It’s good to be king – if just for a while. Tom Petty
I know some of the key economic features of capitalism: personal ownership of property, competition, individual incentives. At university, I enthusiastically joined arguments as to whether capitalism is compatible with democracy, or more accurately, whether socialism is more democratic. I was a democratic socialist, mainly because I rejected the behaviour of all socialist Marxist–Leninist states and yet, like most, I wanted a fairer society. It seemed a reasonable compromise. In the last couple of decades, I would call myself a democratic capitalist, because the free market needs a representative government in order to intervene in the real world. So my focus changed. Anyway, what is the alternative? I agree with Churchill, who spoke of democracy as the worst form of government – except for all those other forms of government.
I believe in a capitalist economic system supported by a political representative democracy, but if you want a real-world example that supports my case, just look at the separation of East and West Berlin in 1961. Like a gravitational force, East Berliners were irresistibly drawn into the orbit of the West. East Berliners voted with their feet – around four million had left by the time the wall began. East Germany’s Government, under the control of the Soviets, had to build a ninety-six miles wall to stop its citizens’ exodus to the West. West Germany offered hope; East Germany offered a dead end.
Raised in a goal-oriented capitalist Western society, I expected more progress in rehab in the first years after my stroke. In other words, I approached my rehab with a capitalist mindset – I judge the worth of a rehab on whether it works or not. Like the East Berliners, I wanted real-world results, and if not, move on to something better. So I did. I tried different methods. I guess I approached my rehab with an entrepreneurial mindset.
I think I was wrong. My problem with this approach to my rehab, and I suppose with any capitalist mindset when applied to personal achievements, is that the goals are always upping the ante just beyond our reach. Perhaps it is valuable as an incentive to improve ourselves, but there are things that are beyond our reach after a brain injury – unrealistic expectations. You will never get there. I wish I had understood that.
I had an inherent belief that working hard on my rehab would inevitably lead to my goals. And let’s be honest, my goals are mainly material after my stroke, in other words, I saw material goals as a reward for hard work. That’s a capitalist mindset. I am like the scarecrow The Wizard of Oz who sang, If I only had a brain. If I didn’t have a brain injury, I would indulge my material longings. A lot of my fantasies revolve around these things – just beyond my reach.
I attacked my disability in the same way that young people attacked the Berlin Wall with sledgehammers and chisels. At least, when Reagan said at the Brandenburg Gate, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall – it actually symbolised the divide of the Cold War. Walls in rehab symbolised nothing. Taking a sledgehammer to my disability, which I wanted, achieves nothing and symbolises nothing. Both financially and physically, those material goals are in fact beyond my reach.
I know we need different tools and expectations to confront a disability. And yet, even with a disability, we all have the usual expectations in our Western society. So of course, I would love to do what I truly want to do – that is a fact. I know someone, who said of his disability, No one wants to go to a ball in a wheelchair. No loftier goals, he just wants to dance at the ball, and if he could, he would. Me too. It’s good to be king – if just for a while.
We are not competing in the able Olympics, where the motto is: Faster – Higher – Stronger. At least the Paralympic Games has a different definition of sporting excellence: determination and courage are recognised, winning or not. We need a different definition for excellence when applied to rehab after an acquired brain injury.