CHARACTERISTICS OF A MEMBER OF THE PIVOT We are now into the third year of the publishing of the Pivot Review. Many new subscribers have joined along the way. Perhaps they do not know exactly what the "Pivot" is. The word is a chiropractic term when it relates to the Axis vertebra, however, the Pivot has a second meaning, that is, a group of people who are the central or cardinal factor in the perpetuation of chiropractic. It has become apparent to almost every student of chiropractic history that the preservation of chiropractic does not depend upon legislation. Strong personalities have helped and hindered our profession's growth but we cannot depend upon them for our future. The only thing that can preserve our profession is a strong group of individuals who practice and live chiropractic, those who understand its principles, really understand them, and then use them to guide their professional lives. There are certain characteristics of a member of the pivot that are worth noting. If we can develop these qualities in ourselves, in our new practitioners, and in the students in our chiropractic colleges, and that number is great enough, maybe, just maybe we can preserve this principle of chiropractic for humanity. The characteristics include: 1. Moral courage. If not the most important, this one ranks right up there. Courage has been described as the ability to think under pressure. Fear is the inability to think under pressure, hence reacting strictly on emotion. The man who charges an enemy machine gun emplacement with nothing more than a bayonet between his teeth has not really demonstrated courage. He serves no purpose, accomplishes nothing. There must be thought involved, under pressure. For without thought an individual's response is based upon emotion. There is nothing wrong with emotion except that it should be the appreciation not the precipitation of action. When emotion precipitates action it destroys thought. Many in our profession who were once straight are an example of emotion destroying thought. When a patient's symptoms do not improve, the chiropractor responds emotionally, thereby becoming subjective. Rather than applying principles that he has learned such as: Is the patient clear? Have I considered limitations of time, limitations of matter, and the chiropractic objective versus the medical objective? He responds with compassion, pity, sympathy, guilt, and frustration. There is nothing wrong with the first three, except that they should not precipitate action. The four principles above should. No one, not even the straightest straight likes to see patients suffering. It takes courage to not respond emotionally. Anyone can put a hot pack, cold pack, or ultrasound on someone in pain. It takes moral courage to adjust only an Atlas and send them home knowing you did the best thing you could possibly do for them. You can only do that if you have the "courage of your convictions." Fifteen years ago we had many straight chiropractor who only adjusted subluxations, who advertised as such, who put a box on the wall, and had volume practices. But, apparently they did so because it was the fastest, most effective way of making a good deal of money. It took very little courage to do that, others had already shown that it could be successful. Most of those chiropractors today have large fees, small practices, primarily handle insurance, and do everything from diagnosing to modalities. Perhaps they were straight for the wrong reason. But, one thing is sure, they lacked the moral courage to "stay straight" when pressure and the lure of big easy dollars came along. It is not easy. When you know that if you compromise a little on insurance forms you can have a higher percentage of your claims paid, it's difficult to have the moral courage to stay straight. When you know putting a patient on a spinalator probably does them little harm, it more than likely feels good and you can make $50-100,000 a year more income it takes moral courage not to do it. Especially when your classmates are out there making a bundle, guys who didn't have half the brains nor half the technical skills in chiropractic college that you had. It takes a tremendous amount of moral courage for a new practitioner with all of his expenses and debts to be straight. Let's be honest. There is no way you can make as much money as easily and as quickly practicing straight as you can mixing. From what I have seen, there are very few new students coming out of the schools, the straight colleges included, that have that moral courage. They simply cannot handle the pressure of that temptation. Courage is the ability to think under pressure. The ability to think is dependent upon the principles and the concepts that make up a person's thought processes. The soldier who charged the machine gun position was probably taught how to take it, had he used his head to think rather than react emotionally. Instead he acted on emotion, lost his life, and accomplished nothing. The army endeavors to drill a soldier so he can react and act automatically, according to predetermined principles and concepts. This is done so he can accomplish his objective and also come out alive. The moral courage of a member of the pivot is dependent upon knowing principles and concepts and acting according to them in a professional manner unimpeded by emotional distractions. Moral courage is a vital characteristic of a member of the pivot. In future issues we will cover the other characteristics.
