We are often reminded of the 3000 or so people that died in the terrorist attacks in 2001, how it is the worst attack in our history, on our own soil and all that; New Orleans is not given the same attention and was certainly more devastating. The 911 attacks were used as an excuse to bomb and invade a country that had nothing to do with the them but whose state owned oil industry needed privatizing.
Yet there are far worse domestic crises that cause hundreds of thousands of US fatalities.
We have about 300,000 deaths a year from sudden cardiac death according to researchers. SDD is defined as "death resulting from coronary heart disease within one hour of the onset of symptoms." *
The recent data, researchers describe as "astonishing" and has led them to conclude that the risk of death for US men at 40 is one in eight.
While, there might be considerable differences about the causes of this particular health crisis, practically all involved agree that many deaths can be prevented simply by eating a balanced diet and exersising regularly. What is left out in the report I read in the WSJ is the effects of the environment in which we exist. The insecurity and savagery of the market economy is a major factor. The report talks of blood pressure and stress. Under the constant threat of homelessness, being constantly in debt, being bombarded with ads day in day out, not sure if you'll have a job from one day to the next----these are a few contributors to blood pressure, heart attacks and all sorts of ailments.
Capitalism is not a system that is conducive to healthy living. It is not a harmonious system but a ruthless, violent system; it is a permanent state of war. This is enough to give anyone heart problems. In the US we work longer than workers in the rest of the industrial economies and we have less security. I was thinking of Ronald Reagan the other day. This murderous thug fired 11,000 US workers and banned them for life from working in their industry for daring to strike for better conditions, like a shorter workweek. These were people who did their very best to ensure our safety when we fly and were overwhelmingly good at it. He threw sick and mentally disabled people out of institutions during the 1980's and on to the streets, all in the interest of efficiency. And they name an airport after him.
This is enough to give anyone a heart attack.
I say that tongue in cheek but it is true because it is a reflection of the alienation that workers experience in society. We are not rich so we must have failed. If only I was smarter, sexier, spoke better English, I would be successful like Ronald Reagan or Bill Gates. This is what we are taught to believe and it is part of the reason 300,000 die each year from heart attacks because the system is set up to make us fail, we cannot all succeed by their definition, and when we don't recognize that we blame ourselves. And who has time for excersize? What is the proportion of the millions of hours of advertising time devoted to healthy living and eating compared to the KFC ads, brought to our children by famous footballers and such.
Then, along with many other diseases with too many acronyms that I can't recall, there is the diet and chemicals in food, and other environmental hazards.
In all it seems that the money spent on the fight against global terrorism is not spent in our best interest, maybe Dick Cheney's but not ours. The terror of the market is what we have to rid ourselves of.
*Wall Street Journal 11-16-09
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