How Might European Economic History Affect U.S. Healthcare Policy?
November 25th, 2010
The initial European encounters with the indigenous people of the Americas was similar in goals and strategies to their later encounters with the Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners, all the Americas, etc. The first European interlopers to the Americas were adventurers, explorers, scientists and entrepreneur types who were commissioned and financed by European rulers to cross the waters in search of gold and other wealth-yielding commerce (including land) to proclaim as “possessions” for the ruling class(es) of Europe. Their primary coercion was superior and more aggressive weaponry. Their primary strategy was to divide and conquer to the extent that such would achieve their economic goals. The second line of interlopers were men of the church and armies of farmer/settlers who brought with them a new and different world view which denied indigenous people their cultural relevance and humanity. Then and now, the Europeans, their Diaspora states and their collaborators have aggressed toward the ownership and jurisdiction over all of the resources of the earth — as promised by Christian doctrine — “dominion over the earth and all living things.” Through the aforementioned strategy, Europe successfully established colonies all over the world and the early European economic model has now been further developed and used by the European Diaspora to continue its dominance and rulership over the entire globe thus it is called “globalization.” The early adventurers, explorers, scientists and entrepreneurs have taken the form of multi-national corporations and the “armies” of farmer/settlers of yesteryear are now “we the people” who work in the fields [of industry and business], slave in factories, fight and die for the corporate vision of freedom and a better life than our predecessors (many of whom died from lack of healthcare and/or on the battlefield.)
As for the indigenous peoples whose lands and ways of life the early Europeans aggressed upon: Many of these civilizations had existed in insular greatness before the coming of European [global] intentions. Handicapped by inadequate weaponry and the absence of a global perspective, many of these indigenous cultures fought fiercely; they conspired; they resisted; they assimilated; they retreated for salvation; they struggled and still struggle (to a lesser degree) to preserve whatever has been possible to salvage of cultures which have been systematically killed off or driven into seclusion and obscurity until the day that one or more of them — or a newly born cultural entity –devises a way to “slay the dragon” of European Diasporian oligarchy. Cultural artifacts (including beliefs, ideas and problem solving strategies) of “conquered” indigenous peoples may be evidenced in various aspects of United States “cultural diversity” but the original intentions, the pursuit of wealth and the development and uncompromising use of superior weaponry for expansion is still the primary “vision” of the European Diaspora.
Note: This is not a discussion of “race” but of policy, values and strategies held by a class of people who tenaciously ascribes to the economic goals of the early ruling classes of Europe. These ideas have been abandoned by many throughout the European Diaspora and have ironically been assumed by many non-European types. The question is whether these early European economic values and strategies are having a residual affect on healthcare policy in the U.S? If so, can YOU connect the dots?