THE CHIROPRACTIC OBJECTIVE It is important to continually clarify the objective of chiropractic. The tremendous growth of the profession in the last 75 years has created considerable confusion on the part of the public. That is not difficult to understand. As technics change, people become confused about the objectives of a profession. Medicine, as recently as 200 years ago, was putting leaches on people to draw out the "bad blood." It was considered a ridiculous waste of time 150 years ago for a physician to wash his hands before examining a pregnant woman even if he had just come from doing an autopsy! These are just two examples of how medical procedures have changed and medicine is thousands of years old! It is understandable then that the chiropractic profession will go through changes as it establishes its identity. The chiropractic objective has remained essentially unchanged for the past 91 years. It is very simple. In chiropractic we care for 31 pairs of nerves and 27 bony segments. The human organism is the most complex structure on the face of the earth, more complex than any computer or anything man has been able to construct. If it were not more complex, man would have been building human beings long ago. No one has built one yet! The complexity of the human organism has necessitated that doctors of all kinds confine their expertise to very limited areas. Hence the age of specialty that we live in today. We have all kinds of specialists...heart, eye, ear, nose, throat, kidney, etc., etc. We even have disease specialists that concern themselves with one particular disease such as arthritis and cancer. The chiropractor is a specialist. He has a single objective: the correction of vertebral subluxation. He has determined that vertebral subluxation is a detriment to the proper function of the human organism. A subluxation de creases the entire potential for health. Chiropractors are specialists in correcting subluxations, they are not physicians nor do they wish to intrude upon any of the specialties of medicine.
CRITERIA FOR CARE The intention within a segment of the mixers in our profession is to perform the chiropractic procedure only on those people who manifest a diagnosed medical condition which has been deemed amenable to chiropractic. Unfor tunately, they are attempting to legislate against chiroprac tors adjusting subluxations because the subluxation is itself a detriment to the well being of the human organ ism. They claim they do not want to force chiropractors to use modalities but their desire is to see all chiropractors, even those who wish to only adjust, to do so for a diag nosed medical entity. The following is a thought on this concept: A mixer may treat 100 patients, all of whom have a diagnosed medical entity. If his treatment does not produce immediate results on one of those patients does he still believe that he did that patient any good? If not how can he justify taking a fee? If so, why shouldn't I be able to adjust 100 patients with no symptoms and still conclude that I have done them good? "Ah!" the mixer says, "while that one patient does not show immediate improvement of his symptoms, I know that the therapeutic procedure does work and I am confident that he will improve as a result of that procedure thereby justify ing my fee." My response is "I adjust patients with no symptoms with the same understanding. I am confident that all the patients will improve as a result of my procedure." We are both using the same reasoning except that the mixer wants to address his attention to only people with medical conditions and needs to see tangible results on the vast majority with regard to that medical condition in order to justify the effectiveness of his procedure on all of them. I, on the other hand, wish to adjust people regardless of the presence or absence of a medical condition and have no need to see medical results on any of them, for I have a better criteria by which to justify the effectiveness of my procedure. What is that superior criteria? Logic. If you feel fine today but still go out and exercise, can you logically conclude that you will be better for it tomorrow (If not there would be no reason to start exercising until you felt poorly.) If you feel fine today but still eat good wholesome food, can you logically conclude that you will be better for it tomorrow. If not there would be no reason to start eating whole some food until you felt poorly.) If you feel fine today but you are subluxated, can you logically conclude that by having an adjustment you will be better for it tomorrow? The mixer questions how I can prove that I have done what I am supposed to have done, that is, corrected the verte bral subluxation, if there is no medical condition and results. Easy, by the very same criteria that he has used on that one patient who walked out of the office with no apparent change in symptoms. The criteria, confidence in the effectiveness of the procedure. The difference - he used it on one patient...I use it on all.
