Reality Talk

The Lucidicus Project is an effort to promote individual rights and capitalism to the next generation of medical professionals. As statists work to violate a doctor’s right to his life, and lay on him a moral duty to be his brother’s healer, the Lucidicus Project aims to show healthcare providers that their lives are their own, that nobody has a right to their services, and that it is right for them to achieve true, guilt-free happiness in their career.

I am pleased to present the following interview with Jared Rhoads of the Lucidicus Project, who offers insight on the current debate, the Project’s plans and goals, and suggestions for intellectual activism. Donations are being accepted to support the Project’s “Self-Defense Kit” awarded to medical students.

What is the Lucidicus Project?

The Lucidicus Project is an initiative that I started in 2005 to encourage medical students to learn more about the moral and economic foundations of a free society.  The purpose of the project is to help young healthcare professionals become better defenders of individual rights, so that someday we can all benefit from the innovation and affordability that comes from a market-based healthcare industry.

We do a variety of things, including publish editorials on Lucidicus.org, write letters to newspapers, and write to Congress (which we can do, since the project is not a registered nonprofit). We have attended several Tea Party rallies, and spoke at one this past October. Last week, we attended a Scott Brown rally here in Massachusetts and also did some election-day coverage through Twitter.

The centerpiece of the project, though, is definitely the self-defense kits that we give away to medical students across the United States and around the world. The kits contain books to help clarify the moral and economic case for individual rights and capitalism. Helping med students learn to defend themselves philosophically against socialized medicine (and advocate for capitalism) is the core of the project.

Tell us more about the Medical Intellectual’s Self-Defense Kit (MISDK).  What’s in it, and what do you hope recipients will get from it?

The MISDK is a small set of books and materials that introduces medical students to the moral and economic case for capitalism. The kit includes a lecture on CD by Dr. Leonard Peikoff; assorted essays by Dr. Peikoff, Ayn Rand, and George Reisman; the book Noble Vision by Gen LaGreca; and the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. We ship the kit for free to any med student who writes to us and expresses a genuine and sincere interest in learning more about these ideas.

The kit is intended to expose students to concepts and ideas that they may not have encountered before.  Most med students do not study philosophy or economics as undergraduates, and are thus at a disadvantage when colleagues, friends, or politicians repeat the erroneous claims made by their professors. Those claims, of course, usually include the notion that capitalism is “unjust” or that individuals have a “right” to healthcare.

The materials in the kit help to make it clear what a right really is, and what capitalism actually consists of—not the caricature definitions we hear in pop culture (or the universities). The benefit is that the more doctors that understand the objective meaning of these concepts, the better off we will all be in defending medicine.

What motivated you to promote capitalism in medicine, of all fields?

I chose to focus my efforts on medicine for several reasons: First, healthcare is an extremely important issue.  Whatever happens with health reform will profoundly affect the lives of all of us and our loved ones, and I firmly believe that to continue along the path of increased government intervention in healthcare will be nothing less than disastrous.

Another motivating factor for me, personally, is that the complexity of healthcare makes it an intellectually challenging and enjoyable issue to work on.  There are dozens of variables, stakeholders, and other moving parts to consider in any given policy proposal.  In that sense, healthcare policy is similar to economics (another subject I enjoy). Of course, this issue also has tight connections to philosophy, since a proper defense of capitalism must be grounded in individual rights and rational egoism.

Finally, another personal factor is that I work in the healthcare industry professionally. To be clear, I am a healthcare industry analyst and consultant—not a clinician—but I still encounter many of these issues and deal with these concerns on a regular basis.

What kind of success have you had so far?

I am proud to say that we recently surpassed the milestone of having given away our 50th kit, and we are now up to number 52 and counting. The response from those who hear about the project has been almost entirely positive, and thanks to the web, our message has reached all parts of the globe. Most of our recipients are located here in the United States, but we have sent kits to places as far as Poland, Pakistan, and Brazil.

Web traffic on Lucidicus.org is also up dramatically this year, which means that many more people are reading our commentary as well.

Have you had any memorable exchanges or experiences over the past few years?

This may sound schmaltzy, but just about every exchange I have with med students is special and memorable. Many of the students who write to us are so thrilled to have discovered The Lucidicus Project that when they request a kit, they go on and on for paragraphs—usually along a storyline that roughly conveys the following: 1) everyone around them believes in some flavor of state intervention in healthcare, for example single-payer, 2) they know that there is something wrong with that approach, but 3) they don’t know exactly what it is or how to articulate it.  The materials in the kit help recipients discover these answers for themselves, at their own pace and on their own time. The students really are very thankful.

Do you have any big plans in the future that you would like to mention?

One of the ideas that I revisit at least once a year is the possibility of converting The Lucidicus Project to registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Presently it is simply a private organization—an extension of me.  The nice thing about that is that there are no external administrative hassles or legal fees.  The downside is that donations are not tax-deductible.  If I were to make Lucidicus a bona-fide nonprofit, then some doors would potentially open up in terms of getting funding to grow the number of kits that we can give away to students. It’s just hard to know exactly at what point it is worth doing so, if at all.

Other projects and plans are always in the works, too. For example, I have compiled a detailed mailing list of all the medical schools in the U.S. and Canada, and would like to reach out to those schools in some way this year.  Another example: for the first time since 2005, I am seriously considering adding a new item to the kit: Henry Hazlitt’s book Economics in One Lesson.  The national debate on health reform has made it clear that many people simply do not know how to trace the effect of a policy through to its full effects. This is a decision that will most likely be driven by funding.

Do you have any suggestions for other people who are thinking about engaging in intellectual activism?

Yes.  If the idea of getting involved in some sort of intellectual activism appeals to you, then try it out on a small scale and take it from there.  No matter how much or how little time, money, or effort you can expend, there is always something that you can do.  Pick an issue that is important to you and become fluent in it. Of course, depending on your idea, realize that you may need to be patient.  People are not going to link to your blog right away, or start sending you money, or publish your article without knowing who you are. Some forms of activism (like letters to editors) can yield relatively quick results; others take time. The effort is usually worth it!

For more information, please visit the Lucidicus Project website. I also recommend Leonard Peikoff’s essay, “Medicine: Death of a Profession“.