In "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Randall McMurphy asks Nurse Ratched if she can switch the cleaning schedule. He wants to watch the TV set; he is trying to get the guys to bet on the MLB World Series. Of course, Nurse Ratched says rules are rules and the answer is a big fat "No." Occasionally, a stupid rule will make him mad, but he expresses his anger by being extra polite until he sees how funny it is for the nurses to treat the patients like kids.

Here McMurphy got the response he was expecting. What bugs him is that his fellow patients give up. They "sink out of sight into little pockets of fog." In McMurphy’s words, the men are "too chicken-shit." McMurphy tries to get them to speak up, considering that they have a small "personal interest" in watching the series (they’ve bet money on it). Here he loses control. It’s not because of the orderlies or Big Nurse; the problem is his fellow patients. A brouhaha starts.

Finally one guy says he’s likes to view the 6 o’clock news. "If switching the times would mess everything up as bad as Miss Ratched says … don't switch."

McMurphy tries to take a vote. Cheswick is the only patient to vote with McMurphy. Scanlon finally half-votes. Nobody else will raise a hand. Big Nurse continues on with the group meeting.

In the movie McMurphy is disruptive, dangerous, and unbalanced; he is still likable. Nurse Ratched’s regimen seems overly strict and repressive. How bad is it to indulge the patients (watch the World Series)?

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