In an email to the GroupMind, Robert Anton Wilson wrote, They do not allow us and/or our doctors to decide on treatment for illness (FDA/DEA/TSOG); etc. As Anthony Hopkins cried out so passionately in Legends of the Fall, "Screw the government! Screw them!"
But maybe Bob was not against all government involvement in health care. In a 2001 interview, he said, What you gotta do is talk to a couple of intelligent people from northern Europe. They pay higher taxes than we do, but they rarely complain because they get something for their taxes. They get universal health care, they get much better unemployment if they loose their job. They have all sorts of social services that we don’t have, which is worthwhile. But here, everybody is pissed off about their tax bills, which is comparatively low, because they get nothing for it! All that happens to the tax money is that it goes to pay the interest on the national debt and then to build bigger bombs, to go faster, to kill more people.We wonder what Bob would have thought about the current debate on health care in America. When Bob was in the hospital after a post-polio related fall in 2005, he said that in his living will he included a paragraph that read, "Nothing in this will may be set aside by any politician, in Republican or human form, contrary to my specific instructions." In a 2003 email titled "Cheerful Reflections on Illness and Dying" Bob wrote, "I don't understand why people fear death -- although of course I see good reasons to fear the process of dying. Dying often involves a great deal of prolonged pain, and in this country at least may drain your life savings into the bank accounts of the A.M.A. Both prospects seem equally terrifying especially if you hoped to leave a decent estate to your children. One can avoid these deplorable conditions, however, by moving to a civilized country with a national health plan . . ."
Yes, we wonder what Bob would have thought about the current debate. In a 1999 email Bob wrote, Back in the '70s we had the Natural Surrealist Party who ran a ginkus named George Papoon for President. He never made speeches, just showed up near the door where "real" candidates were speaking, carrying a sign that said, starkly and simply, "Not Insane."
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