In Samuel Shem’s wonderfully satiric look at medical education, he follows some students on the final leg of that education: Internship.
Most of the older doctors are what you might expect, although Shem draws them all as neurotic and funny, in very dark ways. But one really has the truth in mind, and is intent on teaching the youngsters what life is really like. He tells them the four rules of medicine.
They are below the fold
1. If what you’re doing is working, keep doing it.
2. If what you’re doing isn’t working, stop doing it.
3. If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.
4. Never call a surgeon.
Now, except for the last, are these not wonderful guides to politics? And might the last not be “never start a war”?
In particular, I am thinking what would happen if Bush paid attention to these rules.
What he is doing isn’t working. He should stop doing it.
He doesn’t know what to do, so he should not do things
and, of course…. not starting wars would be good.
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isn’t this blog great? Buhdy rocks!
its not working. They keep sending him pages and pages of words, and he only reads pictures.
rules? oh, but rules don’t apply to gwb. bush’s entire, unfortunate, entitled existence has been a string of not being held accountable, never recognizing consequences, and–god forbid–defiant incapacity for self reflection.
that said, yes indeed. it would be nice. there’s a value yet at the same time a lovely simplicity to such an approach.
yup and yup.
in an ironic note, i lost my orange-flavored tu status today. made me chuckle.
at a hospital lately (visiting my dad) not to mention having to deal with them myself from time to time, I did get a chuckle out of the 4 rules for doctors.
Although, I sure have run into quite a few who obviously hadn’t read them yet!
*HUGE CONGRATULATIONS* are in order to buhdy and his gang of “ne’er-do-wells” for a job well done on the site! Awesome!
In fact, it already feels like “home”! May docudharma live long and prosper!
He is getting what he wants. It just isn’t what he SAID he wants. He’s the opposite guy. Whatever he says – he means the opposite.
“If you have no idea what the hell you’re doing, ask someone who does.” It works for every other vocation, why not for the POTUS?
and you are faced with a doctor who doesn’t know what he/she is doing and is electing to do nothing in order to avoid doing something wrong, you find a doctor who does know what he/she is doing and state your case.
In other words: you act like you still have some power to change things even if you aren’t sure how much you can do. The American people still don’t realise they have that power but when they do…
that you could apply those four rules to life in general, with “Don’t intentionally harm another” as the last.
I love this web-site, it’s like a brand-spankin’-new-ray-of-hope in the blogosphere.
logic? youre trying to apply logic? to george doubleyou bush??
sigh….(you dont know this, but im shaking my head at you.)
thanks for the diary. that’s actually great life advice, too…including BOTH #4s, yours and shem’s
…appears to be a corollary to the above: When what you’re doing isn’t working, do more of it.
Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.
he would have done nothing in the last sis years. if only….
imo not, is it working?
but, how it(n’t) it working?
who benefits?
who pays?
and how can we make it more just more sane and more equitable?
is working. He is in Iraq for the oil and as long as we are there, we are there for the oil. It isn’t working for the People, but when did that ever mater to the elites?
When people find out how badly you f%^&ked everything up, flee to Paraguay.