One of the biggest news today is the rush to pass the health care reform affectionately, or rather scathingly, dubbed as ObamaCare. It’s interesting how the public opinion of it (and I mean that loosely) has evolved over the past six months. While I will refrain from voicing my view on the reform, I can’t help noticing the similarities between the proposal’s passage through Congress and individual personal development.
The most interesting, but not particularly surprising, thing about ObamaCare is how much fear influences public opinion of it. Many people claim to base their opinion off of facts and logical predictions. But it’s difficult to do that for several reasons.
1. Most people get their information from news reporters and politician speeches. Whether they do it intentionally or not is up for debate. But both the media and the government are blatant fear-mongerers. Both use inaccurate statistics (when is it ever accurate?) and limited exposures to support their own causes.
2. Individual opinions color individual circumstances and vice versa. If someone is struggling to find health coverage, they will find supporting evidence that ObamaCare is a viable plan. They are gambling that they will get “free” or cheap care out of it. If someone is content with their coverage, they will look for supporting evidence that ObamaCare is a sham and a costly one that they’ll have to foot the bill for.
3. The health care structure is too complex with too many different factors involved for one person to objectively process it all. In essence the media and the government gives us what we want by giving summaries in laymen terms. It’s much easier to scan through that information and make snap judgments based on individual experiences. A senator, an insurance CEO, a doctor, and a patient are all going to place more emphasis on different factors. The senator wants voter approval. The CEO wants high profit margins. The doctor wants less bureaucracy and more reimbursement. The patient wants more access for cheap. And each person will turn around and point fingers at everyone else. “Complex” isn’t even a strong enough word to describe this situation.
4. Because of the complexity, it’s impossible to accurately predict the outcome of ObamaCare if it passes into legislation. In other words there simply isn’t enough information. The current 10 year deficit prediction probably won’t mean anything five years from now.
How does this compare to individual development? Well for one, we’re all bombarded with external opinion from birth, which may or may not have our best interests at heart. Most people aren’t intentionally trying to instill fear in others. But when your scope of understanding is limited by a few opinions, it’s very easy to become fearful of the alternatives.
Which brings me to my second point: these few opinions (family, religion, friends, etc) color our perception of the world, creating a foundation off which we categorize information and make predictions. Third, we frequently forget life is much bigger than our own social bubble. When we are inevitably presented with new information, we make snap judgments based on our foundation. We forget there are countless other ways to interpret that same information.
Finally, in personal development the information about our surroundings is always limited. On autopilot we make decisions based on the limited information we’ve already been exposed to. If we choose to be conscious, we discover the information out there is still limited anyway (perhaps because we ourselves will always be limited). Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
I don’t think this is all bad news, however. If anything I see the public reaction to ObamaCare as a fascinating study of the human mind’s inner workings. After Obama’s inauguration, optimism was high and so was fear. We were more approving of Congress’s decision to quickly approve a $700 billion bailout. Six months later and no definite end in sight, optimism is falling and suddenly we are more reluctant to add more to the national deficit. The constant factor here is fear.
Fear plays a major role in personal development. The objective is not to eliminate it. If the current ObamaCare dilemma is any example, it can’t be eliminated. It will always color our emotions and play a role in our lives. However, your mental state and your biases influence how you deal with fear. With awareness of that, we can learn to make better decisions with the very limited information we have.
I can’t say if ObamaCare is viable or not. Not with millions of people projecting their fears and biases into the issue. Perhaps ObamaCare itself isn’t the problem. It would be interesting if we could program people to be more aware of their perceptions and its limitations. Maybe then a better alternative could be devised.
What’s your take on the similarites with personal development?
**If you’re new here and enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe for future posts and updates. And feel free to share this post … I’d really appreciate it! Don’t forget to introduce yourself in the comments. Don’t be shy … I don’t bite. 
You can also add me on Twitter (@valeriemondesir).**
Related posts:
