You Will Respect My Authoritah!
My wife and I are big fans of the PBS series “Call the Midwife.” She also gets a kick out of how teary-eyed I get watching some of the episodes. Season 12, Episode 4, which aired last Sunday on KQED, was no exception.
Something else happened on it, though, that I found particularly interesting given the implicit position that the show takes on Britain’s expanded welfare state. We’re, of course, meant to believe that the National Health Service is great. Also, in various episodes, this or that nurse reminds a low-income Brit about various subsidies that are available for a wide range of services.
So it was interesting that the latest episode dealt with one of the downsides of having centralized government control. There’s an outbreak of E. Coli in one of the facilities that the Nonnatus House runs and Dr. Turner and various nurses hop to it, moving quickly to quarantine the patients and nurses who are in there and to prevent other people from entering.
Then someone from the London Board of Health shows up, and he is pissed. Here’s the dialogue, which takes place at around the 30:30 point:
Threapwood: My name is Threapwood. I’m the new chairman of the [London] Board of Health.
Doctor Turner: I informed the board, as soon as the outbreak [of E. coli] became apparent.
Threapwood: You also “informed” us of the measures you’d be taking. That is not for you to do in a situation of this magnitude.
Sister Julienne: Dr. Turner acted very swiftly. I, for one, was extremely grateful to him.
Threapwood: And, as is so often the case, it is not the opinion of the Nonnatus House that matters. (Pause.) There’s nothing wrong with your policies, Turner. It’s the assumption of autonomy the board doesn’t care for.
Note what he’s saying. Dr. Turner was wrong to do what he did so quickly, not because he made the wrong move, but because he assumed he could do it without consulting the Board. Turner had, in Hayekian terms, “local knowledge.” Of course, if he had consulted the Board, it would have taken at least a while for the Board to get back to him, which might have cost lives. (The little newborns were losing weight.) So what mattered to Threapwood (what a great name for a villain) was not saving lives, but losing control. This happens when you centralize power in government.
I noticed something similar, by the way, in the U.S. government’s reaction to peace breaking out in the Middle East. Here’s Ron Paul, noting the U.S. government’s upset that peace is being achieved without the U.S. government’s input:
Take, for example, the recent mending of relations between Saudi Arabia and formerly bitter adversaries Iran and Syria. A China-brokered deal between the Saudis and Iran has them re-establishing full diplomatic relations, with the foreign ministers of both countries meeting in Beijing last week. It is the highest level meeting between the two countries in seven years.
Additionally, Riyadh is expected to invite Syria back into the Arab League and Syrian president Assad may attend the next Arab League summit. Syria was suspended from the Arab League 12 years ago when then-US allies in the Middle East signed on to Washington’s “Assad must go” policy that wreaked havoc across the region.
And the nearly decade-long war in Yemen, which has devastated that population, appears to finally be ending, as Saudi Arabia is expected to announce an end to its US-backed war on that country. Troops from the United Arab Emirates are leaving Yemen and a Saudi delegation is arriving to negotiate a peace deal. [DRH note: That is no small deal; according to the UN, 150,000 people in Yemen have been killed by the war and another 227,000 have died due to the resulting famine.]
To normal people the idea of peace breaking out in the Middle East is a wonderful thing. But Washington is anything but normal. President Biden dispatched his CIA Director, William Burns, to Saudi Arabia in a surprise visit last week. According to press reports, Burns was sent to express Washington’s surprise and frustration over the peace deals going through. Biden’s foreign policy team “has felt blindsided” by Saudi Arabia’s sudden move to get along with its neighbors.
READER COMMENTS
MarkW
Apr 12 2023 at 8:53am
Threapwood: And, as is so often the case, it is not the opinion of the Nonnatus House that matters. (Pause.) There’s nothing wrong with your policies, Turner. It’s the assumption of autonomy the board doesn’t care for.
This is pretty much exactly the approach officials in the U.S. took toward ‘unauthorized’ testing for Covid early in the outbreak with tragic results.
