The following is an excerpt from a recent address given to the graduates of a chiropractic college on the day of their commencement. "During the past two decades we have seen some pretty dramatic changes in college and professional school graduates. In the late 60's and early 70's college graduates were out to "change the world." No one needed to tell them that the world needed changing. It was in a pretty sorry state. This attitude even pervaded the graduates of chiropractic colleges during that period. The graduates were challenged at commencements like this one to take the chiropractic principle and with it go out and change the world. They were told to change the world's attitude toward health and toward chiropractic. They were encouraged to go out and change the status of chiropractic in their community. Some were even told that, if they adjusted enough people, the world would be a better, happier more peaceful place. The slogans were "If you're not out to change the world everything else is Mickey Mouse" and "Chiropractic today for a better world tomorrow." Then in the late 70's and early 80's something changed. It wasn't the world. Rather, those that wanted to change the world changed and that was reflected in the thinking and the objectives of those sitting in caps and gowns in the nation's colleges. Perhaps those that wanted to change the world saw that some changes that were made were not for the better. Vietnam did not get any better when we left. Perhaps they saw the leaders of the "change the world generation" selling cookbooks and exercise videotapes. Or perhaps they saw the results of those who wanted to change the world in the jungles of Guyana or Osage Avenue in Philadelphia. Whatever the reason the "hippy generation" became the "yuppie generation." Instead of changing the world, the college graduate just wanted to improve his or her own environment. "Looking out for number one" became that generation's rallying cry. This attitude pervaded the professions, including chiropractic. The professions became a big business. Service to others was replaced by self service. The professional was replaced by the professional corporation. It was no longer "How many people can I help?" but "How much can I make?" Idealism was replaced by materialism. It is customary to challenge you as graduates on this day. I could challenge you with the challenge of the 60's and early 70's to go out and change the world. That would be rather ludicrous in light of what I have just said. I could challenge you with the current challenge, that is, to go out and become financially independent and build wealth. You can do that in this profession in a relatively short period of time. What then? The motivation would be gone. Going through the motions without motivation is not very rewarding. I could challenge you with becoming the best technician possible, however, technical proficiency is an obligation and a responsibility, not an option. Besides, as important as technic is, the reality of what you do lies in the principles and the philosophy that you have been taught. Reality resides in your thinking. Without reality, technic is just going through the motions. Going through the motions without reality is not very rewarding. What is the challenge, then as we begin a new generation of chiropractic graduates? The problem we face, as is often the case in our profession, is that we have misinterpreted our philosophy. It is not our responsibility to change the world anymore than it is our job to change the blood pressure, the heart rate or any other bodily function. Chiropractic does not deal with the world but with the individual. Your responsibility entails: 1. Recognizing that every person has individual needs but all are in need of your service. 2. Recognizing that every person has different potential for better health but all have some degree of potential. Each of you has the potential to enable people to change from within. That's something, something important, perhaps more important than the ability of anyone else. The challenge for you is to go out and enable people to express a little more of the intelligence within their bodies so thousands of them can better contribute to society. Go out and adjust thousands of little children so they can grow up to be healthier, more productive members of the community. I can think of no more worthwhile professional challenge. I can think of no more rewarding challenge in the field today and I can think of no group more capable of meeting that challenge than you people sitting here today."
