A few years ago, I read Atul Gawande's book 'Better'. The book is a series of essays on a deceptively simple concept - a discussion of medical improvements and process that did not end or eliminate a problem (e;g. the Salk polio vaccine), but simply bettered the existing protocols.
There was, for example, a fascinating chapter on the APCAR standards for evaluating the health of newborns. It doesn't seem like much, because the evaluations of vitality are somewhat subjective. But the simple act of measurement, and the database it created has proved to be of inestimable value. (I was surprised to learn that the name is not based on an acronym, but is named after a genius woman physician of the 30's, forced by the gender prejudice of the day to give up surgery for gynecology.
But the book influenced my thinking in other ways. The notion of betterment simply as a desirable end seems to have disappeared completely from our modes of thought. The excessive partisanship of these days is death on half-a-loaf proposals, which are actually how most social progress begins. They've become as outdated as compromise. Obviously, no compromise is possible with the devil - and it that's how you regard Donald Trump, or some CNN host, or Mitch McConnell or Charles Schumer, or the NRA or 'gun grabbers', you are not going even to entertain any notion that the anti-Christ might propose. And you will never, never sit down with them.
Far more than the particular and obnoxious personality of Donald Trump, and the excesses of his opponents, the loss of appreciation of the concept of 'better', of belief in middle ground solutions (compromise), and of a decent respect for truly diverse opinions seems to me the major issue that Western democracies face. Gawande's book illustrated that beautifully.
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