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April 23, 2007
Are We Doing The Denial Twist?
Someone in the audience suggested to Alan Deutschman that maybe public radio is doing just fine, and that change could actually be a bad thing. Alan replied by asking a question and telling another story.
First, the question: if you could take a pill that would solve all of public radio's problems, would you take it? Even if it had zero side effects? Alan said you probably wouldn't, and he explained this by talking about statin drugs, which are taken by millions of people to prevent heart attacks. Statins have kept Alan's dad alive by reducing his cholesterol dramatically. If there's any drug that represents the promise of pharmaceuticals, it's statins, he said. Yet according to a massive study of patients with cholesterol problems, people don't stick with taking the pills that can save their lives. They may start by taking them, but as the months pass by, as many as three-quarters of them quit. Why? Because the act of taking the pill every day puts them in the mindset that they have a problem - a chronic illness that they have to deal with. And no one likes to admit when they're sick.
So now you're mad, denying the truth
And it's getting in the wisdom in the back of your tooth
Ya need ta spit it out, in a telephone booth
While ya call everyone that you know, and ask 'em
Where do you think she goes?
Where d'ya suppose she goesThe truth, well, you know there's no stoppin' it.
And the boat, well, ya know she's still rockin' it.
-andy
Posted by acarvin at April 23, 2007 11:04 AM
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