Ignorance is bliss

Three articles I read today fill me with pessimism for the future of America. The first two gave the arguments for and against President Obama's proposal to conduct a thorough, independent review of the relative effectiveness of medical procedures and medicines. The idea is that an independent group would conduct clinical studies to determine which medicines and procedures are better than others.

For example, the research would review outcomes for medication versus surgery for back problems; it would review reasons why heart patients in Bloomington, IN are three times more likely than those in Albuquerque, NM to have bypass surgery, and whether there is any difference in outcome.

The advocate for the research quoted M.D. Kevin Pho's recent article in USA Today supporting the program. He says that he is "frequently faced with decisions where the choice is not always clear. Do the latest, more expensive drugs work better than the less costly older medications? Will ordering an MRI help me treat a patient's lower back pain? Often the answer is, 'I'm not sure.'"

The presenter of the arguments against the program started with a description of the program that used phrases like "health-care buzz phrase" and "government-led effort" in a clearly pejorative manner. He followed up with the caution that the program "will let the government set the standards for your care instead of your doctor, who knows you best." He finished up warning that "Government-dictated comparative-effectiveness research would put patients in a bureaucratically induced time warp..."

In other words, instead of claiming that the research would not be effective, or is not needed, he advocated remaining ignorant, forcing doctors to rely upon industry-sponsored studies followed by expensive advertising blitzes and leaving decisions up to insurance industry bureaucrats.

The third article was about the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme that bilked so many people out of their life savings. The part that tied the previous two articles together and led to my pessimism was an interview with Michael Bienes, an early partner of Madoff. After saying he never presumed to question Madoff's scheme, just as he would never question why an airplane flies, or how a cancer treatment works because he wouldn't understand the answer, he said the following:

We really are living in the age of the idiot, aren't we? Most people are so comfortable with their ignorance that common wisdom is no longer wise. My new rule? Whatever course of action everyone else agrees on, do the opposite

There, in three short articles, is what America is in danger of becoming, if it hasn't already become: a society fearful of knowledge, one that celebrates ignorance, that values entertainment over substance, making money over advancing the national interest.