Poor health has a way of sharpening the mind. Lying in bed – again – grounded by illness, strange thoughts emerge.
Proust, Nietzsche, (Gray?) and others did their best thinking in physical weakness. Perhaps when the body goes skew-whiff, the brain goes into overdrive.
In my case, chronic illness has rewired my views on fairness and wealth.
I used to believe in heavy economic redistribution. Inequality infuriated me. But these days, I’d swap all my assets for reliable health.
That’s the problem with wealth-focused models: even perfect redistribution doesn’t help the unwell. Health, unlike money, can’t be spread around.
Unless your utopia involves sharing a functioning neurological system and untroubled sleep, it’s not really levelling anything. The truly rich are those who can walk normally and do the dishes.
Photos are of my awesome co-directors of Suffrago presenting to the House of Commons Select Committee for Science, Technology and Innovation yesterday (without me).