ON MAKING STATE LAWS
Who should make the laws governing the practice of chiropractic? We all understand that while the legislature makes the laws, their responsibility is to pass legislation that represents or reflects the will of the majority as long as that will does not infringe upon common sense or the rights of the individual. We safeguard their ability to do that by having the checks and balances of the Executive and Judicial branches of the government. Perfect examples were the civil rights laws of 1964 and 1965. They were in the sense that this country was founded upon the premise that what is beneficial for the individual (in this case a substantial minority) is what is best for the entire country. It is a good system. Protecting the freedom of the individual protects the freedom of all, the majority included. When it comes to chiropractic legislation the elected officials are usually nonplused. They want to protect the public, the majority of which do not utilize chiropractic. They want to give freedom to a minority group known as the mixers and an even smaller minority, the straights. They attempt to get the two sides together to work out a bill that is acceptable to both. Sometimes it works, most of the time it does not. What is the solution? Would you rather churchgoers or prison inmates make laws governing criminal behavior? Most people would answer churchgoers. People who attend church regularly, for the most part, live by certain principles which benefit society. The key word here is principles. Criminals have no principles. They have rejected proper behavior necessary for the perpetuation of a society. There are always exceptions to the rule but we don't make rules for the exceptions. It is conceivable that abuses would occur. The churchgoer may make laws too restrictive, infringing upon the rights of the individual. This has happened historically (the Sunday Blue Laws). But, there is always a safeguard, a solution. In the United States we have the Constitution. While the churchgoer may occasionally violate the rights of the individual, the criminal does it as part of his lifestyle. He recognizes no ones rights with the exception of his own. He may violate someone's right to life but expects to be set free if the arresting officer fails to read him his rights. Rape, robbery, murder, etc. are, for all intents and purposes, a lack of recognition of another person's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (property). The criminal may have standards or a "code of ethics" and every prison has its "unwritten laws." They are usually warped and totally subjective. The burglar doesn't view himself as bad because he would never think of murdering a person. The prostitute doesn't view her activity as a crime. The embezzler doesn't think he's hurting anyone. Even the murderer looks down on the child molester. How does all this relate to chiropractic? Before beginning I should preface my remarks by saying I am not inferring that mixers are criminals. Only the courts have the right to judge who is a criminal. I am not even inferring that the vast majority of mixers think this way. However, I see some pretty frightening similarities in the thinking of a small group of mixers. Unfortunately this small group is trying to change state laws. Those who know their limitations should make the laws. Those who stay within certain boundaries should define the boundaries. Those who see no boundaries should not have the right to define them. The straight chiropractor has standards. He calls them principles. They make up the philosophy of chiropractic and dictate his objectives and scope of practice. By calling himself a "straight" chiropractor he is imposing a code of conduct upon himself relative to his practice. The mixer, on the other hand, is continually attempting to broaden the law. Year after year he goes back to the legislature with the request that they make legal what was once illegal. Today, physical therapy, tomorrow acupuncture, the next year minor surgery. The mixer belittles the principle or standards of the straight chiropractor. Philosophy is a compilation of principles with implications as to practice. He ridicules philosophy. He sees nothing wrong with every chiropractor practicing as broadly as he so desires. The straight limits his practice to the correction of vertebral subluxation. He recognizes the rights of others, particularly the M.D. and the allied therapies. They have prior rights to the treatment of symptoms and diseases. Those are their property rights and any infringement upon them should be as illegal as claim-jumping or horse-stealing. The mixer ignores those property rights. He believes anything is his as long as he can hold on to it. However, he also sets standards. When he feels his rights are being infringed upon (the P.T.'s manipulating), he wants to call in the law. The old saying that freedom to swing your fists ends at the beginning of your neighbor's nose applies here. The chiropractor should have the freedom to practice as long as he is not stealing someone else's property (prior practice rights). Criminal psychologists tell us that the greatest problem in dealing with a criminal is arrogance. The criminal has a high opinion of himself. He thinks he is above the law and that the rest of the world is stupid. He thinks society owes him everything and he owes society nothing. The "straight" person of society, the person who lives by the law is a fool. There seems to be a bit of that attitude in the mixer with regard to his opinion of the straight. He feels he is above these principles that we call philosophy. He has a high opinion of himself and his ability to practice a broad spectrum of procedures (and run the human body). He sees the straight as a fool, not nearly as smart as he. He thinks nothing of depriving the straight of his rights (witness the laws excluding the straights from practice). There are hundreds of graduates of straight colleges that are denied the right to make a living and the pursuit of happiness. That right has been stolen by a mixer. For what reason? Because the straight wants to practice within the confines of a standard, set of laws and principles called the philosophy of chiropractic. Not allowing a graduate of a straight college to practice in one state is wrong. Not allowing him or her to practice in 35-48 states is criminal. The legislature is not responsible for that, the mixers are. If it seems that I am a bit upset it is because I am. The mixers are here and I am afraid they are here to stay. But the straights had better recognize this small group of them for what they are. The world is full of criminals both in and out of institutions. They will always be with us. If they want to change, fine, but otherwise we recognize them for what they are a threat to law-abiding citizens and satiety. We don't befriend them, we don't allow them to work with us, we don't join them, we don't give them positions of authority in government or industry and we don't trust them. The straight chiropractic movement had better be just as wary.