Seismic shifts are inherently discomforting. I think we are in one, and the health care system seems a little Cro-Magnon in its response to this discomfort. We seem uniquely able to slog along, business as usual, without innovately entering into the dialog. The demise of Tom Daschle simply intensifies this sensation, as “our” anointed “leader” at the White House table is removed from the dialog. The problems that created his demise look a bit dated too. We seem stuck in trying to create a future while hanging on for dear life to the past.

People mention us a good deal, of course, largely noting that we are alternately broken, inefficient, dysfunctional, too expensive, held hostage by insurance companies, unfair, unsuccessful…there is a long list here. We apparently need to change. This occurs in a larger context, both nationally and globally, and there we find what Yeats described so well: “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold”. The poem was called “The Second Coming”.

I personally am drowning in the “things fall apart” visuals: crazy peanut butter execs pleading the fifth, Phelps with a bong, Mumbai explosions, 14 kids and no income, Australia in flames, bank execs saying they get it while changing the name of their bonuses to continue giving them, Fareed Zakaria recommending Canada as a role model, one homeless woman getting a home, a Republican who wants to use the Taliban as a political template, Barney Frank chiding and Charlie Crist cheering on the stimulus package, netroots campaigning to try the leadership torturers, Newsweek assuring me we are all socialists and Time lamenting the disappearing newspaper. This is not an exhaustive list, just the stuff that comes to mind.

My search for meaningful discourse about all of this has led to a disturbing overexposure to negativism, cynicism, and snark. We seem to all have the right answers and anonymously proclaim this, often with an equally disturbing tendency toward attacking persons in an effort to express ideas. Our discourse seems as broken as our systems, our structures, and yes, our health care system.

So my search is for meaningful discourse, some conversations (on line, in print, face to face…I am open to options here) that actually moves beyond our confusion about discourse. I guess I hope, along with President Obama, that we actually can disagree without being disagreeable. We seem a bit too habituated to negativism to break free.

It all seems to be driven by fear, the fear of losing the past and the fear of managing the future. I think this is to be expected. It is also a window of opportunity, a chance to really substantively change things. Don Tapscott advises us that the net generation is changing our world. I agree.

So I will share my solution: I start conversations with young people. They are pretty sure the future is theirs, not mine. They have no intention of sustaining the established ways of doing things, and are comfortable explaining why they will not do so. They have some amazing ideas. They are optimistic and hopeful. They are even energized. One of their anthems fascinates me: John Mayer’s “Waiting for the World to Change”. Theirs is a somewhat less self-absorbed and arrogant anthem than those that characterized the last “large” generation, their elders, the Boomers, who are currently in charge of everything. Emerging generations know it will change and are pretty sure we elders don’t get it.

So, try my solution. Ask a few good questions and then just listen: say nothing, just listen. Ask them how to fix the health care delivery system. You might be amazed at their answers!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Innovation, Policy, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.