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“[S]urgery’s only prerequisite should be a simple demonstration of want.”

Only in America, mes petites; only in America.

Only in America would a person even think to say that anyone presenting herself to a surgeon as simply wanting this or that surgery must get it. The special brew here, of limitless national wealth and limitless personal entitlement, is uniquely American.

*************

Scathing Online Schoolmarm says: The quality of writing in the opinion piece is strikingly high; I love the prose. The larger argument that happiness is not an end (see Adam Phillips for some of the best language about this) is an excellent one. Plus, the writer had a lot of good stuff to say about the recent Avital Ronell embarrassment.

But otherwise. Good lord.

Margaret Soltan, November 25, 2018 7:10AM
Posted in: good writing

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4 Responses to ““[S]urgery’s only prerequisite should be a simple demonstration of want.””

  1. charlie Says:

    After reading the artcle twice, I still can’t tell if we’re being trolled..,

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Charlie: Unfortunately, parts of it sound close to a satire.

  3. theprofessor Says:

    The sad thing here is that the writer seems to recognize that this surgery is probably not going to fix anything and will in fact lead to a lifetime of even more complicated health issues.

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    tp: Yes. There’s a refreshingly honest ambient misery about the entire self-presentation. On her Go Fund Me page, she gets close to threatening suicide.

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