Andrew_FL
Apr 12 2023 at 9:00am
It’s very strange to characterize the government of China mediating between the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia as “peace breaking out without government”
David Henderson
Apr 12 2023 at 9:40am
One of the easiest ways to win an argument is to put words in the mouth (or, in this case, post) of the person you’re arguing with. That’s what you did here. Of course, I never said “peace breaking out without government.”
Richard W Fulmer
Apr 12 2023 at 10:40am
The best spin is based on at least a modicum of truth. Your exact words were “peace is being achieved without the U.S. government’s input.” All Andrew had to do was drop the words “the U.S.” and the apostrophe “s” and he had his headline quote. Such small changes, such a big change in meaning.
Andrew_FL
Apr 12 2023 at 5:34pm
Should we be indifferent to which governments are “causing peace to break out”-or, as you and Richard appear to, should we prefer *any* government to that worst of all governments, the United States Federal Government?
Jon Murphy
Apr 13 2023 at 7:50am
What, exactly, is your objection to the post? First, you say it’s wrong because peace did not break out without the government. When it was pointed out to you that your objection had nothing to do with what was actually said, you’ve changed your story to claiming the post is wrong because one shouldn’t be indifferent to how peace comes about. One can make that argument (though it too is a misrepresentation of the post), but it’s radically different from your original objection.
So, I want clarification. What, precisely, is your objection here.
Andrew_FL
Apr 13 2023 at 1:05pm
What was the point of the digression post? It wasn’t “Government involvement in mediating peace is bad” and it wasn’t even “US Government involvement in mediating peace is bad”? When I object to the point the digression seems to be making, you know, how dare the US Government consider this a bad thing, you all insist that’s not the point being made, it is something different.
It is very strange to analogize the Chinese government to local knowledge using nurses, individuals, and then say “Oh no, I didn’t mean government wasn’t involved here”-It is even stranger when you first insist “I only meant the *US* Government wasn’t involved” to insist, you actually wouldn’t mind if the US Government was involved?
Jon Murphy
Apr 13 2023 at 5:20pm
I still don’t understand what your objection is, or even what you think this post is about.
Jon Murphy
Apr 12 2023 at 9:18am
This is a more human problem, too. For example, my aunt and uncle are in a tangle with their HOA. Long story short, they built a rock wall along the water to prevent erosion and protect their property. They got all the proper permits, all the relevant sign offs, even checked the HOA rules to make sure it was ok. When the HOA president found out (after she got back from Florida where she spends most of the year) she lost her mind and demanded to know why her permission wasn’t sought. When my aunt and uncle pointed out the HOA allows for such construction and no permission is needed, she said it didn’t matter and the HOA has final say on everything.
So, some people just let their tiny hits of power go right to their head.
Richard W Fulmer
Apr 12 2023 at 10:34am
Self-selection plays a role. People who enjoy exercising power over others often seek out such jobs.
Jon Murphy
Apr 12 2023 at 11:04am
They do. In fact, she keeps getting reelected by the HOA members, including my aunt and uncle.
The HOA president has little real power. And, given she is in Florida most of the year, she has absolutely no real power. When she is around, people just nod and smile and say “yes, dear.” As soon as she is gone, they do what they want. By the time she returns 6-9 months later, it’s far too late to do anything.
It’s the perfect arraingement: give the people who want power the illusion of power and then keep doing what you want.
Richard W Fulmer
Apr 12 2023 at 11:43am
What are the chances we can achieve a similarly perfect arrangement at the federal level?
nobody.really
Apr 12 2023 at 1:48pm
This dynamic arises in US law a lot due to doctrines such as the Supremacy Clause/Dormant Commerce Clause/Field Preemption. The feds claim exclusive authority in certain domains–and even the fed’s INACTION is deemed to preclude action by others.
I surmise that libertarians mostly approve of such policies, as they constrain the actions of lower units of government. Nonnatus House appears to run on government subsidies, and seems to have a public mission. If Nonnatus House were actually a government agency, would Henderson be so quick to condemn policies designed to constrain its actions?
