Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero [44]
CAUSE OF OVERSIMPLIFICATION
The most obvious causes of oversimplification are simple (unhabitual) error and unwillingness to invest the time necessary to probe the complexity of issues. But there are other, deeper, causes as well. One is "mine is better" thinking, which can lead us to see issues in a biased way and thus ignore facts that don't support our view.
Another cause is insecurity. If we are intimidated by complexity, we may prefer superficial answers to questions because they make us feel comfortable. Some people need simple answers. Complex situations and those in which judgment can only be tentative and speculative leave such people disoriented.
Still another cause of oversimplification is the habit of seeing only what affects us. When the law of the land required that public restaurants serve any customer, regardless of race, religion, or national origin, some restaurant owners were angry. They reasoned that people who invest their hard-earned money in a business have the right to serve or not serve whomever they please. That side of the issue was so important to them that they regarded it as the only side. But there was another important side: the right of a citizen to have access to a public place.
Similarly, when the Federal Aviation Administration published regulations governing hand gliders and ultralight motorized aircraft, the U.S. Hang Gliders Association attacked the regulations. They argued that the government "has no business regulating an outdoor recreational sport that consists largely of people running and gliding down remote hills and sand dunes." The association was seeing one side of the issue, the side that affected them. Now if that were the only side, their position would be reasonable. But there is another important side to the issue: keeping the airspace safe for all who use it, including commercial and private planes. (The FAA reports that hang gliders have been observed as high as 13,000 feet.)1 By ignoring that side, the association oversimplified the issue.
AVOIDING OVERSIMPLIFICATION
Avoiding oversimplification simply means refusing to overstate the case for an idea. Before you express any idea to others, first check it for accuracy. If it is not completely accurate, rephrase it. Here is how you might revise the oversimplifications discussed in the chapter. (In each case, of course, other effective revisions are possible.)
Oversimplification
Balanced View
If the students haven't learned, the teacher hasn't taught.
The quality of learning is affected, for good or for ill, by the quality of teaching.
We know ourselves better than others know us.
We know some things about ourselves better than others can know them.
Give people a welfare handout and you make bums of them.
Many people are corrupted by welfare.
Compulsory class attendance rules thwart students' maturation.
Attendance rules that are too numerous or too rigid can thwart students' maturation.
As these examples show, the effort to avoid oversimplification will reward you with views that are more reasonable, and therefore easier to defend.
APPLICATIONS
Analyze each of the following ideas. Decide whether it is an oversimplification. Explain your reasoning carefully.
"I need only consult with myself with regard to what I wish to do; what I feel to be right is right, what I feel to be wrong is wrong." (Jean Jacques Rousseau)
Elected officials should be held accountable to a higher ethical standard than the average citizen is.
The scandals involving television ministries prove what many critics have noted for years – that televangelists are hypocrites.
Guns don't kill people; people kill people.
Apply your critical