Patient or self-indulgent consumer?

In 1977, the Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich suggested that the mid-twentieth century should be named as The Age of Disabling Professions: it was when people had ‘problems’; experts had ‘solutions’; there was an ‘acceptance of the illusion of professional omniscience and omnipotence’; but in a future age ‘self-indulgence might be the safest assertion of independence’ (Illich et al, 2000).

Perhaps Illich was right and we are now living in that ‘future age’, because in exploring the relationship between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’, he suggests that needs are created by advertising slogans, and that meeting so-called ‘needs’ promotes an indifference to potentially felt wants (Illich et al, 2000). The present headlong pursuit of ‘needs’ was exemplified for me by the results of a recent cross-sectional survey of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use among 806 Parkrun UK participants (average age 48 years). In the study, Rosenbloom et al (2020) found that 87.8% had taken NSAIDs in the past 12 months; a third had experienced an adverse drug reaction; and half used NSAIDs without taking advice.