As an aside: I was once involved in telecommunications litigation at the state level. The state granted relief, and the other side appealed to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC ruled that the state had overstepped its authority and vacated the state’s decision. But the FCC was persuaded by the state’s reasoning and therefore adopted the state’s decision prospectively; moreover, the FCC granted relief within that state retroactive to the date of the state’s decision. So after reviewing pages of careful legal analysis, the net result was … no change for the parties. You could summarize the decision as “There’s nothing wrong with your policies; it’s the assumption of autonomy the board doesn’t care for.”
(Query for lawyers: Federal courts permit aggrieved parties to appeal decisions of the FCC. The state’s decision had been struck down—but given the relief granted by the FCC, could the state really claim to be aggrieved?)
Jon Murphy
Apr 12 2023 at 1:54pm
I don’t understand your comment here. What is it you’re getting at?
dennis e miller
Apr 13 2023 at 4:48pm
My understanding is that Nonnatus House is a convent and thus funded by charitable Catholics and other donors.
“I surmise that libertarians mostly approve of such policies, as they constrain the actions of lower units of government.” — Hmmm, I’m a conservative, maybe a mix of Repub and Libertarian. My view is that if there needs to be govt involvement, Libertarians would prefer local control rather that bigshot Federal control in an ivory tower many miles away. At least that is how I see it. I do not want big big government but where govt is necessary I want it local as much as possible, like keep it to the responsibilities as delegated in the Constitution.
Richard W Fulmer
Apr 12 2023 at 2:06pm
I would. There’s a big difference between government agencies vying through the courts (or through other established channels) for the right to regulate an activity and a government agency condemning an institution for acting swiftly and properly in response to a real and immediate danger.
Turf wars are to be expected in a system of checks and balances, but they should not prevent people who are on the scene and who have local knowledge from acting properly in the face of an emergency.
steve
Apr 12 2023 at 4:43pm
I thought this was a fictional TV show? Having a hard time seeing this happening in reality but if this is documentary I guess it really happened. Been through many inspections and talks with JCAHO, state and local people. By and large they are pretty supportive and allow for a lot fo discretion in an emergency. Routine stuff you get an occasional A hole. Anyway, the Ap is reporting a much different story about the ME. Biden’s NSA guy has been talking with MBS and seems pretty positive about events. It could be wrong, since after all the AP might be biased and it would be hard to see that happening with Paul.
https://www.newstimes.com/news/politics/article/us-official-top-biden-aide-holds-call-with-mbs-17891807.php
Steve
raja_r
Apr 13 2023 at 10:27am
Steve,
See MarkW’s comment above about the response to Covid testing.
steve
Apr 13 2023 at 4:27pm
I was pretty critical of what they did with testing. However, that’s a lot different than when the state reps come when you are in the middle of an emergency, and handling it correctly as was apparently the case in the show or even when mistakes were made. I participate in a pretty large network of department chairs and what we have generally found is that is the one time they are pretty understanding and even supportive. Under duress when you have minutes/hours to make decisions they grant some leeway, usually just asking that when things are under control that you submit plans about how it could have been handled better, which would be done internally anyway.
Now if it is totally elective stuff, like how many locks you have to have on your cleaning stuff to make sure a terrorist doesnt break in to use them to kill your patients, then they can be total A holes. (Really happened.)
Steve
Jon Murphy
Apr 13 2023 at 5:47pm
As many have already pointed out, this happens all the time in reality. Especially with Covid. The various boards demanded everything be done with their oversight. Autonomy was criticized as “fringe” and a “let it rip” strategy.
steve
Apr 14 2023 at 5:53pm
Really? In an emergency you have seen govt officials go to a hospital that is conducting the emergency well and give them grief? I have never seen it, heard of it or know anyone who has seen it. We would, I am pretty sure disagree about a lot fo things that the govt did wrong, but where we would agree I think part of the problem was not realizing the urgent nature of the problem. (A lot fo that was because some of the people in charge had no public health experience and were there for political reasons.)
Steve
Mark Brady
Apr 16 2023 at 12:29am
Call the Midwife is not a documentary. It is adapted from the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Worth
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