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Opinion
A Matter of Life and Death
Over the past year, mortality has become an inescapable leitmotif of modern life. And yet, argues Will Self, we are no better equipped to comprehend our fate. When science prioritises the prevention of death over the promotion of our well-being – while the conversation about death remains subdued – can we hope to lead truly healthy lives?
By Will Self 17/05/2021
There are many epitaphs that reflect a dark sense of humour on the part of the departed. Spike Milligan’s comes to mind: “I told you I was ill.” But my favourite one belongs to Marcel Duchamp, the French master who pretty much wrote the rule book for the plastic arts in the 20th century. Freely translated from the French, the inscription on his tombstone reads: “After all, it’s always the others that die.” This, to my way of thinking, captures the extraordinarily paradoxical nature of the human animal. We all know that everyone must eventually die –
Wokeism should terrify liberals
You may have assumed that woke activism was a sideshow, destroying academic institutions and The New York Times.Yet here it had penetrated an important, once-revered government scientific agency and it was affecting, not who gets to edit the Times op-ed page but basic questions of life and death for millions.
For liberals, this should be especially terrifying–most crucially for backers of “Medicare for All” and other ambitious health plans. I think I’m one of them I’ve always supported some kind of universal, national health insurance. Medicare seems like a program that works–why not expand it? Claims from conservatives that this gives government too much power have always seemed like a rote application of abstract dogma. Did Medicare run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have too much power? Hard to see how. There’s no obvious rationing. No death panels. Of course there are always worries about cost-cutting, and t