The Pursuit of Happiness

People can drive you crazy. I know a guy who has later-stage diabetes but refuses to do anything about it. He’s starting to look awful, yet keeps eating whatever he wants, and in enormous amounts too. His GP told him he’ll lose his toes soon, but the guy rejected the warning and even sought a second opinion – which confirmed the first GP’s diagnosis. The guy’s response? He said doctors were over-cautious health-Nazis who just want to sell him a bunch of expensive medicines he doesn’t need. “I run my life,” he said, “and I won’t let a bunch of quacks regulate it for me.”

It’s only a matter of months before he becomes immobile, racks up $100,000 hospital bills, and passes them along to taxpayers – after filing bankruptcy because of his high deductible, low-cap insurance plan. His best-case future is a handicapped parking card, piddling around the Evil Retail Giant on a motorized grocery cart, and getting thousand-yard stares from people who have to walk around him or wait on him. Eventually, he’ll lose his toes, feet, and legs. Just before he goes blind.

Am I being harsh? Judgmental? Unsympathetic? Could be. But help me out. What’s your assessment of him and his situation? Is it wrong to ask him to engage in healthier behavior? Is he a fool for not taking expert medical advice – and from more than one expert at that? Should we keep after him to make healthier choices? Or, is it none of our business? Should we just let him do what he wants – even though we get stuck with the tab? What do you think?

I know these are hard questions to answer. It reminds me of something Gus Speth, an internationally recognized environmentalist, said recently about a similar dilemma:

“I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change,” Speth said. “I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation… and we scientists don’t know how to do that.”