Russell Smith's column in the Globe this morning is a must read, especially for so-called "progressives" who are convinced that the government and Big Pharma are orchestrating a massive H1N1 conspiracy. Writes Russell:

Now, how do artists themselves react to the threat of illness? Interestingly, almost completely irrationally. They too do not think in terms of real life: They think in terms of fantastic conspiracies and romantic resistance. I know this because I see and talk to a lot of artists daily: I correspond with them and I drink with them and I teach them. And I can report that the virus that has spread among the sensitive people of Canada is not physiological; instead, it is a bizarre belief that science is corrupt, that the government is incompetent, and that you can't trust medicine.

Everyone has gone to see her naturopath for advice about the flu shot, and of course the naturopath says don't do it; it's a toxic chemical and you're probably allergic to eggs anyway. I step into my classroom, and the students (master of fine arts students, so a naturally alternative bunch) are talking about the dangers of the vaccine: It has never been tested; there was that one YouTube of a nurse who took it and was paralyzed. … “I'm suspicious,” said one student, “of the government telling me to put a chemical into my body.” These are intelligent people, not flakes: They have read James Joyce and can tell you what exegesis is. We saw the same thing in a Globe and Mail article last weekend: Of prominent Canadians asked whether they were going to get vaccinated, three noted artists – two singers and a film director – said they would not. And a writer and an actress said they were undecided.

Why are artists opposed to public-health policies? Are they not generally on the left? Doesn't the left support public health? After all, we are talking about massive public expenditure here, to provide free health care to everyone – is this not the triumph of the caring democratic state? Since when did medicine become associated with corporations and exploitation? And since we're asking, when did “government” become synonymous with coercion and control? My left-wing friends are starting to sound a lot like the nuttiest libertarian don't-tax-me right.

...

I am very glad, of course, that we have so many artists in this society and that they are generally a skeptical bunch, and that their paranoid imaginations give us so many dramatic movies about corrupt science.

I am glad, however, that they are not in charge of my actual health care.

Me too.