This thought has been floating around my head for the longest of time. There is a serious frustration and dissatisfaction in me with how people are perceived in the context of the system of our world today. Is system and structure for the people? Or people for the so-called glorious and thriving economy? Is it all about wealth?
I think the climax of how this entry finally came about was in response to the Scientific Symposium I attended yesterday where a certain renowned scientist said, as part of his talk on Making Science Work, “How to make drugs that work to prevent old people like me [him] from draining the economy?” His word just re-ignited all that I was thinking about, all my dissatisfactions and frustrations.
If we look back into history, systems, structures, medicine, science, economy and basically everything that is external to life, they were made or brought into existence for people. Just like Sabbath for the people and not people for the Sabbath. All these existed for the benefit and pleasure of man and found its meaning in the context of man. Unfortunately, if we look at the way the world is today, everyone is driven or another word, slaved by all these external things that have got no real meaning. What are economy and wealth outside the context of man? What are systems and structures apart from the people? They are meaningless. But why? Why are people stuck in them? Slaved by them and is found suffocating just to keep up to all these meaninglessness? Aren’t these things meant for the people? What happened?
The current worldview puts economy and wealth above people. It is very sad to say this but it is happening. Take medical science for example. The question I always ask is “If medicine is ultimately to help and cure people of their suffering, why is it priced so high and only available to those who can afford it?” Is wealth and economy all there is to life? Do we only want to help the person if he is able to contribute to the wealth of a certain nation or drug company by buying the overpriced anti-cancer drug that only cost 0.0005% in production, and only gives a 5% efficiency?
People are paying the money. And to those who cannot afford such a high price, too bad, there is no hope for them. Is this how medical science started? Is profit and wealth primarily the reason why scientists set out to find cures to diseases? I don’t think so. It really frustrates me to see similar things happening everywhere. Just look around.
Are all these things for the people, or people for all these things?