By John Barbour

Exclusive to Rense

2-7-25

This morning, I had cataract surgery on my left eye. But this post has nothing to do with that because I post nothing about any kind of medical condition or meal I might have unless it is informative or funny. This is not funny...but it is informative. A few months ago I had my right eye done at Shephard Eye Institute.

The greatest pain and waste of time inflicted on me was trying to check in with one of those God damn 'electronic kiosks.’ It was like asking me to fly a B-57! I didn't even know where to start or how to begin typing my own name. Then I had to search for my driver's license in my stuffed wallet and then had to figure out the spot in this contraption to insert it. The same with my medical card. And then worse where to put a credit card for copay when I don't even want a human to have that! 6 year olds no more about this stuff than I do. But there was nobody under 70 without a wheelchair or a cane amongst hundreds waiting like me lining up to be made to look stupid by this immobile one legged screwed to the floor contraption. I had to beg for help from the help. There is nothing that sounds worse than a 91year old beggar!

The same thing happened a week ago at the department of motor vehicles where my wife Sarita went to renew her driver's license. No human would talk to her until she learned how to talk to one of these God damn kiosks. Fortunately Sarita is prettier than I am and found an 80 year old lady to help her.
Anyway, back to my right eye. It took nearly an hour before I was led to a human, and nurse. Today though, there were signs all over these kiosks that said 'out of order. Just sign in at the desk and someone will call you!' I signed in at the desk immediately and and within 5 minutes someone did call me… a nurse who led me immediately into the operating area. I was back to the human-to-human relationships I had with my medical practitioners decades ago.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all these goddamn things just blew up. And then all recorded voice-prompt message trees on corporate or government phones all blew up. And you heard a message on that phone telling you the automated system had blown up and a human representative would soon be with you!! My conclusion: mechanical advancement is just mechanical advancement...and the beginning of human estrangement!

By the way, out of both eyes now, I can see as well as our two rescued cats!!

John Barbour