To paraphrase Einstein, “Significant problems cannot be solved at the same level that created them.” Thus, when Wall Street expressed symptoms of an impending collapse, they sought relief from a higher level. Similarly, after the bumbling Detroit automobile manufacturers hit some black ice after years of running an uncompetitive business model, they have sought relief from the U.S. Treasury. Even American Express has expressed the need for help. Expect others to join the bandwagon.
I’m hoping that whether you favor these sorts of bailouts is not tied to your party affiliation or locality, but to the philosophy you exhibit in your patient care. Many well-intentioned chiropractors may have overlooked the connection between a government bailout and what they do each day with patients.
Patients show up in your office needing a bailout. And while it doesn’t involve the infusion of working capital, it does involve the application of your skills to create one of two outcomes: relief or reorganization.
Relief. This is the primary goal of most patients. In fact, most patients don’t know there’s anything beyond pain relief. Most have a rather digital approach to their perception of health: sick. Or not sick. Granted, providing relief using natural means by reducing tension to the nervous system by applying appropriate energy at opportune places along the spinal column is less invasive and safer than using drugs. But be clear about this: both drugs and adjustments represent an allopathic model. In the mechanical chiropractic model, the boogieman is the offending bone. In the mechanistic medical model, the boogieman is the annoying pain. Philosophically, both interventions are quite similar in that both are accompanied by the intention of permitting the patient to resume the activities, habits, beliefs and lifestyle that led to the defense mechanism we call subluxation. In other words, to facilitate the patient returning to the realm of “not sick.”
That’s what a government bailout attempts to do. It’s classic symptom treating. It is unlikely to change the fundamental flaw in the business model that created the problem.
Reorganization. When a patient begins chiropractic care you have a limited opportunity to suggest other action steps that can serve to enhance the healing response. On the physical plane, things like drinking more water, brisk walking, reduced alcohol intake and other healthier habits are the most obvious. But how many chiropractors suggest a change in the emotional and spiritual habits of patients? Few. Yet, when pressed, most chiropractors will admit that most chronic subluxation patterns are the physical manifestations of unresolved emotional and spiritual issues—in other words, poor psychosocial health. (Remember health is defined as optimum physical, mental and social well-being?) Choose not to ask about their marriage, their relationship with their children or in-laws and you’ll find that thrusting along facetal joint planes rather blunt instrument. Avoid the possible difficult conversation about their career, financial security or the people they need to forgive, and you’ll overlook fertile areas for true, lasting and profound healing.
Instead of a bailout, there is a procedure in place that can accommodate this economic “slipping and checking.” It’s called Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It gives failing businesses an opportunity to reorganize.
“But Bill, if these businesses aren’t bailed out, the economic toll will be huge.”
Countless “caring” chiropractors might offer this as justification for a government bailout, yet be repulsed by the suggestion that all new chiropractic patients should receive a prescription for pain medication to address their immediate discomfort.
Absurd.
Innate intelligence does a perfect job of orchestrating the functions of the body. And free enterprise, when given the opportunity to work unfettered by needless regulations, do-gooders and managers insulated from marketplace realities, while not perfect, is still the best system going.