According to the mass media, everyone with "cancer" (which is a pathological process - not a disease) "battles" it - even if the sufferer is a new born baby, even even when there is a swift and effective cure. This has been the situation for decades.
(Also, anyone who does not die of "cancer" is a "survivor" - even when the expected death rate from that type of "cancer" is near-zero.)
But now it seems that people with dementia are battling that, as well.
What is it about cancer and dementia that make a sufferer battle these pathologies? When it seems that hardly anybody - or only the rare celebrity* - battles heart disease, strokes, pneumonia, duodenal ulcers, renal colic... or most other diseases.
*Because celebrities "battle" everything... They even battle self-chosen and self-inflicted health threats such as alcohol or drugs. And it is still a battle even when they have sought-out and spent vast sums on their inebriant, organized their lives around getting and taking it, and written/ sung/ or otherwise bragged-about their adventure in auto-intoxication. Some particularly admirable celebrities are courageous enough to battle "sex addiction".
4 comments:
Framing vices as 'battles' is an obvious rationalization tool.
Framing a defect in one's members that way is useful for profiteering. Cancer "research" is big business these days.
Back when The Onion was funny, they ran a headline like “Man dies after four-year battle with gorilla.”
AIDS, in stark contrast, is never battled. One simply “lives with” it.
i think i've seen the phrase 'battled with anorexia'. in any case, this was a good observation.
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