Jahnavi Mahadik
Ideas 201H
November 22, 2017
Ignorance is not Bliss
How is being better beneficial to us? As a direct definition, better means “of greater excellence; of superior character or quality” (Oxford English Dictionary). Being better is what everyone strives for in their life. It is not easy to achieve, but it is possible. In the book Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, Atul Gawande talks about how it is crucial for the medical field to advance, and discusses the uncertainty in the medical field today. In Better, Gawande shows that doctors will fall behind in the medical field without proper advancements in technology, that new advancements in medicine should not be feared by the public, and that doctors are gaining new knowledge within the medical field through advanced education. Without technological advancements and change in medicine, doctors will fall behind in treating new diseases and curing existing ones.
Just as Atul Gawande wants to improve the techniques used in medical facilities, Rachel Carson wants to do the same, but to the environment. Nature is one of the many things we cannot control, but Carson believes otherwise. She wants initiate a change in the way we keep our crops pest free. In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson tries to help the environment by educating her audience about the harmful effects of pesticides. But why does she want to stop using pesticides? Carson believes that pesticides are slowly deteriorating the environment. The pesticides that are used in our environment will slowly make the Earth unfit for all types of life. Farmers are slowly losing focus of the real problem and only directing their attention towards dividends. This means that the farmers are more focused on profit rather than the environment. I believe the benefit of high quality pesticides greatly outweigh the benefit of eliminating a large number of pests. Carson wants to improve the quality of the pesticides by advancing the technology that created it. By improving the way plants can be safe from pests, she will indirectly improve the quality of life for the environment. An environment without pesticides will last longer and benefit humans in the long run. With a pesticide free environment there will be no harmful chemicals ruining the environment and the air that we breathe. Pesticides also leave a mark in the food that we eat. When pesticides are sprayed onto crops, other animals still eat those crops and ingest the pesticides into their bodies. We humans then eat these animals and indirectly are putting pesticides into our bodies. Pesticides are not only harmful to plants but also are harmful to all animals. In conjunction with this, Gawande wants to better the technology in the the medicine field so that it is better suited to help the people. He wants to create a better environment for the human population through the advancement of modern medicine. As Gawande says, “So maybe we should never hold back, never stop pushing” (162, Better). He believes that everyone should always strive to be above average. This mentality is also seen with advancements in the medical field. Improving technology will lead to faster and more efficient results.
In the Dominican Republic I helped construct a community crop field. Due to economic restrictions, the use of pesticides was not allowed. Instead they used simple netting to achieve the same results. After reading Silent Spring, it made it even more difficult to understand why corporate America uses pesticides as they are obviously not required. I believe it is the ignorance of the consumers that fuels this practice. Gawande tries to make the medical field more technologically advanced. He realizes how as each day goes on there are more and more diseases that arise. To diagnose these diseases we need to run at least five tests and that takes time. In the world of medicine there is already not enough time to do everything, so why try to waste more time doing hundreds of tests? Gawande realized this problem and said, “that we can’t do it all” and “Two million people walk into hospital and get infection they didn’t have because someone forgot to wash their hands” (45). By creating a machine that can run all the tests at once and simply washing your hands the problem will be solved. Sometimes even the most simple technologies can be revisited and improved to make the world better.
In the Apology, Socrates also blames ignorance for society’s problem. Socrates believes in making the world a better place. Socrates was put on trial, and charged with old and new charges by many Greek philosophers. The old charges brought against him concerned the fact that he was making weaker arguments seem stronger by using rhetoric, and that he studied aspects of the sky and items that were beneath the earth. The new charges against him were impiety, the refusal to recognize the gods of the city, and corrupting the youth with his blasphemous virtues. However, the goal of Socrates’ teachings was to improve society as a whole. Socrates fights his own ignorance when he says, “I am the wisest man alive for I know one thing – I know nothing”(78, Apology). He wanted to educate the youth about ideas that society was not informing others about. For him, wisdom, virtue, and improvement are all interconnected. Improving society is important because if the whole society is improved then there will be less problems in the future. This can only be brought about with wisdom being shared throughout the society. Improvements to society are good because they put the society ahead of everyone else. When someone or something is above average it is more advantageous. It has more advantages because it knows more than the next person. Knowing more may not be such a bad thing.
This connects to Better by Gawande because it shows that people’s fears should not lead them to turn away from new advancements, but rather adopt them into society. Many people fear the unknown and try to avoid it, but sometimes it is better to explore. Being curious is beneficial to society. As one is more and more curious, they discover new things. People are not innately open to trying new things. Doing new things creates new opportunities and allows for society to progress. In one of the eleven stories, Gawande talks about his experience administering the polio vaccination and one woman refused to allow her kid to receive it. Gawande states that, “Neither child had been vaccinated, so Pankaj asked if we could give them the polio drops. No, she said. She did not appear angry or afraid. Pankaj asked if she knew that a case of polio had appeared in her neighborhood. Yes, she said. But she still didn’t want the drops given. Why? She would not say” (44, Better). This relates to Socrates because just as people of Greece were afraid of Socrates ideas, this woman was also afraid of new things. The people of Greece were afraid of being wrong and being proven right by Socrates. This shows the fear of change and of new things. People are afraid of new things, but new ideas can be good though.
Lastly, through advanced education in the medical field, doctors are able to give patients treatments that are better suited to their specific illnesses. By running tests and deeply thinking about a medical problem doctors can find out treatments that are safe and effective for their patients. Using new technologies and ideas leads to new treatments. This idea connects to Plato’s The Cave by showing that gaining new knowledge can lead to extreme advancements in knowledge and society. In Allegory of the Cave, Plato questions the validity of our perceptions, he concludes that one has to be educated in order to get out of the darkness. The ones who remain in the cave are afraid of the light or enlightenment and when they try to get out, the light hurts them because they do not understand. The main theme of this reading is that we are ignorant about the true nature of reality. We do not want to believe that what we see is real.
Being better is a goal we all try to achieve, but we never think about why. The three ways to improve yourself is through diligence, doing right, and ingenuity. Gawande believes that with these three ways you can become better in the medical field or in anything you pursue. Without advancements in medicine and technology, the world would not improve. We would always be stuck behind others and never achieve our goals. Without change, the world will be constant. As Gawande says, “Recognize the inadequacies in what you do and to seek out solutions.” (p.257, Better). Once doctors and practitioners realize that change is inevitable it will be easier to reach a level of success and become better. We must implement change in our daily lives to see a difference in the world. Change is the cornerstone of growth – without a willingness to change we become stagnate. You are either growing or dying – there is no middle ground. Clinging to the status quo can be dangerous. It may feel safe but when the time comes to take decisive action we will be grossly under-prepared. Once people learn to fight their ignorance they will discover their blind spots.