Carry on and conquer cancer

A reaction paper to “Rhetoric of Cancer”

                 

The podcast’s focus is the rhetoric used by the media and thus, society, regarding cancer patients and of course, cancer itself. This podcast makes clear that cancer is viewed as a military enemy that must be “conquered,” or “eradicated.”

                

Beautifully, this podcast lays bare the dynamics behind this. Doctors and health professionals do not address cancer as if it is an enemy. They viewed it as a mere abnormality and growth of cancer cells existent in every one. It was no foreign enemy. To them, it was a natural part of a human being. Hopefully, though, they hope to cure cancer. Not destroy it. “The battle analogy, is a peculiar one,” says one of the interviewees.

                

What the podcast further reveals is that people by themselves refer to cancer with military metaphors. To a point, cancer researchers agree that what they are doing, “fighting for a cure for cancer,” is a crusade. One that must be won. But they would be the first to say that not all cancer cells are bad. Cancer cells occur and stay naturally in the human body. The metaphor, it turns out, came from the US. Twisted as it may seem that one of the reputed war-mongering nations, the US, declared another war, “the war on cancer.” Like most of the wars it has started before, it has not won this one yet.

Like cells, the doctor says, which ideally should be like switches to a light show or instruments to a symphony. A better and more apt metaphor would be that “when an instrument is out of tune or broken, you go in to tune it or fix it. Not bomb the whole orchestra.

Malcolm Aniag 

2012-10792