Jefferson's Disease

About the Book

The author, a surgeon , involved himself in organisational politics for years and was a member of the central committee of a political party. Subsequently an MP, though he lost his seat in a redistribution , he was always welcome in the Government’s Whip’s office. A trivial episode there began a slow train of thought which culminated in a realisation that all present forms of government are undemocratic, full of serious flaws and, because they are elective, cannot deal adequately with any of the serious problems now besetting us. The electoral process is too fallible and open to manipulation in ways that are outlined.

Governments rely too much on an ever-proliferating bureaucracy and pass fallible laws. The flawed judicial system, far from remedying the inadequacy in the laws they administer, virtually eliminates the possibility of Justice, especially for ordinary people.

This realisation impelled Gibbs to years of serious study. He was appalled at the nonsensical fantasy and unreality typifying the outpourings of most political philosophers, who, almost invariably fail to realise the one fundamental of politics: that it is, first, last, always and inevitably, human behaviour. Any polity failing to rely upon a full understanding of that behaviour, its strengths, its weaknesses and especially its implications where power is involved must be unjust. A just polity must act logically and objectively upon that knowledge, and abjure all dogma. Only then can there be a just democracy.

The author devotes a chapter is to the fact that much more than two-thirds of the people of this world have always lived in appalling states of deprivation, ignorance and fear.

Gibbs takes the reader along lightly and with some humour to a reasoned, more truly just and democratic, achievable solution.

About the Author

The author graduated in Medicine and Arts in Australia. Following the usual junior hospital training posts he spent some time as a flying doctor in the Northern Territory of Australia. After further training at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, he became a Fellow of The Royal Colleges of Surgeons of both England and Edinburgh. Returning to Australia he eventually became a senior consultant surgeon.

Human suffering has always been a concern of his, so, appalled at the Southward advance of brutal Communism in Southeast Asia, he sought the assistance of the Australian Foreign Minister in establishing a clinic in Laos. Though this was refused, kindly, the contact led to an active participation in politics. On entering the Parliament he was befriended by Prime Minister Harold Holt, was consulted by him on healthcare problems both personal and public. He accompanied the PM to Viet Nam. After Holt’s death, he lost his seat as the result of an electoral redistribution.

Before resuming his career as a surgeon he took an administrative position in the healthcare industry. This frequently took him to Canberra, where he was always cordially received by Gorton, the new PM; also the Government Whip, a friend. It was a very trivial episode in the latter’s office that began the train of thought that resulted in this book.

Though he returned to the practice of surgery in Australia, he left there to take up a consultant post in Fiji, then Saudi Arabia, England, Australia again, then finally England once more. His experience of the politics in these and other countries lent depth to his research into government. He is now retired.

His brother, Rt. Hon. Sir Harry Gibbs, GCMG, KBE, AC, was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.