Login

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
social.coop is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A Fediverse instance for people interested in cooperative and collective projects. If you are interested in joining our community, please apply at https://join.social.coop/registration-form.html.

Administered by:

Server stats:

499
active users

social.coop: AboutStatusProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.4

Public
tmccormick

"Medicine is a social science, and politics nothing but medicine at a larger scale."
—R. (1821–1902), German doctor/polymath, "founder of ". A history+evaluation of these ideas: Mackenbach 2008 doi.org/10.1136/jech.2008.0770 /
drive.google.com/file/d/1dcczo
---
RT @AvikChatterMD
“Medicine is a social science, and politics is just medici…
twitter.com/AvikChatterMD/stat

Screenshot of tweet: Avik Chatterjee @AvikChatterMD “Medicine is a social science, and politics is just medicine writ large” -Virchow Excited to be teaching #socialmedicine to med students @harvardmed again this year (and learning from them as well) Virchow’s words have never been more relevant #medtwitter Image 7:16 PM · Jan 4, 2023
1st page of article: "Politics is nothing but medicine at a larger scale: reflections on public health’s biggest idea." by J P Mackenbach. J Epidemiol Community Health 2009;63:181–184. doi:10.1136/jech.2008.077032. Abstract: ABSTRACT This article retraces the historical origins and contem- porary resonances of Rudolf Virchow’s famous statement ‘‘Medicine is a social science, and politics nothing but medicine at a larger scale’’. Virchow was convinced that social inequality was a root cause of ill-health, and that medicine therefore had to be a social science. Because of their intimate knowledge of the problems of society, doctors, according to Virchow, also were better states- men. Although Virchow’s analogies between biology and sociology are out of date, some of his core ideas still resonate in public health...
Passage from article: "While not all public health issues are inherently politically controversial, a naive observer cannot fail to notice that the outcome of political action to promote population health is rather uncertain. Politics is a struggle between conflicting ideologies and interests, in which health provides only one of many types of argument. Politics operates on a timescale governed by elections and media attention, which is at odds with the greater timescale at which population health and its determinants can be expected to change. An emphatically political approach to public health may also in the long run prove to be a self-defeating strategy, because of the dangers of politicisation. Politics is divisive, and long-term support for public health can be eroded as well as strengthened by recurrent political debates.33 How far should one go? Readers must decide for themselves, perhaps thinking of an imaginary ‘‘ladder of political activism’’ with four rungs. ..."
Public
tmccormick

's maxim "Politics is nothing but medicine at a larger scale" is compelling & inspiring to many—but we've good reasons to Q its application eg in activism, housing, . Eg huge issues esp w/US medicine & pharma; critiques in Mackenbach, , R. Bourne:
---
RT @ProfSaraRankin
Super compelling to me especially in my work where housing, homelessness, and healthcare are inseparable— braided together with inequ…
twitter.com/ProfSaraRankin/sta

screenshot of referenced tweet: "Sara Rankin @ProfSaraRankin Super compelling to me especially in my work where housing, homelessness, and healthcare are inseparable— braided together with inequity. Quote Tweet Avik Chatterjee @AvikChatterMD 4h “Medicine is a social science, and politics is just medicine writ large” -Virchow Excited to be teaching #socialmedicine to med students @harvardmed again this year (and learning from them as well) Virchow’s words have never been more relevant #medtwitter Image 10:51 PM · Jan 4, 2023
Tweet: " Tim McCormick: on mastodon @tmccormick@social.coop @tmccormick Replying to @marindatanow @thisishellradio and 9 others "War is the health of the state" (Randolph Bourne, 1918) — homelessness version. cf #CraigWillse, "Neo-liberal biopolitics and the invention of chronic homelessness", 2010. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085141003620139…; PDF https://researchgate.net/publication/228340557_Neo-liberal_biopolitics_and_the_invention_of_chronic_homelessness… @cwillse @Deyant Image Image Image Quote Tweet 🛒anti-housing, unhoused & loud⛺️ @RoofLesser · Feb 3, 2022 Replying to @RoofLesser @marindatanow and 9 others Performative productivity is the name of the game. They could literally have outreach just BUILDING houses instead and it would be more productive 9:29 PM · Feb 3, 2022
tmccormick

"War is [essentially] the health of the state."
—Randolph Bourne (1886-1918).
In "Unfinished Fragment on the State," 1918 book draft published in collected volume Untimely Papers (New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1919):
archive.org/details/untimelypa
On :
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randol
---
RT @tmccormick
@marindatanow @thisishellradio @TheoHen95302259 @RoofLesser @j…
twitter.com/tmccormick/status/

screenshot of 1st page of Bourne, "UNFINISHED FRAGMENT ON THE STATE" (Winter, 1918), in Untimely Thoughts, 1919: "Government is synonymous with neither State nor Nation. It is the machinery by which the nation, organized as a State, carries out its State functions. Government is a framework of the administration of laws, and the carrying out of the public force. Government is the idea of the State put into practical operation in the hands of definite, concrete, fallible men. It is the visible sign of the invisible grace. It is the word made flesh. And it has necessarily the limitations inherent in all practicality. Government is the only form in which we can envisage the State, but it is by no means identical with it. That the State is a mystical conception is something that..."
"...must never be forgotten. Its glamor and its sig- nificance linger behind the framework of Gov- ernment and direct its activities. Wartime brings the ideal of the State out into very clear relief, and reveals attitudes and ten- dencies that were hidden. In times of peace the sense of the State flags in a republic that is not militarized. For war is essentially the health of the State. The ideal of the State is that within its territory its power and influence should be universal. As the Church is the medium for the spiritual salvation of men, so the State is thought of as the medium for his political salvatio|n. Its idealism is a rich blood flowing to all the mem- bers of the body politic. And it is precisely in war that the urgency for union seems greatest, and the necessity for universality seems most unques- tioned. The State is the organization of the.."
from editors Introduction to Randolph Bourne, Untimely Papers, 1919: "He was nowhere wanted. It was difficult even for him to get publication for book reviews. Backed only by a few friends, he held a solitary way, with hardly the heart for new enterprise. Nevertheless he began a book, "The State," in which he planned the complete expres- sion of his attitude, both destructive and creative. This was never finished. / We have only what amounts to an essay ; but undoubtedly this essay is the most effective and terrible indictment of the institution of the State which the war has yet brought forth. It furnishes a natural climax to The Seven Arts essays; together they make a book, both historic and prophetic. /We have nothing else like this book in America. It is the only living record of the suppressed minority, and is, as so often the case, the prophecy of that minority's final triumph...A great chorus takes up now the song of this solitary.."
Jan 05, 2023, 09:08 AM·Public
0boosts·0favorites
ExploreLive feeds
About