Doctors Aren't Ogres

Ogres have layers. Doctors could stand to grow a few.

I have two thoughts about the expression, "the pen is mightier than the sword". The first is that it was coined or popularized by someone without much knowledge of history. If there's one thing that's been proven again and again and again in world history, it's that the sword is far mightier than the pen (and the most common way by which those with bothersome pens are definitively dealt with).

My second thought is that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, but only with regards to self-inflicted wounds. I can definitely attest to this, having alienated God knows how many friends, family members, colleagues, and girlfriends (potential girlfriends, anyway) over the decades, through my regrettable and often spectacularly poor choice of words.

Since entering medicine, I've been dressed down and crapped on repeatedly by superiors, crapped on (literally) by a patient, been blamed for a patient's blood clot, blamed for another patient's cancer, been hauled on the carpet over a tasteless pun, had a drug-seeking patient knock on the front door of my house, had my credentials challenged in court, had my life threatened, been accused of violating every tenet of the Hippocratic Oath, come within an inch of bankruptcy, been crippled by a sports injury, and who knows what else. What I still find mystifying, though, is that none of this misery landed me anywhere near the volume of grief I've experienced since I undertook the who-knew-it-could-be-so-hazardous endeavor of (buh-buh-BUM) expressing my political opinion online.

This is no exaggeration. With the exception of my misadventures with the College of Physicians, and I suppose the patients that blamed me for cancer and threatened my life, respectively, nothing I've experienced in health care compares with the accusations and cheap shots hurled at and around me on social media. Endorse a lousy deal with the government that I still think is better than nothing? I'm a traitor, I'm sowing discord, I need to let the adults handle it, and so on. I opine that unprofessional behavior doesn't need to be aired in the media or immediately sent to the College? I get called out in a YouTube video. Guess what? I haven't ruined anyone's career (except perhaps my own), I haven't harmed any patients by voicing an opinion, and I don't lose sleep at night even if I've been chastised. Nobody else should either.

We're adults. We're entitled to our opinions, and we're entitled to disagree. But if we're putting ourselves in the public sphere - and yes, social media is the public sphere - to express a political opinion, we all have to accept the risk that said opinion might incite umbrage, anger, or even hatred. If I label an argument in a political opinion as nonsense, or hogwash, or sanctimony, or hypocrisy, or any other pejorative, so long as I'm not cursing, or impugning the reputation or personal life of the author, any critique of an argument is fair game. It might not reflect well upon me, but to call me unprofessional or uncivil is just as out of line as a personal attack.

When the government unilaterally acts to strip a doctor of his or her negotiated income, and some members of the profession make a point of not only media, this is no longer a difference of opinion within the profession. It's a public political conflict. There's no running into a corner and playing the "professionalism" card because you're unhappy with a strongly worded response - again, provided it's not personal or objectively offensive. You want a public argument over politics? You can't lob a grenade and expect no rebuttal. Thicken your skin and be prepared to take heat.

Those who've met me in person or read my opinions regularly know that I'm an incurable cynic. I'd bet folding money that the online squabbles in the medical community in the past year or two are going to end with the Colleges hammering down on any commentary outside sickeningly narrow limits of what will henceforth be defined as "professional". How censorship of debate will have any positive outcome is beyond me, except for the government and bureaucracies that prize conformity over independent thought. That is a big, bad wolf we should all fear.

P.S.: stay tuned for a BIG announcement regarding the newsletter in the coming days!

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Ditulis Unknown — Tuesday, September 19, 2017 — Add Comment — blogging, College of Physicians, doctors, health policy, ideology, media, One Asshole's Opinion, political correctness, politics, professionalism, social media, Twitter