There appears to be another periodic effort afoot to get the mixers and the straights together, to bury the hatchet, and begin to stop working against each other. Articles appear on both sides calling for a “live and let live” attitude. “You practice chiropractic your way and let me practice chiropractic my way.” Many who have been in the forefront of the battle are tired after years of bitter struggle and expenditure of great sums of money. The students who seem to suffer, particularly those of the straight schools, appear to be most anxious to see hostilities end. The majority of the profession, the “middle of the roaders,” would be very happy to see everybody honor a truce. Most chiropractors practice chiropractic the way they feel it should be practiced and don’t really care how the next guy practices, as long as it does not hurt them. However, it is not this “silent majority” that is running the state and national associations, schools, state boards and accrediting agencies. It is the extreme ends of the chiropractic profession that are most involved. Getting them together is a major task and if history is any indication, and it usually is, even if you get them working together, a group will split off, pick up the weapons and begin the battle again in the name of principle, clinical competence, raising the standards, or whatever. In spite of recent efforts on the part of many to resolve this battle once and for all a very real obstacle remains that must be removed. The problem is that both extremes, straight and mixer, view the other as a real threat to the health and well-being of the community and that threat reflects upon them as a member of the same profession.
The mixer believes the straight to be incompetent in the area of diagnostic and screening tests necessary for proper clinical care. Whether the straight is incompetent because he never learned in school or because he does not choose to perform those procedures makes no difference. The mixer resents his presence in the community. The straight on the other hand, views the mixer as a threat to the community because he is pretending to do something he was not trained properly to do. The straight philosophy teaches that diagnosis is a rather unscientific, inexact art, even as it is practiced by medical doctors. Understandably, it is necessary to the practice of medicine. Further, diagnosis by M.D.’s does not reflect upon the chiropractic profession. The practice of diagnosis by his community “colleagues,” however, does reflect upon him and his profession, and is not necessary to the correction of subluxation. Add to that the straight’s philosophy that teaches therapeutic procedures, e.g., ultrasound, diathermy, etc. are mostly worthless at best and more than likely dangerous, you have a pretty negative viewpoint toward those that incorporate those procedures. The point to be made is that both sides are sincerely concerned about the welfare of the community and the threat that the other side poses. There is another factor to be considered. Each side views the other as a personal threat. If every other chiropractor in town has a procedure different from mine that makes me feel uncomfortable. I feel like people are saying, “Is there something wrong with him?”
Recently, a new emergence of this peaceful coexistence attitude has begun to manifest itself within the straight community. It goes by the catchy phrase “win/win philosophy.” It is essentially the old idea that the mixer should be free to do his thing and the straight free to do his. It is saying “Let’s ignore the above stated problems and respect
each others manner of practice.” It appears, however, the only ones making a concerted effort in propagating this idea are the straights. The mixer may give it lip-service but since he is in the driver’s seat politically in most states, he is not so anxious to share the driving. Some states are seeing this peaceful coexistence occur. Most of the leadership in the straight community is crying for it. Basically it encompasses the idea of mixer and straight living and practicing together. Let the consumer decide which it wants. This libertarian concept has its good arguments and may even work in a society based upon integrity. However, it has its dangers and should the concept ever catch on, we must foresee those dangers beforehand, lest we get something we really do not want. Chiropractic is not an alternative to the practice of medicine. Neither is mixing chiropractic an alternative to straight chiropractic. Mixing chiropractic is a degeneration of the pure principle of chiropractic. Whenever anything that is pure is mixed with something else it passes from a higher state to a lower state. Mixing medical-therapeutic procedures with chiropractic destroys the purity of chiropractic. Here is the principle: If degeneracy is not restrained it will eventually influence those who are pure and not degenerate. Historically that part of society that is degenerate, if not restrained, destroys the entire society. The fall of the Roman Empire is an example. Adolph Hitler is a perfect example. His degeneracy eventually involved an entire nation and virtually destroyed it despite the many principled people that lived in Germany in the 30’s and 40’s. The spread of communism is another example, the destruction of ancient Greek civilization still another. If you start out tolerating, you usually end up becoming. In Philadelphia right now one residential neighborhood is having a good deal of trouble with prostitution. The police, for whatever reason, are unable to restrain this activity. As a result the residents are so upset they are threatening violence against the women. Law abiding citizens who are upset at illegal activity are themselves considering unrestrained illegal activity. The difference between the mixer and the straight is the issue of restraints. The straight imposes restraints upon himself the mixer does not. If the profession or the law or both do not impose restraints then the profession will ultimately degenerate. This degeneration is already evident in many areas of the country. Mixers are mixing more, straights are becoming mixers at an alarming rate. (Very few mixers are becoming straights.) Straights are advertising symptoms, conditions, and are soliciting accident, personal injury, and workmen’s compensation cases. Fewer students are being referred to chiropractic colleges by chiropractors. Chiropractic is becoming associated almost exclusively with musculoskeletal conditions. All of these are indications that the profession is degenerating. When a maximum number of the profession is, as B.J. put it, “slipping,” and a minimum number “checking,” you have professional degeneration. There is no one that wants to see the professional battle continue. We all want peace within the profession. But if peace brings peaceful coexistence and peaceful coexistence brings the degeneration and destruction of the profession, what has chiropractic benefited?
To paraphrase from the Bible, What profiteth straight chiropractic if it should gain 50 states and lose its principle? v4n1