[Reader-list] Medicine and Kisses and Free software

[Joe Joe Harding]

This is in reference to some conversation in the list
going on regarding free software, medicine and some
allusions to kisses.

There was a young man who had the audacity to say that
the earth was round. For someone had worked on
equinoxes and length of shadows to bring in the
hypothesis of the round earth.  Lots of people mocked
and laughed at him, for those were the easiest thing
to do. “Don’t you see the earth is flat, the sun rises
over there and sets somewhere there ……A kiss is a kiss
– whatever anyone or books say handshake can surely be
not as pleasurable as a kiss ?”

Then there was an old man who said brother, the earth
moves round the sun. See the orbits of the planets, it
is much easier to understand them if you bring in the
hypothesis of the revolving and rotating earth.
“Surely you must be joking, don’t you see the sun
moves from east to west ….you read books and collect
facts to prove otherwise!! …A kiss is a kiss –
whatever anyone or books say handshake can surely be
not as pleasurable as a kiss ?”

Then there was a chap who said friend what we
supposedly consciously do is mostly a result of the
repressed sediments in subconscious mind. All our
kisses and handshakes have lot to do with unconscious
accommodation of primal urges. “ surely you must be
joking – a kiss is just a kiss …You don’t need to
waste your mind by attempting to  prove otherwise”.

There again was another interesting chap who went on
to prove that when you work and produce for a wage,
you produce a surplus value i.e. you get exploited.
The present mode of production is based on this mode
of exploitation and is as ruthless and inhuman as
slavery was. He went on to call the present as
‘wage-slavery’. “Exploitation! Slavery! Today! – you
must be nuts …..Leaving aside a aberration here and
there, you get what you deserve”. “You see it and feel
it and surely you don’t need books to prove
otherwise!” “A kiss is a kiss – whatever anyone or
books say handshake can surely be not as pleasurable
as a kiss ?”.

Ask a Eskimo he/she would surely give more preference
to rubbing noses than to kisses. For to him that is
more pleasurable. Handshake may also be in some
circumstances more pleasurable than a kiss. But that
is all beside the point.

If the difference of appearance and essence where to
disappear than analysis would cease. Analysis begins
when what you 'see' and what actually is differs. But
one must be inclined to see the difference.

Medicine today survives to make more and more surplus
value. Humanity, cure and remedy are secondary issues.
This is so especially when individual decision of
practitioners has little power in front of giant
institution, medical institutions and pharmaceutical 
companies. To know how this is so one needs to study
facts, it is not apparent. It is a bit different from
kisses and handshakes. The choices in routine practice
in this field of knowledge is within the ethical
domain. Today’s world is not as idyllic as one would
want it to be – the old quaint chap who talked of
surplus value had proved it conclusively. Surplus
value, Profit, exploitation and suppression have
complicated everything a lot.

Free software and Linux movement is one of the most
interesting things going on today. It is simply
because, individual practice in link up with similarly
inclined individuals has brought forth an ethics which
shuns monetary relations and is based on work and
sharing. Its existence and growth is a challenge to
the ethics and practice of the present software
industry. To challenge one has to be a practitioner
oneself. Joe Blow has to free themselves. This has
been succinctly put by one such practitioner :

“Linux does not work on the philosophy that all the
*hackers* are here to work for Mr Joe Blow and his
Desktop PC. and to make sure that every thing works.
It works on the philosophy of give and take If Joe
Blow tells on the *kernel mailing list* that this
dos'nt work I'm sure some one will take a weekend to
try and sort it out.”

“People who run Linux machines, who code for GNU and
who do publicity are not responsible for Joe Blows
problem but If Joe tries to be a part of the community
and help them do his work maybe things would work out.
I was once like Joe myself “

No one can really free another. If one wants to be
free from the software industry one needs to act
oneself and link up with similarly inclined
individuals. One can, if he/she wants to, remain an
object of industrial manipulations. If one doesn’t
want that then one needs to act. If he wants freedom
then Joe Blow will have to give up his Joe Blowness.
In extreme situations one uses only those software
that is free and sharable and shuns all others. This
spirit some may dislike, but some may genuinely like
and be inspired by. In my opinion this movement should
not be reduced to just the development of an
alternative product. It is to do with a struggle, a
challenge and a new ethics. This may be extended to
other fields of social practice.

To fight against all that engulfs us today one needs
to be active oneself. Medicine needs to democratise
its practice. Practitioners needs to participate. If
one wants to be free from the power of medical
institutions and pharmaceutical  companies, one has to
dissolve the power. Practitioners needs to share and
distribute free. If one takes recourse to medicine
only in situations where remedy or cure can be done
within the level of sharing and individual help and
shuns all other cure, then the structure of modern
medical practice collapses. It is very difficult, but
if we extend free software practice to medicine that
is the logical conclusion. There can be a diluter
solution though.


Joe Joe Harding


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