The Death of Outrage in Chiropractic
By
JC Smith
William J. Bennett’s excellent book, “The Death of Outrage,” revealed many problems about the Clinton administration that people have just come to accept, despite the audacious incivility of his actions. Bennett, a former cabinet member, believes Clinton’s repeated antics have simply “come to be accepted” despite most peoples’ belief that they are totally unethical and perhaps illegal. But, little can be done to stop this untidy trend, so the problem continues unabated. Indeed, despite the obvious outrage of his actions, most people are frustrated that nothing can be done to stop it.
While reading his book, I projected this same attitude upon certain fringe elements within our profession who can easily be accused of unseemly antics that taint our collective image. And at times it’s very hard to accept, especially if you voted for Clinton like I did, or graduated from Life College, like many of us have here in Georgia.
Notwithstanding this dilemma, anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that we have a problem, right here in River City, and it starts with a capital S that stands for Big Sid. While some chauvinistic, sycophantic DCs flinch at any criticism of Big Sid, many of us have come to realize his antiquated obstructionist policies that have hindered our progress, his continued effort to maintain disunity within our profession keeps us weak, his pseudo-religion has tainted our profession as a cult, and most of all, the fact that Life has virtually become a diploma-mill that has flooded the marketplace with incompetent young grads.
Forgetting his megalomania and his total and absolute autocratic control of his nepotistic college which flies in the face of academic freedom of thought and intellectual inquiry, the fact remains that the quality and quantity of his grads is quite suspect, to say the least. Not only is it obvious that Atlanta or Georgia does not need more chiropractors, it’s also a question of the type of DC his diploma-mill is graduating—strong on the Money Hum and short on ethical business methods in too many instances.
Before you spit up your milk about criticism of Big Sid, let’s refresh our memories about this predicament and the nature of this man. Is there anyone who will not admit that his autocratic dictatorial leadership is anti-educational, anti-unity and virtually anti-progress. His wrath is well known by anyone who ever worked for him, and his nepotism/cronyism is an affront to professional educators who actually have degrees in this field. For example, Gerry Clum, his lackey side-kick and current president of Life-West has absolutely no college degree whatsoever, yet he’s supposedly a college president. Only in chiropractic education can this happen.
The fact of the matter is Big Sid has out-lived his usefulness. Behind his self-proclaimed “Defender of Chiropractic” charade, he is in reality an anachronism to outdated concepts of chiropractic, especially his cult religion of Innate. I dare say his unethical practice management concepts would most likely land him in jail today—his fake x-rays, chicken dinners, box-on-the-wall G-P-C methods, high-volume, low-quality service, all the while doing the Money Hum to the bank. Ugh.
Life students have embarrassed our profession with their huge student loan defaults—nearly 10% of all student defaults in the United States were made by Life grads. Why? I believe because of his recruiting sales pitch of large incomes entices new students who leave with $100,000 debts, only to face a declining chiropractic economy and intense competition. As well, they have no practical business methods, thus resorting to the DE gimmicks of free services, NOOPE, runners and such.
Nearly every new Lifer who comes into my town to open a practice inevitably does this despite the damage it does to our collective image. Just recently, I invited a ‘young and dumb’ Lifer to my office and asked him why he resorted to these gimmicks. “That’s what they teach us at the college,” he replied. Knowing the truth of the matter, I gave him a copy of my book, “The Path to Mastery in Chiropractic,” which details a business development process fashioned after Mike Gerber’s concepts. Despite my effort to help, he has ignored the wisdom of this approach, still doing his bait-and-switch free exams and NOOPE methods. Ugh, ugh.
It’s obviously time for a change in the administration of Life. Attempts to reform this mess have met strong resistance by Big Sid who enjoys his cash-cow. CCE has jumped into the fray and called to raise the minimum GPA, so Big Sid has sued them. Past efforts here in Georgia to require a bachelor’s degree has also met his resistance. Calls by the state attorney general’s office to end the nepotism has also failed. By the way, reportedly after Big Sid steps down, his anorexic daughter will be the next dummy president. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Obviously, Big Sid has no interest in improving the problems at Life, nor is he willing to change his policies.
William Bennett bemoaned Clinton’s assault on American ideals of honesty and integrity. In the Oval Office, it was said that Ronald Regean so honored the office that he would not even unbutton his jacket for fear of appearing informal. However, in the same room, Clinton had no qualms about dropping his pants!
In the same regard, Big Sid has assaulted many values of higher education and freedom of choice that America stands for. We’re all aware of his autocratic nature to disallow any mention of the GCA or ACA on campus. No speaker is allowed unless approved by him. He even bans books that he doesn’t like, such as mine, which calls for a return to integrity. These assaults are painfully obvious, yet little is said for fear of retribution. It is well known the Sidiot followers have spied on students and faculty alike, again to inhibit freedom of thought. As we all know, his dictatorial paranoid mentality doesn’t allow any thoughts other than the “little voices” he hears inside his head. His delusions have become our collective reality. Indeed, his Lasting Purpose is our Lasting Problem.
The case against Big Sid is easy enough to make; even his erstwhile supporters among themselves admit to his autocratic nature and their fear of him. Yet, nothing seems to happen. People just turn deaf ears whenever there’s any movement to supplant this tyrant. The time has come to take a stand. Legislatively, we need to ask our politicians to impose higher standards for admission and for state licenses for chiropractic students. We need to ask them to impose sanctions on free services, NOOPE, TWIP, runners and other gimmicks. Let’s empower our state board to regulate these charlatans who are soiling our image.
I believe the state politicians would love to see a reform movement within chiropractic. They’re aware of Big Sid’s antics and obstructionist policies, but they are confused as to who to listen to. If the GCA began a reform movement, independent DCs might jump on this bandwagon too. Except for the sycophants in the GCC, most rationale DCs are aware of the shrinking market, the absurd gimmicks of DE, the cult of DE, the burgeoning DCs in a shrinking marketplace, and the need for reform.
That’s my viewpoint, what’s yours? I’m all ears. Agree or disagree, I would like to hear your feedback.