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A MEMBER OF THE PIVOT We are now into the third year of the publishing of the Pivot Review. Many new subscribers have joined along the way. Perhaps they do not know exactly what the "Pivot" is. The word is a chiropractic term when it relates to the Axis vertebra, however, the Pivot has a second meaning, that is, a group of people who are the central or cardinal factor in the perpetuation of chiropractic. It has become apparent to almost every student of chiropractic history that the preservation of chiropractic does not depend upon legislation. Strong personalities have helped and hindered our profession's growth but we cannot depend upon them for our future. The only thing that can preserve our profession is a strong group of individuals who practice and live chiropractic, those who understand its principles, really understand them, and then use them to guide their professional lives. There are certain characteristics of a member of the pivot that are worth noting. If we can develop these qualities in ourselves, in our new practitioners, and in the students in our chiropractic colleges, and that number is great enough, maybe, just maybe we can preserve this principle of chiropractic for humanity. The characteristics include: 1. Moral courage. If not the most important, this one ranks right up there. Courage has been described as the ability to think under pressure. Fear is the inability to think under pressure, hence reacting strictly on emotion. The man who charges an enemy machine gun emplacement with nothing more than a bayonet between his teeth has not really demonstrated courage. He serves no purpose, accomplishes nothing. There must be thought involved, under pressure. For without thought an individual's response is based upon emotion. There is nothing wrong with emotion except that it should be the appreciation not the precipitation of action. When emotion precipitates action it destroys thought. Many in our profession who were once straight are an example of emotion destroying thought. When a patient's symptoms do not improve, the chiropractor responds emotionally, thereby becoming subjective. Rather than applying principles that he has learned such as: Is the patient clear? Have I considered limitations of time, limitations of matter, and the chiropractic objective versus the medical objective? He responds with compassion, pity, sympathy, guilt, and frustration. There is nothing wrong with the first three, except that they should not precipitate action. The four principles above should. No one, not even the straightest straight likes to see patients suffering. It takes courage to not respond emotionally. Anyone can put a hot pack, cold pack, or ultrasound on someone in pain. It takes moral courage to adjust only an Atlas and send them home knowing you did the best thing you could possibly do for them. You can only do that if you have the "courage of your convictions." Fifteen years ago we had many straight chiropractor who only adjusted subluxations, who advertised as such, who put a box on the wall, and had volume practices. But, apparently they did so because it was the fastest, most effective way of making a good deal of money. It took very little courage to do that, others had already shown that it could be successful. Most of those chiropractors today have large fees, small practices, primarily handle insurance, and do everything from diagnosing to modalities. Perhaps they were straight for the wrong reason. But, one thing is sure, they lacked the moral courage to "stay straight" when pressure and the lure of big easy dollars came along. It is not easy. When you know that if you compromise a little on insurance forms you can have a higher percentage of your claims paid, it's difficult to have the moral courage to stay straight. When you know putting a patient on a spinalator probably does them little harm, it more than likely feels good and you can make $50-100,000 a year more income it takes moral courage not to do it. Especially when your classmates are out there making a bundle, guys who didn't have half the brains nor half the technical skills in chiropractic college that you had. It takes a tremendous amount of moral courage for a new practitioner with all of his expenses and debts to be straight. Let's be honest. There is no way you can make as much money as easily and as quickly practicing straight as you can mixing. From what I have seen, there are very few new students coming out of the schools, the straight colleges included, that have that moral courage. They simply cannot handle the pressure of that temptation. Courage is the ability to think under pressure. The ability to think is dependent upon the principles and the concepts that make up a person's thought processes. The soldier who charged the machine gun position was probably taught how to take it, had he used his head to think rather than react emotionally. Instead he acted on emotion, lost his life, and accomplished nothing. The army endeavors to drill a soldier so he can react and act automatically, according to predetermined principles and concepts. This is done so he can accomplish his objective and also come out alive. The moral courage of a member of the pivot is dependent upon knowing principles and concepts and acting according to them in a professional manner unimpeded by emotional distractions. Moral courage is a vital characteristic of a member of the pivot. In future issues we will cover the other characteristics.
