Passion is an emotional drive fueled by an innate knowledge that what you are doing, thinking and being is absolutely correct. Rhetoric on the other hand is simply a redundant idea that is little more than a strong opinion with little or no factual basis and even less conviction, hence the need to repeat it over and over and over again to convince yourself and everyone else that what you are saying is true. In other words 'rhetoric' is a form of brain washing or social programming. But it is only effective if you aren't in the habit of 'critical thinking', which requires a measure of functional intellect and the will to use it.
As it would happen the bulk of chiropractic patients are highly educated, self motivated and intellectually driven people. Very often they already understand the concept of chiropractic and understand the long term benefits of chiropractic care. Some of them are actually, get this, Medical doctors! OMG!!!
On the other hand, some people who buy the rhetoric aren't necessarily intellectually deficient, they just aren't in the habit if exercising their intellect. I call them intellectual goats. These people accept anything that is fed to them without questioning it, like a goat might chew on an old shoe. It might taste bad, chew hard not thinking a wit that maybe they shouldn't eat an old shoe. However, these people eventually get intellectual indigestion from being fed garbage and are forced to consider better options.
Then there are the sheep. The people who don't want to know the truth and don't want to use their brain. These people make up the bulk of pharmaceutical consumers and who actually buy into the pharmaceutical commercials claims of life changing weight loss or a more active sex life provided their heart won't explode or the drug they're taking won't cause cancer and somehow kill them.
I became a chiropractor after watching an Navy Doctor nearly kill a 12 year old girl with a cold. She came in with nothing more than a runny nose and a low grade fever. She could have just stayed in bed for a few days, drank a few glasses of orange juice, ate some chicken soup and slept it off. Instead our 'medical officer' prescribed her antibiotics, to which she reacted, for which he gave her more, to which she reacted more severely, for which he prescribed more medications etc, etc. In less than 3 days she was prescribed 4 antibiotics, one anticonvulsant, two antidepressants resulting in a stay in the local hospital, from the reactions to the medications she was given to treat a common cold...that she still had on top of everything else.
Up to this point I was trying to avoid becoming a chiropractor. I didn't want to face the hostility and bigotry my dad did. Being a chiropractor in the 1970s in the United States was no picnic and certainly wasn't a profession for the faint of heart. To be a chiropractor in the 70s you had to have balls of steel. As I rode to the hospital with this 12 year old girl, unconscious on oxygen and breathing as if she may die at any moment, I finally grew a pair. My lasting purpose came to me that day as I held her hand. I knew chiropractic worked, how it worked and understood it intimately. Yet I was afraid to say it out loud because of the hostility I knew it would bring.
I am a chiropractor today because of that girl. The system of care that nearly took her life out of sheer stupidity and thoughtlessness is the same system telling the world that the chiropractic profession is dangerous and unsafe. However, chiropractic has no death rate to speak of and has one of the highest safety ratings of any health care system. Medicine, specifically American medicine is currently '3rd' on the list of preventable deaths in the world following close behind heart disease and cancer.
Chiropractic is not on the list of preventable death while the practice of pharmaceutical medicine is and they are telling 'you', that chiropractic is unsafe. Curious don't you think?
I now understand how it was my dad could face down the hostility, because he knew that what he was doing worked and why it worked with absolute certainty. Passion is Truth driven by Certainty. Chiropractors practice with passion which is fed by our dedication to our patients whose lives keep changing for the better the more they see us. Strangely enough, the more often they see their chiropractor, the better they feel, the fewer medications they take, the fewer surgeries they require and tend to add life to their years and years to their life...without drooling over themselves in a lonely hospital bed with tubes and wires everywhere. Chiropractic patients don't end up like that.
Personally I plan to live a long life and expire while living life as a chiropractor. In fact the Grim Reaper will be running away as I chase him down.
Nuff Said
Dr. Bend
