It used to be a short-lived, but profitable job with an avant la lettre steampunk outfit. The beak was filled with aromatic herbs and straw to protect against the Black Death.
Didn't work when the plague finally swept over Europe, but before that plague doctor was an extremely well paid job with a reasonable life expectancy. Nostradamus was one of the early plague doctors and he was certainly the first to understand how to become the 'dr Phil' of his days by writing a book (almanac).
Modern witch doctors of course are smart enough to stay away from contagious deadly diseases. Payment is even better when both patient and doctor survive…
Writing an almanac however proved to be contagious as the alternative health book section on Amazon shows. Again Nostradamus showed the way as a yearly update in mystic language was a lasting success formula.
The cool looking glasses in the mask were meant to keep the disease out, while the stick was used to prod the patients and assist the clients in repenting whatever their sins were. This of course was before Freud discovered that patients would be happy to punish themselves the moment they got a chance to lay down on a couch.
Repenting and healing by stick or the later sofa session eventually lost their appeal. Social media are the new hunting grounds for modern day plague doctors and their 'diseased'. The aromatic herbs are spread through 'inspirational posts'. Usually a post with just two lines and some text turned into an image. Messages of hope for vulnerable people. Just like the plague but they spread even faster than the Black Death ever managed.
It's unfortunate that we are still prodded to repent. No longer by stick, but by notification. In the day and age of science there are more messages of hope spread by untrained doctors and social media gurus of life than ever in history.
Maybe that beak and mask were a good idea. Can't we get 'auto-mask', to go with auto-awesome to mark and mask images of the new old plague of inspirational messages on G+? #SocMed
+Eli Fennell said: Plague Doctors are thought, by many, to have helped form the archetype of the Grim Reaper (imagine the stick as a Scythe and imagine the Doctor wearing something like a black robe).
copied the comment as I shared the first copy with the wrong audience. This post will stay up. Sorry +Eli Fennell
Understood. It happens.
bookmark, need to think about this 😉
Wiki: "Being a plague doctor was unpleasant, dangerous and difficult. Their chances of survival in times of a plague epidemic were low." Poor bastards, uneducated, trying to make a living with false promises. Today, it seems that half of the population is plague doctor.
+Max Huijgen you stirrer (or should that really be +Eli Fennell) – yeah, we can get a little 'snake-oil obsessed' but at one level, the 'talking cure' of Plague Doctors actually worked. The power of the patient to believe in the healing process, helped them heal, so while we now call them Quacks (thanks to the beaked mask) because of their failure to cure a disease that required more than they could do, we need to bear in mind the vital role they played. Similarly the execrable quotes we see extorting us to see life in a particular way, are potent reminders for some that really helped them do see it, that way. #justsaying
Thought Provoking Posts like this need a category of it's own.
BTW, posts like this are what keeps me coming back to G+.
Whether I agree or not, is unimportant, what matters really is what you made me think about. So, thank you +Max Huijgen.