LIFE, LIBERTY, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS - UNDER AUTHORITY There are many chiropractic applications to history, particularly the history of this country. The founders of this republic began an experiment over 200 years ago based upon the premise that man wanted, above all things, freedom. Freedom to live his life as he saw fit and to pursue those things which he felt would bring happiness. However, over this principle of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they placed an umbrella of authority and called it the United States Constitution. They understood a very important principle: freedom without authority is anarchy. Conversely, authority without freedom is tyranny. The American colonies were themselves the example. Those who desire freedom must recognize some authority or within a short time freedom becomes "every man for himself" and ultimately anarchy. Then all freedom is lost. Usually before that happens a strong individual comes forth, takes control, and restores order. Unfortunately, often that person, while restoring order, tends to become the tyrant and limits or slowly destroys freedom. Napoleon, while putting an end to the anarchy of the French Revolution, assumed the power of a dictator. The "American experiment" has worked because of the recognition of the importance of human freedom and the necessity for authority. All government in America (federal, state, and local) derives its power and its right to govern from that authority. The chiropractic profession is in a unique period of its history. Chiropractors have fought for the freedom to practice chiropractic without the restraints of a medical establishment. Laws have been passed giving us the freedom we desired. We have even attained a certain degree of "equality" (see the article, "Freedom and Equality"). Our freedom at this point borders on anarchy. We have no authority on the practice of chiropractic. Granted we have 50 states with 50 different definitions and scope of practice but that merely adds to the confusion. The colleges cannot agree nor can the national organizations. There are those who feel that the state statutes are sufficient. Yet, even though our states retain the right to govern themselves and make their own laws, there is still a judicial system that is charged with the responsibility to see that those laws do not conflict with the authority of the land, the Constitution. We have no overriding authority in chiropractic. The dissimilarities between the French Revolution and the American War for Independence are intriguing with regard to our chiropractic profession. In both cases tyrannical rule was overthrown. But, in the case of the French it was done with no regard for authority of any kind. The consequences were the guillotine, the Jacobins, and atrocities against thousands of innocent men, women, and children who committed no crime. In contrast, the respect for authority and the orderly establishment of that authority that characterized the beginning of the United States has led to the stability and domestic tranquillity that has lasted (except for a four year period) for 200 years. Since the passing of the Palmers and the demise of Palmer College as the "Fountainhead," chiropractic has had no authority. The green books are looked upon with ridicule or as archaic, irrelevant texts. Consequently "every man does what is right in his own eyes" and anarchy reigns. Our profession is in a very difficult situation. Chiropractors tend to be anti-establishment types who find it easy to reject authority. However, authority eventually comes. It comes, whether peaceful by "Constitutional Convention" or by Napoleon firing cannons into the mobs. We as a profession must choose. We can continue in our anarchical ways and wait for the federal government, the insurance companies, or someone else to assume tyrannical power. Or we can recognize the need for a seat of authority and go about establishing it. The two (now three) national organizations have for years been attempting either independently or together to establish a definition and scope of practice. They have, needless to say, been unsuccessful. Perhaps we need to go back a step. We need to establish an authority that every chiropractor will recognize. That may be an impossible order but nothing else has worked since 1895. It is the only way in which all chiropractors can have the freedom to practice chiropractic. At this point in time the "straights" are in the minority and the "mixers" have the power. The "straights" are crying for the freedom to practice their scope of chiropractic and to be left alone. The "mixers" see the "straights" as a threat to society (they don't diagnose). I am sure that if the "straights" were "in power," they would try to control the practice of the "mixers." After all, they also view the "mixer" as a threat to society (they utilize procedures they are not qualified to do). The power struggle will continue endlessly until we all subject ourselves willingly to a common authority. In this country we have authority vested in the U.S. Constitution and the "nine old persons" whose job it is to interpret it. Frankly, I think many of their decisions and interpretations are ridiculous but I agree to abide by them as a citizen of the United States. Anything else would be lawlessness and anarchy. This profession as a whole had better begin to recognize an authority to which every chiropractor would subject himself or herself. If not, the profession has not a chance of reaching its potential in serving humanity or enjoying any semblance of freedom in the future.
