A person can take only so much. I am just getting over my second major medical crisis in six months. Yes, I know people go through terrible health problems—it is part of getting older; it is part of living. But what made these unusual was that both resulted from a misdiagnosis followed by harmful advice about how I should proceed.
I wrote about the first misdiagnosis in a previous blog. The latest followed a similar script. Following a wisdom tooth extraction, I suffered protracted pain that continued to worsen when it should have gotten better. The diagnosis was TMJ, i.e., a jaw joint problem. The recommendation was to take a lot of Ibuprofen along with Tylenol—six pills up to four times a day. For good measure, I was told to get a night guard to stop grinding my teeth. It’s possible, though not at all clear, that I may have had a minor case of TMJ. But after six weeks of worsening pain, and then waking up one morning with one side of my face swollen to a truly alarming degree, I headed to the emergency room. I am lucky enough to live near an excellent one, at NYU Langone.
The doctors saw immediately that I had a severe infection, along with signs of kidney malfunction. I was admitted to the hospital and the next day had emergency surgery. My kidney function began to improve once I stopped the Advil and switched to small doses of Tylenol, supplemented by moderate doses of morphine when the post-surgical pain was severe. The care I received in the hospital—both from doctors and nurses—was in stunning contrast to the individual practitioners who had led me so badly astray, jeopardizing rather than improving my health. While I don’t have access to their exact pay, from what I know, their salaries are inversely correlated with the quality of care I received; the hospital’s nurses at the bottom of the totem pole, the concierge physician at the top.
The reason I began this blog with this personal anecdote is that such anecdotes can be the spark for a more general hypothesis. In this case, the hypothesis is that there is a lot wrong with America, and it will take many years to fix. The medical issues I experienced are not unique to me, but you’re unlikely to see The New York Times run an article about the horrors that everyday Americans experience in trying to get adequate care for a dental problem, or a correct diagnosis of an infection. Yet similar horrors cover the gamut—not just in the medical field, but from news reporting to legal representation and from financial advice to political payoffs. By nature, I am an optimist. I believe that if enough Americans get mad enough, we have a chance to set things right—not in a day or a week, or even a decade, but hopefully in time for our progeny to live in a country that once again is the greatest country on earth.
This brings me to our current president, Donald Trump. In my city, New York, few people—at least among those who can afford decent housing—are more disliked than Trump. I understand the antipathy: he’s crude, erratic, and can appear misogynistic or even racist. But despite my personal disdain for the man, I believe that he does care about the country’s future. While I have no doubt that he is interested in enhancing his personal wealth, I also believe he wants to fix a lot of the problems that we face as a nation. I’m conscious of the fact that he and I are almost exactly the same age, and while I work very hard, I certainly don’t carry the weight of the country’s future on my shoulders. Trump is overweight, and while he comes from a long-lived family, the combination of a high BMI and exceptional stress is worrisome.
Trump‘s longevity concerns me, in part, because I believe that for all his chaos he engenders, Trump is a better option than J.D. Vance. That’s not a negative comment about Vance’s character. To me he seems to embody what was once considered a defining part of American culture—the American dream. He came from a very poor background and rose, step by step, to being a heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. But I’m concerned about who might be pulling Vance’s strings. I have argued that Trump’s major problem is his lack of agency. But Trump, at least, has a shield—his personal wealth—which is something that Vance lacks.
Vance would likely be even more beholden to the donor class. He has a strong relationship with Peter Thiel, whom I’ve written about—negatively—in past blogs. An early job at one of Thiel’s firms provided a major boost to Vance’s career. Thiel was a big donor to the Trump campaign in exchange for Vance getting a spot on the ticket. He’s an avowed anti-democrat, who has given lectures on the virtues of monopolies. But what worries me most about Thiel is his worship of AI. As I have noted previously, he views AI as critical in warding off the anti-Christ and worldwide annihilation. In my view, an apotheosis of AI is a grave threat to the country ever being able to regain the spiritual foundation that underlay our previous greatness. Many people understandably fear Trump’s “power plays.” But even if you doubt my perspective that Trump’s ultimate goal is a cooperative world in which countries work constructively together, ask yourself: Who is ultimately more dangerous—a 79-year-old Trump or a 41-year-old Vance?
Even Trump, despite his personal wealth, which provides a kind of shield, is still dependent on the donor class to run the country. In a materialistic culture, everything from Congress to the three-letter agencies is controlled by money. History teaches us that money and power are highly correlated, but only up to a point. Money and control must not be conflated. The money must be invested in technologies, and if money is not invested with long-term goals, you end up with second-rate technologies and a rotten foundation—namely, our schools—an inadequate basis for ever catching up. History has shown us time and again that a belief in absolute power is godless and utterly twisted, blinding a country to extraordinary risks. As I have said before, if we ever got to the point of a major war between the South and West, there are only two possible outcomes: worldwide extinction or extinction of the West.
Though the donor class may not have much direct control over Trump because of how his wealth shields him, they still pull most of the strings in Congress and the intelligence community. Trump has been fighting for ever greater agency. With a likely nod from both Putin and Xi, he is playing a weak hand with maniacal threats backed up by a “small twig” (apologies to Teddy Roosevelt, who I doubt would have been able to handle the current situation any better). He has had a lot of contact with Putin and has scheduled two summit meetings with Xi this year.
At present, many argue that Trump is running a chaotic presidency with tensions rising throughout the globe. But I think the common denominator in his ventures, from Greenland to Venezuela, is actually the pursuit of world peace and prosperity. What seems like chaos could turn out to be conditions that allow working relationships among the world’s three most important powers. The seizure of Maduro has had virtually no effect on Chinese businesses in Venezuela; daily business and logistics continue to operate normally. The prospective summits with Xi suggest a move toward broader business relationships between the major powers.
As to the tensions in Iran and Greenland, contrary to what you read and hear on major and alt media, not every scenario leads to horror and war. Multiple potential scenarios suggest increased cooperation among the “Big Three,” as so far seems the case in Venezuela. Admittedly, things can change quickly, but so far, so good. For now, at least, I’m hopeful that the endgames in Greenland and Iran will favor global cooperation. But I’ll be following closely and continuing to comment as events unfold.
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