistance to outsider interventions has diminished dramatically in recent years. In a nation whose credo was once Mind your own business, it’s something to be pondered.

     In some ways, the COVID-19 “pandemic” was a testing ground for the ambitions of interventionists of all kinds. The convergence of various kinds of pressure on ordinary people made it extremely difficult to resist the “experts” demand that we all accept the swiftly developed, highly experimental vaccines. The “messenger RNA” technology used in the vaccines was brand new, a huge departure from previous methods. The C.S.O. and I considered it reason enough to eschew the vaccines. It wasn’t a decision lightly made, for both of us are in “elevated risk” groups.

     However, when it came to resisting the pressures to get vaccinated, we two had significant advantages. Neither of us was dependent on a salary. We live in a neighborhood largely bereft of minor children. The retail institutions around us found it impossible to compel their patrons to observe the various “mandates.” Indeed, the only major change forced upon us – today, greatly regretted by all involved – was the denial of in-person religious services.

     Yet most persons in our region flocked to be vaccinated. They meekly accepted all the other miscellaneous interventions into their lives as well. Their behavior was greatly similar to that of Americans in other parts of the country. They masked; they shunned retail businesses and closed their own offices and storefronts; they stayed away from one another, even from close relatives and bosom friends. Why?

     The pressures, whether from neighbors, acquaintances, relatives, or “experts” were simply too much for them. Even the ones who were aware that COVID-19 presented no risk greater than any ordinary strain of influenza felt it was “safer to go along.” They feared to be “out of the mainstream.” The fear was not of the risks from the virus, but for fear of the reactions of others.

     It highlighted a huge change in Americans’ attitudes. We were a people whose distinguishing characteristic, in the eyes of non-Americans, was our defiance: our insistence upon going our own way regardless of the urgings of others. The rest of the world insists on X or dislikes Y? Fuck ‘em. We’re Americans. We’ve always done exactly as we please, and we’ll continue to do so. As Eric Frank Russell once wrote, we recognized the right to go to hell in our own fashion.

     No longer, apparently.

     “Experts” of all kinds have been multiplying like maggots on a corpse. All have “recommendations” for us. Most lobby governments: for funds at the least, and all too often for the power to enforce their “recommendations.” Regardless of the variations among them, they’re united in one way: They would pay no costs for what they hope to impose upon the rest of us.

     Thomas Sowell has emphasized this characteristic of the interventionists. It succinctly explains how such “experts” can go from one “recommendation” to another unperturbed by failure or devastating unintended consequence. Yet it doesn’t occur to the typical, appropriately humble American that he’s being shown evidence of a compelling kind…evidence that utterly destroys the pretensions of the “experts” and awakens those dazzled by them.