I had a friend who went to a medical doctor after experiencing discomfort for a number of years.
The doctor said that his condition was complicated and he would always be in pain, but with painkillers he could manage it as best he could.
One day my friend read in the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and the Daily Express of a surgical procedure which would take all his pain away.
He went back to his doctor and asked about it. The doctor frowned before telling my friend he was certain the risks were really high, and there was a chance my friend could end up losing the use of all of his limbs.
Unhappy with this, my friend visited a private surgeon who told him something completely different. “Oh, no!” said the surgeon. “There is, of course, risk. Then again there is risk every day when we cross the road.”
The surgeon insisted that the other doctor just wanted him to keep giving him money for painkillers. What my friend needed was a positive attitude and that in his opinion as a surgeon, he would be much better after the surgery.
Returning to the medical doctor, my friend put the surgeon’s case to him, prompting the medical doctor to say: “No, it’s the surgeon that wants your money, I sincerely predict you will lose the use of all of your limbs”.
So my friend mulled on this, and despite not being fully committed, he finally decided that, rather than more of the same, he would be confident and commit to the surgery.
Two years later the day of the surgery arrives, and my friend goes to the hospital and is ushered into a room to await the surgeon.
Finally, the door opens and the surgeon enters pushing a wheelchair. “Why have you got that?” my friend inquired.
“Well”, said the surgeon, “you aren’t going to be lose the use of all of your limbs, but you won’t be able to use your legs for ten years. Actually it may be permanent, but the important thing is to be positive!”
Somewhat surprised at this statement, my friend said “I actually might not want to go through with this now. This isn’t what you said before.”
The surgeon smiled at my friend before saying “I know, but there was misinformation on both sides!”
“And to want to reconsider this now would be disrespectful to yourself. You made this decision two years ago. It’s like you’re calling yourself stupid.”
He then added: “It’s actually disrespectful to the whole concept of self-determination if you make a decision and then want to go back on it”.
Before finishing with “All private health practitioners downplay the risk until we have a patient’s business. If people didn’t go through with it when they knew the truth, nobody would be treated.”
At that point my friend stood up and said “OK, Mr Surgeon, now let me tell you how it is in the real world....”
“You have just framed this as if it was a competition between yourself and the medical doctor, and if that is what it was, the fact both of you lied would be a good argument. If two sides adopt the same standards, then it is, indeed, a fair competition.”
“But this was a decision and not a competition.”
“It doesn’t matter if you lied, he lied, or you both lied. The integrity of a decision is underpinned by the quality of the information it is based on.”
“It’s also not disrespectful to myself to query a decision I made on inadequate information, and I would only be stupid if I was unprepared to reappraise such an important decision based on new information.”
“What is disrespectful to my self-determination is allowing you to frame my decision as some sort of game to be won by fair means or foul.”
“In fact, if neither path offered to me led to the advertised destination, that’s not self-determination, it’s the illusion of choice.”
He finished by saying: “As for nobody getting medical attention if we decide to not go ahead? Actually, what will happen is the doctors and the surgeons will not get paid.”
“Only then will the doctors and surgeons understand to be honest with their patients about the decisions they are making.”
“But, if I go ahead with the surgery now, I am both encouraging this dishonesty and enabling it. I will be complicit in every single one your future acts of dishonesty.”
At that point my friend walked out....and the moral is:
If you wouldn’t accept these arguments from a doctor in relation to what he wants to do to your body, then you shouldn’t accept it from a politician in relation to what he wants to do to your country.
For the electorate, a vote is a decision, not a competition.
Decisions are only as robust as the information that they are built on.
It is not disrespectful, in the face of new information, to question the integrity of that decision.
And if we allow politicians to frame democracy as a game, and also allow them to argue that we should not hold one set of politicians to account because another set of politicians act the same way, then we will be complicit in the devaluing of our democracy.
/End
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