Two rather different headlines from reputable news organisations...
Prostate test found to save few lives
...prostate cancer screening could cut death rates from the disease by 20%
Remarkably, the two articles manage to come to completely contradictory conclusions from precisely the same sets of studies and data - and they were published the very same day!
Informed choice is valued above almost everything else - from schooling to hospital treatment, to the environment - but the contrast between these two reputable sources of 'information' points up two major trip hazards along the way:
- Being 'well informed' is not the same as being right
One of the hallmarks of the 'post-modern' mindset is a huge (and not entirely ill-founded) suspicion that we can ever really 'know' exactly the right answer to some of the most important life-changing/saving questions we can imagine.
The problem is that this breeds a suspicion of experts, of claims to authority or certainty that can leave us either stuck with indecision, or to react against whatever view is mainstream, fearing we've been duped. The furore over MMR vaccinations is one obvious case where this seems to have caused real damage. The reaction against the faith-based assumptions of a Christian worldview is, perhaps, connected... - Choice itself can be the enemy.
It's not merely the reliability of information that can scupper our decision-making, but the availbility of choice itself.
Next time you're in a supermarket, just think how much simplet - if a bit dull - it would be to have rather less choice in the bread aisle, or amongst the 50+ butters, spreads and margarines on offer.
We like choice, but choice itself can be so overwhelming and demand so much of us - that we become experts on everything - that we could wish it were taken away.
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