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Why society does not change?
Eminent surgeon, Dr. Atul Gawande, uses the metaphor of a tumor to illustrate how society easily grows complacent to any incremental pain.
As a surgeon, I've seen some pretty large tumors. I've excised fist-size thyroid cancers from people's necks and abdominal masses bigger than your head. When I do, this is what almost invariably happens: the anesthesiologist puts the patient to sleep, the nurse unsnaps the gown, everyone takes a sharp breath, and someone blurts out, " How could someone let that thing get so huge? " .
Too often, by the time a patient finally seeks help, I can't help much.
We are adaptable creatures, and while that is generally good, sometimes it's a problem. We have no difficulty taking prompt action when faced with a sudden calamity, like a bleeding head wound, say, or a terrorist attack. But we are not good at moving against the creeping, more insidious threats . whether a slow-growing tumor, waistline or debt.
It's as true of societies as of individuals. We did not muster the will to reform our long-broken banking system, for example, until it actually collapsed in the Great Depression.
This is, in a nutshell, the trouble with our health care crisis. Our health care system has eroded badly, but it has not collapsed. So we do nothing.
Another metaphor for society's inability to change is the frog syndrome. Part urban legend, the frog syndrome refers to how a frog will let itself be boiled to death if left in cold water with the temperature only gradully being increased.