Remembering George ?

On this date—December 14—215 years ago, General George Washington died under the watchful eye of three physicians. They were using the then standard-of-practice of bloodletting,¹ but after four bouts of it, Washington’s fate was assured. Perhaps we could say, he was bled to death.

And perhaps we are in the midst of a latter déjà vu at this very hour as Uncle Sam bleeds toward the same fate—except there are no attendees allowed about the bed. Those trying to enter and save the patient are mocked and defamed while most everyone else is:

▪  at the stock exchange,
▪  “treasure hunting” with their devices,
▪  too busy trying to staunch their own bleeding, or
▪  crying against the offenses of socialism and communism.

However, despite the real offenses of communism / socialism, the more vital, critical health question is: What is the difference between excessive bloodletting and corporate capitalism? No, that’s not quite right. It’s not the difference that concerns us—‘tis the similarity!

See, whichever you choose, the patient dies.

Too bad, we’ve forgotten, not just George, but Thomas:

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.  (Thomas Jefferson ~ 1816²)

---------------------------/
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting
2. This is a verifiable quote. See the transcribed copy of Jefferson’s letter to George Logan, Nov. 12, 1816 (p. 68-69) at Hathi Trust Digital Library: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t3pv6bn68;view=1up;seq=92 .
The original letter is at The Library of Congress, The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827, and their digital copy of the original is at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page049.db&recNum=641 (Digital Images 641 and 642: see the second page—image 642—for the quote.)