Weapon of mass dissent.

Wow that article's kind of sobering. Sometimes in U.S. I think we tend to think of endless possibilities with a sort of boundless optimism, at least I do. This article makes me think more on the level of we can do so little, but we must at least do that.

-Jeffrey
 

Oh, yeah, just one more comment. I'm glad you're having a good time in the new L-Class. I've actually been spending a lot of time driving my new 2006 Rolls-Royce. Whenever the topic of who drives what comes up, my friends always chime in and say, "Jeff rolls in the Rolls."



I'm just kidding, I don't even know what an L-Class is (is that like a go-cart used in street races?) and I certainly don't have a Rolls. Lastly, why are you driving so much anyway? Aren't progressives supposed to brag about taking more environment-friendly public transport and slumming it with the working-poor riders instead of driving? I'm just asking because that's what I always do, and I thought that as a progressive it was required. Maybe you at least carry Progressive auto insurance? That would at least be a step in the right direction.
 

Hi Saq,
Thanks for posting this interview. I have some other Paul Farmer articles and stuff if you want to post those, getting a better look at the kind of work Farmer does.
One thing to keep in mind, which Farmer mentions at the beginning of this article- but does not emphasize enough, I feel- is the importance of "listening" and alleviating obstacles posed by so-called "cultural barriers". It can be very easy as well-intentioned middle-class Americans to lose perspective on need as defined by those we are so graciously/self-righteously helping. And so to be effective we must set to the difficult task of understanding other perspectives of situations that we understand as problems. In other words, we need to listen to our clients/collaborators' speak. We need to see the systems in their myriad conceptions before we can start changing them, if our intention really is to serve others.
SO, world-systems and neo-marxism is all well and good, but let me iterate my recommendation (and I am not alone in this) that we keep one foot on the ground, maintain a specific compassion and not succumb to that vague do-gooder elation that can confuse the purpose of so many interventions medical, economic and otherwise. Farmer reminds of this, but I feel the need to round-out and underscore this point.

tutto,
L-Class

PS, for more info on this type of work and theorizing, I'd like to refer readers to works by UCB's Nancy Schepper-Hughes and others, as well as "Medical Anthropology and the World-System: a critical perspective" ed. by Hans Baer et al. Also of interest are works by Byron Good and Bob Desjarlais to name a few, for a more (neo)Post-Structural look at illness.