Soylent Green is People

 

In the movie Soylent Green, Charlton Heston plays a police officer named Robert Thorn in a very dystopian society. Natural resources are depleted, the earth has heated up, and air and water quality are poor. Plus, overpopulation has made feeding the poor and middle-class a matter of national emergency. Remember, this is a work of fiction from the 1970s, not today’s headlines. While investigating the death of an executive at the Soylent Corporation, Thorn makes an interesting discovery. The food that is being provided to the people of the world is not made from sea plankton like the company advertises. It is instead made from the euthanized remains of people. And so, one of cinema’s most recognized catch phrases is born. “Soylent Green is People!”

After watching Michael Moore’s movie Sicko and an episode of PBS’s NOW this week, I couldn’t help but think of Soylent Green.

Michael Moore takes a lot of criticism from the right for his movies exaggerating facts and being very one sided. I’m not here to argue that there is no exaggeration in Sicko, but if any of it is true then we should all be paying attention.

Americans have a genetic predisposition against paying taxes. Boston Tea party anyone? The idea of funding a “Universal Health Care System” by paying higher taxes is very worrisome to many Americans. So, instead of paying higher taxes to make sure that all citizens have access to at least some basic level of health care. We instead pay ever higher insurance premiums while wages remain stagnate and we receive lower benefits. And that only applies to those of us who are able to afford insurance. What about the ones who can’t? And if something doesn’t change in the future, eventually employers are not going to be able to pay their portion of the healthcare premiums and will stop offering health insurance to their employees. Then the number of uninsured Americans will, of course, continue to increase. But at least my taxes won’t go up!

One of the most emotional scenes for me in Sicko is when we learn of American hospitals kicking patients out of hospitals and dropping them off on the street. “Soylent Green is People!” Thank God, Michael Moore is making this stuff up! There is no way that a hospital in the richest country on earth would ever put its citizens out on the street, sometimes wearing only a hospital gown, right? Please tell me this is some of Michael Moore’s fiction. But unfortunately, this is not a work of fiction, it’s true and some hospitals in our larger cities have taken a lot of heat for this practice.

Fellow Hoosier Kurt Vonnegut often quoted another native son of Indiana, Eugene Debs. Debs, of course, was a Socialist and therefore as God-fearing Americans we probably shouldn’t listen to his “corruptive” words, but let’s be brave and listen anyway.

As long as there is a lower class, I am in it.
As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it.
As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

I would like to add to Deb’s words by saying.

As long as there is an uninsured American, I am not well.

One of the arguments President Bush gives to avoiding a government run healthcare system is that “medical decisions should be made between patients and their doctors. Not the government” Isn’t it interesting that so many of our elected officials suffer from this sense of self-loathing? They’re part of the government and yet they hate government. This reminds me of certain elected officials who tirelessly fight to protect American values from “corrupt” ideas like same-sex marriage, only to participate in same-sex shenanigans themselves. Wages may be stagnate for many of us, but the Psychoanalysts must be raking it in hand over fist!

But let’s get back to keeping medical decisions between doctors and their patients. Let’s be honest, the decisions being made are by the insurance companies, not doctors. I’ve been in doctors and dentists offices and while being examined by the doctor I’ve overheard the office staff on the phone arguing with an insurance company concerning coverage for a patient. Many times the doctor has told me, “I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that.”

I am not advocating a socialist medical system. What I am advocating is for humanity to act humanely and to care for each other. I’m advocating for our elected officials, the heads of HMOs and insurance companies, and especially us as American citizens, to care when someone is suffering. If we really are the richest, best country on earth then there surely must be a way for all of our citizens to have access to good, basic medical coverage. Let’s make sure that the future depicted in films like Soylent Green remains a work of fiction and never becomes reality.