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The Millennium Bridge of London was completed in 2000, hence its name. However, the bridge is better known for a lesson it provided in synchronization. Opening day for the pedestrian-only suspension bridge saw thousands of visitors crossing at once. Unexpectedly, the bridge began to sway back and forth, or oscillate sideways.

Videos of the event are surreal because you can see thousands of pedestrians walking in step as they cross the bridge – rocking left and right in unison to keep their balance. The reason for this synchronization is that each individual pedestrian, when he walks, contributes a little force that causes a slight oscillation. Because each pedestrian’s steps are random at the beginning, more pedestrians will inevitably step in one direction than another at various times. When this happens it causes the bridge to sway slightly in the direction of greater force.

A few more people will recognize, perhaps subconsciously, that the bridge is rocking and they themselves will rock back and forth to keep their balance. It so happens that the same motion that keeps an individual balanced also powers the oscillations, increasing their amplitude. This process accelerates until all individuals are synchronized, therefore maximizing amplitude.

In the case of the Millennium Bridge, oscillations were so forceful that pedestrians might have fallen down had they not walked in step.

Individual Rationale

The most crucial point to learn from the example is this: The decision that is in the best interest of each individual opposes the good of the aggregate; and that, in turn, harms each individual.

This is exactly the situation we have in healthcare at present. Physicians, insurers, employers, hospitals, and patients all want changes. They are swaying back and forth in a shaky system, perpetuating its inadequacies just to keep their balance. Yet they are powerless to change the system as individuals or even as entire interest groups.

A Coordinated Response

If the pedestrians on the bridge had formulated a system of two groups – each walking in sync and opposing the other group’s side to side steps – oscillations could have been reduced. This would never have really worked, though, because Londoners enjoyed shaking the bridge! (And that is perhaps another lesson in itself.)

Instead, the builders installed dampers to absorb shock. And they succeeded at eliminating all noticeable oscillations.

Alexander Typaldos

If all take, no one will have anything of value. If all give, everyone will have everything. Things of value are not primarily material. They are the kindness we show to one another; the services we offer, with or without recompense.

Some Americans on the conservative end of the political spectrum think that anyone who has food, a place to live, and modern appliances is in no position to complain about their lot in life. After all, many in this world go without those basic necessities. But the argument is flawed for assuming the only things people need are basic necessities, as if our purpose is merely to self-perpetuate. By this assumption, conservatives of this type reveal their gross misunderstanding of human nature.

When someone’s boss chews them out at work, how much solace will they find in their washer and dryer? When a person is struggling with weight issues, try telling them they have no cause to complain because they have enough food to eat. Do walls and a roof overhead shelter from an abusive spouse or parent within? Can a television set become someone’s friend?

An all-pervasive problem in America

Right-wing conservatives who have worked their way to success, as they define it, may be the most blatant promoters of this fallacy. But they are not the only ones. On the other political end are the liberal unions, who grasp as much pay and benefits as they can, even manipulating the hand of government to fill their pockets. All the while, they justify their own abuses with tales of corporate greed and management excesses.

Unions’ true motives are revealed when they compete with non-union workers for limited benefits. Pilot unions have shown they are willing to use aggressive negotiation tactics to get as much pay as possible, without remorse for other airline workers who have taken corresponding pay cuts.

Lawyers have pushed to make it illegal for anyone without a license to practice law. The goal is for the profession to maintain a monopoly on legal services, although most educated people could practice law competently with a bit of experience. For the same reason, doctors use Latin and Greek words to obscure the otherwise familiar. Musculus quadriceps femoris, for example, literally means “four-headed muscle of the thigh” in Latin. The idea is to place a gap in between “professionals” and “laypersons” that perpetuates a doctor’s role in society.

Bulwarks of the Ivory Tower

When it comes to self-perpetuity, America’s higher education community is our worst offender. At least doctors, lawyers, and workers unions provide valuable services. Academic researchers often concoct studies solely to receive government grants and recognition within their academic community. This life is great fun for the right person. They can engage with intelligent scholars who share similar interests. And they are immune from the economic pressures of the business world, or the workload of primary and secondary school teachers.

