In his article in AAIDD's "Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities", volume 48, No. 2, pp 148-162, Wolf predicts what others too have been saying: "One day, the reckoning will arrive...In essence, our progeny will pay for our profligacy."
He then paints a picture of how, faced with want, taxpayer revolt, unavailable public money, etc., we can expect to see a number of human service problems: service and related advocacy pitched against each other, competing for remaining funds in an ever-shrinking pool available. This may stoop to advocacy that in making the case for one cause, implies deficiencies in that cause's justifications for funds, or even outright attacking other causes, seen as competition. This can have the effect, in a more and more jaundiced public eye, of tarnishing the whole area and all its individual causes. I have previously commented on this with respect to the animosity in the autism area of human service between groups that practice a "let it be" philosophy, or a philosophy that autism is only a part of the normal human spectrum of individual variation in thinking and intelligence, and groups that practice a "let it be cured" philosophy, or one that wants to invest money, effort and time into various biomedical and psychoeducational efforts at "eradicating the disease". By fighting with each other so publicly, they confuse the public, and let people "off the hook" from offering support where it is needed. Wolf's example is of the area of cancer research, where "the lung, bladder, brain, and other organ-centred cancer organizations" (in the U.S.A.) "are at each other's throats, trying to take money away from each other, as a result of which funding becomes arbitrary and irrational." (p. 151) which Wolf refers to as "let the devil take the hindmost..."
Wolfensburger also reminds us of the abstract of his 1992 plenary address to the Association, published in the February 1994 journal, then called "Mental Retardation" (p. 19), which he accurately suggests "probably set a record for brevity for the journal: "The world is going to hell in a wheelbarrow, and this is not going to do retarded people any good". For those who aren't "in the know" Wolf has always refused to "politically correct" his language, and has continued to use the term "mentally retarded" and "retarded", even now. He has given his reasons in full for this, and although many disagree with him on this very point, he does argue well, and nobody has ever accused Wolf of failing to support and champion the rights and interests of people with developmental disabilities. The man who, along with Bengt Nirje, gave us (in North America) the "principle of normalization", and who now advocates "social role valorization" for people who are at risk of any form of marginalization, can be quite stubborn!
In addition to reminding us that he cautioned us then, nearly twenty years ago, about the coming collapse of banks, credit systems and insurance, as well as private pension funds, and about the increased "deathmaking" he decried, he also admonished us not to trust government because "it habitually lies". He also coined a new term, "insanicerated", meaning "made crazy and insane" which he applied to "people of the culture of modernism, including academia, scholarship, the research culture, the professions, and professional and scientific organizations" - such that "unpleasant truths are not and cannot be dealt with..." He says everything except maybe 'I told you so' - to his credit, of course. EVERYBODY hates that!!!
In his "pre-mortem" on our society, Wolf does comment on those who might be spared, at least in the beginning. This includes services that are totally or substantially subsidized by other bodies (he refers primarily to federal programs), such that parts of the economy are "making money" from them; programs that were generated in response to court decrees or lawsuits might be protected; programs that are protected by strong advocacy lobbies with many voting constituents - which does not usually include advocacy lobbies within intellectual and developmental disabilities - but he cites AARP (American Association of Retired People) and the hospital and nursing home lobbies; "services that thrive on the anxiety of people who still have money"; those who are paid for service to their clients and who have some form of workforce protection.
Never one to simply decry how bad things are, Wolf does offer some suggestions for thinking "rationally, strategically, and ahead of time about (a) what to propose to our funders, and (b) what we can do that is in our power to get the most service value for the dollar." He says we "need to develop a cost/yield mentality" be prepared to ask ourselves tough questions, develop a mentality of parsimony ("holding costs down while still meeting the most pressing needs"), and "need to evolve a relatively united front, with shared strategies, or the government will play one party against another, and beat both down". (p. 152)
In my opinion, Wolf is absolutely correct in predicting that if we fail to do these things, "cuts will be made capriciously by ignorant, partisan, irrational and unstrategic parties, and any number of patterns of cuts can leave vulnerable people far worse off than if the same amount of cuts had been made rationally". (p. 153). Such has been my experience, and I concur with Wolf when he says the cuts will be largely decided by administrative levels of the bureaucracy who do not really know the service sector, or who have very little clinical training or experience. Such has also been my experience. Real people with real needs often get hurt at times like these, and so do the champions who attend to their needs in the face of little to no support, financial or otherwise.
In my next blog, I will review Wolf's proposals, and while I am reading and reviewing his article, I am getting some ideas of my own, for the Ontario situation, that might meet many of his criteria for parsimony, collaboration, united front advocacy, shared strategies, and stretching government and other funder dollars further.
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