Fyke's Medicare Survey and the Psychology of Influencing People
By Mario deSantis, October 27, 2000

It has been sometime I have been thinking to write something about the Fyke-ing of Saskatchewan⁽¹⁾. And yesterday (October 26) as I read the opinion "Medicare survey questionnaire deeply flawed⁽²⁾," I felt relieved by this task. Dr. Rein Lepnurm⁽³⁾, author of this opinion, did a beautiful job in framing Mr. Fyke's questionnaire as a psychological ploy to lead the respondents to preferred answers. It is time today to divulge a secret of mine, that I don't like psychology. You may recall that in the last articles I have been talking about the discipline of psychology and how this discipline has been abused by our politicians, businesses, researchers, governments, health care providers; psychology has been even abused by our Supreme Court⁽⁴⁾. And as I covered this ubiquitous presence of psychology in our daily living I became more and more discouraged. I can briefly explain the use of psychology as the art of influencing people and take them aboard our train of thoughts no matter how biased, regressive or progressive these thoughts are. We can remember the Hitler's regime and the propaganda machine engineered by his lieutenants Hermann Goering⁽⁵⁾ and Heinrich Himmler⁽⁶⁾. Adolf Hitler utilized psychology to mobilize the "Uber Alles" people, and I must tell you I am getting so tired to hear the word psychology that I want even the related academic discipline of psychology scrapped from our school and university curriculums!

I don't like psychology, and even more, I don't like the abuses triggered by psychology. We as civilized people learn to live together by conversing to each other, then why not to use the term learning instead of psychology. Learning how to live in peace together, rather than using psychology as a tool to manipulate people's behaviour. In an article I wrote yesterday (October 26), I referred to the hearing for the early parole of Colin Thacther, convicted murderer of his wife JoAnn Wilson. In this article, I mentioned how some people would like to see Colin Thacther early paroled since he has now become a born again Christian and since he has taken a course in the 'psychology for success⁽⁷⁾'. Couldn't it be that Colin Thathcer became a born again Christian just for the reason that he took that course in the psychology for success? I mean, can't we be able to explain the civility of people by the way they dialogue to other people and by the way they are progressively learning to live together in peace?

Anyhow, I digressed a bit from the original topic of Fyke's questionnaire, but after all the articles I have written in health care there is really no point to reiterate here what is wrong in health care. Health care is a corrupted environment, and as a Saskatoon nurse has stated, it is an environment where 'nobody is accountable⁽⁸⁾.' To conclude this writing, I want to have the pleasure to quote the last portion of Dr. Lepnurm's opinion so that we can try to learn how to combat corruption, try how to learn to live civilly, and try to learn how to save medicare:

As sensible as the preferred answers are, the end does not justify the means in a democratic society. Winston Churchill once said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." A once proud health care system, based on egalitarian principles and community involvement has been reduced to an "old boys' club." In Saskatchewan, it does not matter what what you know, it matters who you know.

References/Endnotes:

List of articles by Mario deSantis http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/authors/desantisNG.html

1. The Commission on Medicare, An independent One-Man Commission appointed by the Premier of Saskatchewan Roy Romanow, Commissioner Ken Fyke, http://www.medicare-commission.com/reports.htm

2. Medicare survey questionnaire deeply flawed, by Dr. Rein Lepnurm, The StarPhoenix, October 26, 2000

3. Rein Lepnurm, B.A. (Simon Fraser), M.H.A. (Ottawa), Dr.P.H. Associate Professor Management & Marketing, University of Saskatchewan http://www.commerce.usask.ca/faculty/lepnurm/

4. The Supreme Court of Canada: Using Psychology to find the Truth, by Mario deSantis, October 21, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis245/supremecourt.html

5. Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia and, as Hitler's designated successor, the second man in the Third Reich, Hermann Goering was born in Rosenheim on January 12, 1893 http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/goering.html

6. Heinrich Himmler's speech at Posen on October 4, 1943, in which he describes the extermination of the Jews to high-ranking SS officers. http://www.datasync.com/~davidg59/himmler.html

7. Colin Thatcher and his psychology for success, by Mario deSantis, October 26, 2000

8. Royal University Hospital: $7.5 million blunder and nobody is accountable, by Mario deSantis, October 20, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis244/noaccountability.html