And I Quote:

"I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, far more revolutionary than socialist ideas, or anybody else's idea because if you have power, you use it to meet the needs of your community. And this idea of choice, which capitol talks about all the time, "you gotta have a choice." Choice depends on the freedom to choose, and if you're shackled with debt, you don't have freedom to choose."

MM: "But it benefits the system if the average working person is shackled with debt..."

"Yeah, because people in debt become hopeless, and hopeless people don't vote. See they will say that everyone should vote, but I think if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people that represented their interests it would be a real democratic revolution. So they don't want it to happen, so keep people hopeless and pessimistic. I think there are two ways in which people are controlled; first of all, frighten people, and secondly, demoralize them. An educated, healthy, confident nation is harder to govern, and I think there's an element in the thinking of some people - we don't want people to be educated and healthy and confident, they would get out of control (laugh). The top 1% of the world's population owns 80% of the worlds wealth. It's incredible that people put up with it, but they're poor, they're demoralized, they're frightened and therefore they think perhaps the safest thing to do is take orders and hope for the best."

~An English man, former member of the parliament (?)

Yes sir. I've heard it all before, but still, thank you for saying it yeat again.

I only got halfway through Sicko, before I had to turn it off. It's not new, what's being said, but it's painful. It's everything you already know, but have tuned out so that you can be numb. It requires people to admit that they just don't give a damn, or that they're lazy. One of the conversations we had at happy hour last week was about this idea (brought up in a discussion about this book) that most people don't really know about poor people in this country...that people are just completely ignorant to the fact that so many children in this country are living at 200% below poverty, or what poverty in the U.S. looks like ( I think the figure is about 40%). But I (along with others) argue that this is simply not the case. People know. They do. Maybe not all, but most of them definitely know. I said, "I don’t think that folks are just that ignorant. I think we want to, have to, believe that they’re ignorant because otherwise we have to deal with the pain of knowing that they know and just don’t give a damn." That's something that came up again as I was watching this film. Our own government conspiring against us (us, conspiring against ourselves) on purpose, watching folks die, killing them by refusing to provide care...it's...it's...nauseating? There are no words.