Lessons in Positivity

Published by

Clarissa

March 26, 2015

24% of Russians consider their country to be the world’s leading economy. And that’s in spite of the dramatic inflation, soaring unemployment, collapsed social safety net, and the war.

11% of Russians believe that their economic well-being is the highest on the planet.

19% of Russians believe that their country is in the top 10 in terms of protecting human rights.

Of course, this is positivity bordering on complete, total, utter, bubbles-of-saliva-coming-out-of-your-mouth idiocy, but still.

The survey does not specify the percentage of the respondents who were drunk or on drugs during the survey.

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12 responses to “Lessons in Positivity”

Vic Crain

March 26, 2015

In fairness, we find similar odd anomalies in the US. Once upon a time, the US had arguably the best healthcare quality. Now, the US ranks 42nd in terms of life expectancy (Monaco is 1st, Macao 2nd, Canada is 14th). However, many residents in surveys believe the US healthcare is still the best in the world. It’s the most expensive, but not the best. (You don’t always get what you pay for.)

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1. Clarissa
  
  March 26, 2015
  
  I agree. There are serious problems with Healthcare in this country. Finding a good doctor is not easy. And the system itself is weird. One’s doctor only sees one if there is an appointment weeks in advance but if one is in severe pain right now, there aren’t even any options offered.
  
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  1. Vic Crain
    
    March 26, 2015
    
    There are practices with Nurse Practitioners. For most problems, at least in my experience, the NPs are just as knowledgeable, more readily available, and more likely to really listen to the patient.
    
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  2. David P. Bellamy
    
    March 26, 2015
    
    There are also urgent care facilities, such as MedExpress, which are not terribly expensive. Not like an emergency room.
    
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    1. Vic Crain
      
      March 26, 2015
      
      I’m a fan of these facilities, although the one closest to me just shut its doors. They aren’t terribly expensive if you have insurance, but even $50 can be a challenge for lower income households. (That’s one of the reasons I believe the Aflac Accident policy should be universal.) The other issue is that one doesn’t get to build the same level of rapport with the physician at an express care facility as one used to be able to do with a “family physician.”
      
      Unfortunately, what used to be the standard level of care is now available only to the affluent who can afford concierge care services.
      
      Bottom line: if you’re male and make less than median income, your life expectancy is now 4 years shorter than it was in 2000. The US is the only industrialized country in the world in which this has happened.
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        March 26, 2015
        
        I went to our express care facility last year but they refused even to hear me out, saying that they have nothing to address acute stomach pain. I was not even allowed to take more than 3 steps inside. So I had to get a cab (which in this area takes over an hour to arrive) and go to the emergency. Where I wasn’t helped either.
        
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        Vic Crain
        
        March 26, 2015
        
        Acute stomach pain can be symptomatic of a number of serious issues, and it’s possible the emergency clinic was equipped to deal with them. What happened at the ER?
        
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        Clarissa
        
        March 26, 2015
        
        We ran a myriad of tests but never found anything. I have reached a conclusion that this had to me purely psychosomatic. My psychoanalyst resisted the idea with all he had but I finally forced him to accept it. 🙂
        
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Stille (@aperfectbalance)

March 26, 2015

Acute stomach pains, nausea etc can definitely be psychosomatic. I’ve had serious stomach pains/vomiting episodes for years, that culminated in one fun night spent in the ER with an oxygen tube in my nose and enough antiemetics in my IV to make a horse pass out because I was vomiting blood-spattered bile every 10 minutes. A metric fuckton of tests were ran and none of them found anything wrong*. Meds were prescribed and stopped the vomiting of blood but not the pain or the near-constant nausea. At about that time in my life though I started transactional analysis, and a few months in I wrote, with the prompting of my shrink, an unsent letter to my mom describing how I felt about our relationship in language that best represented my feelings rather than language I thought most likely for her to not misinterpret. While writing the thing, my stomach clenched like a fist and started hurting intensely but I kept writing, almost like in a trance. As I finished, the pain stopped and it hasn’t come back in more than a year. Spicy food doesn’t mean pain or nausea. Fatty fried stuff doesn’t mean pain or nausea. Alcohol doesn’t mean pain or nausea. I hate to sound like a complete cliche but I hate not admitting the truth even more, and apparently the problem was not with my stomach but with my mother 😉

*I did probably break the record of most hospital sections a single patient has vomited blood on in one single night though. For some reason they stopped the IV whenever they wheeled me out for tests.

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1. Vic Crain
  
  March 26, 2015
  
  Key point: Violent vomiting can tear the wall of the esophagus. Frequent vomiting and acid reflux (aka heartburn) can damage the lining of the esophagus and make the esophagus vulnerable to pre-cancerous polyps. The polyps are easily removed during an endoscopic examination of the esophagus. They are otherwise undetectable, unless they grow into a Stage IV esophageal cancer. The five year survival rate for Stage IV is less than 10%.
  
  Normally, scoping isn’t recommended for people under age 50. However, given this experience, if you haven’t already done so, you should talk to your doc about this.
  
  I haven’t seen recent data for esophageal cancer, but the US is showing an increase in colon cancer among 18-35 year olds due to lack of screening. (Esophageal screening covers from the mouth to the stomach; colon from the stomach to the anus. Think of it like washing a car – doing both the top and the undercarriage.)
  
  (If you have done this please feel free to disregard or to share with people you care about. More people don’t take care of themselves than do, particularly guys.
  
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NG

March 28, 2015

Interesting article on Putin’s favorite philosophers.

“When communism was abandoned in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it became apparent to thoughtful Russians and outsiders alike that a new concept of the state, a new concept of man, and a new public philosophy would have to be created.

It was then, and remains today, an open question whether the new Russian identity would end up being an import from the West, something from the native vault of pre-Communist philosophical thinking, or perhaps a combination of the two.”

And

“Putin’s favorites include a bunch of Russian nationalist philosophers of early 20th century – Berdyaev, Solovyev, Ilyin — whom he often quotes in his public speeches. Moreover, recently the Kremlin has specifically assigned Russia’s regional governors to read the works by these philosophers during 2014 winter holidays. The main message of these authors is Russia’s messianic role in world history, preservation and restoration of Russia’s historical borders and Orthodoxy.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/03/27/distorting-putins-favorite-philosophers/

Never heard of these folks before. Is this an attempt to provide an ideological foundation as a justification of his personal ambitions or a cultural context for his actions?

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1. Clarissa
  
  March 28, 2015
  “The main message of these authors is Russia’s messianic role in world history, preservation and restoration of Russia’s historical borders and Orthodoxy.”
  
  Yes. That’s all Russia has in lieu of philosophy.
  
  “Is this an attempt to provide an ideological foundation as a justification of his personal ambitions or a cultural context for his actions?”
  
  It’s definitely not just Putin himself. There was a time when Putin seemed to want to go down the road of modernization and westernization. That was in 2000-2006, or so. But there was zero enthusiasm for that plan among the Russians. And now that he has destroyed the economy and is waging war, he is adored. I don’t think that Putin has any actual beliefs. He is a politician and does whatever brings him support. And he has found the rhetoric that provides massive and unflinching support. So yes, it’s the cultural context, not a single guy.
  
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