Protocols, Here is a Middle Finger To You

The dictionary defines it as a code of correct conduct. A second definition is that it is the ceremony and etiquette that is observed by heads of state, diplomats, military officers, and such. Then too, it is rules surrounding the formatting and transmission of data in world of computers.

Last month, I ran into one of the really stupid protocols that got me to thinking about them and how we are changing life, not with actual advancement of any tangible kind, but with rules that supplant the actual production of wealth and make it appear as if we are advancing while we go backwards.

Look at it this way. You are in a long hallway on your way to a door on the far, far end. The walls of the hallway are decorated with a continuous scene that is seamless. The scenery moves toward you to make it appear that you are moving forward. You like the scenery so you walk backwards to enjoy the scenery longer, but because the scene moves faster and faster, it appears that you are walking forward. You will never reach your goals, of course, but the allusion of moving forward is so strong that all your mental factors play along and, as though in a trance, you play the game.

Now, to the stupid protocols that got me to this point. I take two blood pressure medicines, both low dosage medicines that are available in generic forms. Together, they keep my blood pressure well under control even when I do stupid stuff and do not watch my weight. So, let us look at protocol number one. It is a rule that blood pressure must be within a certain range, even if those forces that affect it are not controlled, and the control of the blood pressure can and should be regulated artificially. I like this protocol, and though I am the poorer for using it to my advantage, I am happy as I move backward.

Protocol number two is the one that says that if I am going to use these artificial crutches, then I have to abide by a series of rules that allocate monies to parties that have positioned themselves within the process so as to benefit from my weakness. This starts with the doctor with the really nice office and flat screened televisions and minions creating and filing paperwork. If I want these pills that cost less than one cent per pill to produce, I have to pay the doctor at least $175 every so often. Now that I am on Medicare, I might add that you pay the doctor now.

But Protocol number two has many sub-protocols, and the really neat part about them is that no one knows exactly what they are. I will attempt to identify some of these. The first is a protocol that says that Uncle Sam has a stake in my situation and thus has passed a law, under George Bush and the Republicans I might add, that says that since I am 65 and on Medicare, then I have to get my medicines according to a set of rules they have spelled out in a bill that is too complex to ever understand. Here is the sum total of that bill. It is a way of making sure that drug companies can, from now till the end of time, make obscene amounts of money by not having to compete in an open and fair market place. You can't pay for those expensive medicines? Well, join Uncle Sam's program and he'll show you how you really could afford it, and some more for the obscene profits.

The drug programs that were passed under the Republicans, are a set of protocols that include the fact that if you do not join, then no licensed drug dispenser can charge you less than some high arbitrary amount for your drugs. If you will not join the program, then they will force you into the program by making it impossible for you to afford even the least costly of drugs. My two prescriptions, without a drug program, were to cost me over $35.00 per month and the pharmacist insisted that no one could sell them to me for less because that was the law.

So here was my quandary. How do I get around all the stupid protocols and get the two prescriptions that I needed for a reasonable price. The doctor protocol is a tough one, but now that I am on Medicare, those visits are no longer $140 to $190 out of my pocket. In fact, they do not cost me, as I said before, they cost you. So, for the doctor protocol, I simply employ another protocol that shifts the cost to you. I knew that you would like that one.

The second protocol is possible if I just say that I do not have insurance and do not tell them my age. In that case, several outlets will let me have the pills for a total cost of $8.00 per month. I will not name those places, but I am sure that most of you know them whether I spout their names or not. The local pharmacist at the drug store that I once used told me that I would get caught and they would force me to pay the higher price. I flipped him off as I walked away.

This morning I opened up Facebook and I had a question from a friend about whether or not the athletic teams of the high school where I once taught had an activity bus. We did not, we used a regular bus that was assigned to the school. We did not have the protocol that said that they could not be used for insurance reasons, or whatever. The question was enough to drive me here to attack the whole world of protocols that have made our lives so complex, and expensive, that we have lost fact of what is going forward and what is going backward. I will elaborate on this in later posts.