It is so much fun that students themselves endeavor to stay in school – lengthening programs, doubling majors, turning masters into doctorates.

But is this community good for society? It might be if the focus of academia were on real-world issues. It would help if doctors and other professionals could dictate what they study. We live in a relatively wealthy society, so we are able to set people aside to explore their interests without a need for immediate productivity. And there is nothing wrong with that concept per se.

Problems arise, however, when these people, whom society has blessed with perpetual capital and no immediate demands, forget their duty to society, however informally it was stated. Then academics become takers, not producers, who stretch the truth to keep funding. As often as we hear claims of potential cures for paralysis and degenerative diseases – and even aging – how many cures do we actually see?

As a society, we have been led on by academics. It is too risky to grant capital without effective oversight. Reputable as an individual or organization may be, they are still capable of betraying our trust when no one is watching.

Acute form of self-perpetuity

The above examples are the chronic form of self-perpetuity. They are systems people create or modify to preserve and perpetuate their own viability, livelihood, and reputation. However, there is also an acute form of self-perpetuity.

Bargain-basement shopping, one-sided contracts, medications that only treat symptoms – these are ways that supposedly enhance and perpetuate one’s existence incrementally. Far too many people willingly enter into deals they know are unfair to the other party, reasoning it is that other party’s responsibility to look out for himself. People who habitually use symptom-reducing meds and max out credit cards go so far as to cheat their future selves, as they would another person.

Basis of Many Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theorists, bless their hearts, are oftentimes simply trying to make sense of systems that appear so diabolical that they must be the result of high-level conspiracies designed to kill, brainwash, and exploit the masses. In fact, theorists are attempting to project blame onto a few individuals for a problem closer to home.

Daily, Americans are faced with a choice: Am I going to do what helps me or what benefits the society I live in? When citizens of this individualistic nation, on all levels, systematically choose the former option, the results are indeed diabolical. But we cannot place all the blame on a few people in positions of great responsibility.

The prevalence of AIDS is largely the result of personal choices. Our economic crisis is not the fault of the Rothschilds any more than reckless investors, predatory lenders, and overreaching consumers. Conspiracy theorists will understand these references.

Checks and Balances

It might make for a touching conclusion to appeal to the good in people’s hearts. Unfortunately, that is just not practical. Instead, we need effective systems of checks and balances. Everyone must report to some authority, whether a parent, teacher, employer, law enforcement officer, or congressional committee. In our nation we have rejected the very concept of authority, probably because of rampant abuse of this power in past generations.

People should be viewed as self-interested and self-perpetuating individuals whose selfishness must be continually held in check.

In conjunction with these systems of checks and balances, we as individuals need to learn how to view our lives differently. We are interconnected with those in our society through frameworks of community. A framework can be regional, professional, religious, political. And within each of those frameworks we have a responsibility to use our influence in ways that benefit the group as a whole, not our own personal interest or our family’s alone.

Thus, effective systems punish takers and reward givers; oppose self-perpetuators and support community-minded individuals. The most effective force of all to influence behavior of citizens in a free society is the values that society holds. If wealth is valued over honesty and a good job is valued over politeness, people will lie to make a sale and shaft their way into a promotion. If war is unpopular in this country, America’s youth will shun military service.

Fascial Distortion Medicine’s American Dilemma

Self-perpetuating mindsets are the single greatest hindrance to the spread of FDM in the United States. It offers so much to patients yet so little to physicians. Here is what we tell doctors, MDs and DOs: “If you use FDM you can’t see as many patients or make as much money. You will tire yourself out doing the treatments. And you’ll look silly to your colleagues. But your patients, they will love you! You can be a miracle worker, a life saver in their eyes.”

Physicians respond, more by deed than by word: “What’s in it for me? If I can help patients by making little or no sacrifice, I’ll do it. But when it comes down to helping patients or taking care of me and my family, I’ll choose me. Every time.”

Well, patients are choosing “me” too, and a new healthcare system is coming. Indeed, America has systems of checks and balances. What we need now is the right values.

Alexander Typaldos