Cultural Encounters: A Journal For The Theology Of Culture Volume 10 Number 1 (Winter 2014) | Page 7
VOLUME 10
NUMBER 1
2014
UNCOMFORTABLY NUMB ON HEALTH CARE
REFORM
Paul Louis Metzger
Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and Discomfort over Health Care
You may be familiar with Pink Floyd’s classic song “Comfortably Numb,”
which appears on the album The Wall.1 The song is about the character
Pink’s battle to deal with the world as a result of his abandonment and
isolation. The song fits within the framework of The Wall as a concept
album. Pink experienced the loss of his dad during World War II and his
teachers’ hostilities growing up. Although he is now a rock star who
performs to adoring masses, his early experiences have led him to separate
himself from the surrounding society; a symbolic wall signifies this
separation.
There is no see ming interpersonal connection in the song “Comfortably
Numb” between Pink and the medical doctor who inspects him, just as there
is no such connection between Pink and other authority figures on the album,
such as his teachers. The doctor is not really trying to help him. The doctor is
there to assist Pink’s management, to get him back on his feet with an
injection so that Pink can perform a concert that evening, and they can make
their money.
One does not need to be a Pink Floyd fan to understand that the trauma we
experience on account of personal abandonment and isolation in life can lead
us to build walls that separate us further from society at large. And yet, one
may wonder how one can be comfortably numb: how can one experience
comfort when one is numb? Should not the apparent comfort we experience
from being numb make us “feel” quite uncomfortable?
Consider the numbness many people throughout our society are experiencing
presently on the subject of health care. There are so many factors to consider,
including concern over how our market society shapes the discussion. As
Paul Louis Metzger is Professor of Christian Theology and Theology of Culture at
Multnomah Biblical Seminary/Multnomah University and Director of The Institute
for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins;
[email protected].
1. Pink Floyd, The Wall (album), UK: Harvest Records/EMI Records, 1979; The
Wall (film), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1982.
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