Kaiser Permanente is one of the oldest health maintenance organizations in the world, the largest not-for-profit health plan in the United States. We've been Kaiser members for decades now and have generally been quite happy with the outfit – but when I saw a recent Kaiser public-relations campaign I got even happier. The first item to catch my eye was a television commercial that came on early one Saturday morning while I was at the laundromat. Then I started to see Kaiser posters on the subway.

The overarching theme is a single, simple word: Thrive. One of the sub-slogans: Be Your Own Cause. Take responsibility for your health. Get to work on yourself. Start now.

Yeah, you can't cure everything by eating less junk, exercising a bit more, and cultivating a positive mental attitude – but why not at least give it a try? It's easy, it's cheap, and if you do it right it soon becomes fun. And it works a lot better than pills.

Oops, I forgot – self-responsibility is contrary to every tenet of society today, as well as occasionally troublesome. And it takes time away from watching TV, clicking on Internet advertisements, and purchasing merchandise – three central underpinnings of modern civilization. Sorry I suggested it!

(cf. WhatIsMyLife (20 Apr 1999), AchieveNewBalance (17 Jul 20020, SelfImprovement (29 Jul 2002), MotorcycleMaintenance (6 Jun 2003), For Themselves (8 Jun 2003), FlagranteDelictoPhilosopher (19 Sep 2003), ...)

TopicLife - TopicScience - TopicHumor - 2006-02-04

(correlates: ArtistryAtThePiano, ReligionOfTraining, NothingHappens, ...)