DOGMA OR PRINCIPLE
Perhaps it would do the "straight" segment of the profession good to stop for a moment and understand how the "broad scope practitioners" view the "straights" and, more importantly, why. Not so much because we really care what they think of us but because we should represent the clearest, most intelligent image of the straight chiropractic profession. To begin with, the straights appear to be against educational improvements and opposed to a standardization of the educational requirements After all, if the educational requirements that they ("the mixers") have established are of the highest quality, and they must assume that they are, it logically follows in their minds that the standards that the straights and their academic arm wish to perpetuate are of a lesser quality. The straight chiropractor does not wish to diagnose, do orthopedic or neurological tests, take blood, or treat diseases. All of this translates in the mind of the mixer as being an indication of clinical incompetence. He views us as the little boy who cannot put the jigsaw puzzle together and in a rage he throws the thousand pieces on the floor and says "jigsaw puzzles are stupid, who wants to do them anyway?!" The mixer believes we don't perform those procedures because we are either too stupid to learn or too lazy. Unfortunately, we always seem to fall back on one phrase to justify our position. The catch all for why we don't do everything that we don't do is "It's not chiropractic." Why is it not chiropractic? Because chiropractic is the correction of vertebral subluxation only! The mixer looks at us and says "that's a circular argument. Why shouldn't chiropractors treat disease as well as correct vertebral subluxation?" Disease is present, there is plenty of it around. The M.D.'s do not seem to be doing such an allfired great job in eliminating it. What's wrong with the chiropractors getting in on the act? We (the straights) appear to the rest of the profession to have a position that is based entirely on dogma adhered to with a fervor that borders on religious fanaticism. If you want to accept your role as a chiropractor and delineate your scope of practice on such reasoning as: "that's what the discoverer and developer of chiropractic defined it as," or "that's the school's definition," or "it's non-duplicative," that is fine. However, the average, intelligent mixer is not going to be satisfied with that as an answer. In fact, the average intelligent student of the straight school is not satisfied with that answer. As a result, far too many of them never become straight chiropractors or they "stray from the path" before very long in practice. They end up at best not supporting their straight alma mater or at worst joining the mixer organizations. Frankly, the students of chiropractic colleges are sick of having the philosophy rammed down their throats in the form of catechismic doctrine. Those in the straight chiropractic, academic community unfortunately tend to present chiropractic in that manner. Students are not satisfied with our "that's the way it is" answer with regard to the chiropractic philosophy. We tell them that if they cannot accept our straight chiropractic philosophy then they should go to another school or they should not have come to a straight school in the first place. Unfortunately, they are given this information after they get there, having expended great sums of money in getting to that point. They have probably invested considerable time and money in their straight education which is nonrefundable and nontransferrable before getting to the point of realizing that they must accept the philosophy because "that's the way it is." It's "too late" for many of them by that time therefore, they go along with the program and do whatever they want after they graduate. But, many have come, however, to the school expecting the straight philosophy to be explained and presented to them in an intelligent, logical, and sound manner. To a great degree they have not gotten it! Not every student needs it. Some have accepted the chiropractic philosophy long before they got to school. They are satisfied with the above answers and reasons for what we do. These are the ones who, if they had never taken a philosophy course in chiropractic school, would still turn out to be straight chiropractors. But these are few and far between. We are accused by the mixers of practicing a pseudoreligion. There is a lot of truth in that charge. Most ,( straight chiropractors do not practice chiropractic based upon deductive, intellectual reasoning but on a few simple philosophical concepts. The sad part is that the simple, philosophical concepts are correct, however, chiropractic is so much more and needs to be explained in more than simple philosophical concepts. May I draw an analogy here to religion. The new convert is as much a "member of the faith" as a seminary graduate with a doctorate in theology. However, the Th.D. should be more knowledgeable and be better able to explain why he believes what he believes. There is less likelihood of "falling away" the more you know. Our chiropractic college graduates often have only a "new convert knowledge" and too many of them are falling away. It can be argued that there will always be a few sheep in wolves clothing who will come into the school with no intention or desire to investigate and examine the straight chiropractic philosophy. (Straights don't have a corner on closemindedness). But the real problem is that we are not presenting enough of the philosophy in an intelligent enough manner. As a result, we are not attracting the students that we should and not turning out as many straight chiropractors as we should. The answer is not in making the philosophy more scientific as some have tried. Some have suggested that we need more philosophy courses in chiropractic college. Unfortunately the courses tend to be nothing but a rehash of the same old stuff. Six quarters of first quarter philosophy only serves the purpose of turning off the students that might be otherwise stimulated into thinking more about the intelligence of the straight approach. We need to make a change in out educational presentation of the philosophy of chiropractic and I don't mean by making it more scientific. We need to do it within the deductive framework. We must recognize that we have a big problem. It's difficult for the straight field chiropractor to identify with the student's problem. He has accepted the philosophy, understands it, and realizes "it's as simple as that." but he forgets that BJ wrote dozens of books to explain the simplicity of the philosophy. The more you understand the philosophy the simpler and clearer it becomes. But we must break through the barriers of pseudo-intellectualism to allow the clear simplicity of the chiropractic philosophy to enter the mind and the thinking of the student. This cannot be done without some major changes in the presentation of our philosophy. Without these changes, we are going to lose too great a percentage of our graduates to mixing. In addition, we will continue to perpetuate the view that the mixers have of us: ignorant pseudo-religious fanatics.
