A Deeper Look - Issue #14 | May 2 2021
Care for the Elderly, Misinformation and Mark Carney
Hello!
I trust you are keeping well and safe. I have missed writing to you over the last few weeks but life, work and time took over. In this the realization that I may have been a little over ambitious in setting a weekly publication schedule!
Going forward I will issue “A Deeper Look” twice a month and look forward to your ongoing readership and support
This week we look at the following:
Weekly Reflection
Old Age: Our Future, The Elderly After the Pandemic (Pontifical Academy for Life)
Elitsa Dermendzhiyska - The Misinformation Virus (Aeon Magazine)
Read of the Week: Value(s): Building a Better World For All (Mark Carney)
Weekly Reflection
In my other life, I teach a secondary English class. We have started a unit on the themes of identity and community. Earlier this week I introduced my students to a writing activity in which they would have to draft a six word memoir which they would then turn into a “tweet” of 140-150 characters.
A small example.
Six Word Memoir: Masala Chai, the first sip. Sigh.
Tweet: The first sip, a burst of ginger, a sliver of pepper, a hint of cardamom. The sound of waves on beaches, African sunsets and mangoes. The steam evaporates and with them the memories. Cup down. Sigh. The week begins.
Excited enough about this activity I shared it with my dad who after an infuriatingly long pause, commented, hmm sounds nice but to what end?
Now this comment could be interpreted any number of ways.
There is the smaller “to what end?” which I suppose is so that they (the students) appreciate the value of words, to develop appreciation for literature, to cultivate the value of reflection, the skill of distilling a memory, the ability to craft their thoughts into language which prods, provokes and inspires the mind. To reaffirm that that their memories and reflections have meaning.
There is however the question of the larger “to what end?”
And to this I would suggest, instead of focusing on the end, focus on the living. Focus on living and living well, living with kindness, compassion for others. To live and to contribute to the world we live in, and to the quality of life of those who we live in it with. And after having lived perhaps then I will be in a position to answer the question “To what end.” I suspect that at this point in life the end will be in sight and I will have a clearer answer, and even if I do not, perhaps I will be comforted by the knowledge that the end, after long last, has indeed arrived.
To what end indeed…
Old Age: Our Future, The Elderly After the Pandemic - Pontifical Academy for Life
In thinking about ends, perhaps it is appropriate we start with this week’s first read. The Pontifical Academy of Life released a document entitled Old Age: Our Future, The Elderly After the Pandemic. It serves as a societal reflection on the role of the elderly and sets out an ethical foundation for their care.
Isolating the elderly is an obvious manifestation of what Pope Francis has called the “throwaway culture”. The risks that afflict old age, like loneliness, disorientation and consequent confusion, loss of memory and identity, and cognitive decline, often appear even more clearly in these contexts, whereas instead the vocation of these institutions should be the family, social and spiritual accompaniment of the elderly, in full respect of their dignity, on a path often marked by suffering.
The document offers a new model of elderly living explaining that:
The realization of a full life and more just societies for the new generations depends on the acknowledgement of the presence and wealth that grandparents and the elderly constitute for us, in every context and geographical area in the world. The corollary of this acknowledgement is respect, which is such only if it is expressed through welcoming, supporting and enhancing their qualities and their needs.
Among the honors due to them, there is certainly the duty to create the best conditions for the elderly to live this particular stage of life where they have been for a lifetime, at home with one’s family if possible and with life-long friends. Who would not want to continue living at home, surrounded by those who are dearest, even when one becomes more fragile? The family, one’s own home, one’s own neighbourhood, is the best choice for every aging man and woman.
The document goes on to offer a foundation for policy, explaining that it must start from the principle of the individual and that care must be structured along a continuum.
Any good policy aimed at identifying new housing and welfare possibilities must start from a careful consideration of the life of the individual, his or her personal history and needs. The implementation of this principle implies structured intervention at different levels to establish a continuum of care between one's home and appropriate external services, without traumatic breaks that are inappropriate to the fragility of growing old.
The document concludes with a warning
The weakness of the elderly is also a challenge. It invites younger people to accept dependence on others as a lifestyle, as a way of life. Only a youthful culture makes the term “old” seem disparaging. A society that is able to accept the weakness of the elderly is capable of offering everyone hope for the future. Taking away the right to life of those who are frail means stealing hope for the future from everyone, especially the youngest. That is why discarding the old—even with expressions—is a serious problem for everyone. It implies a clear message that lies at the heart of so much rejection—from the person just conceived to the person with disabilities, from the emigrant to the homeless person
Elitsa Dermendzhiyska - The Misinformation Virus (Aeon Magazine)
Elista Dermendzhiya explores the role of and reasons for the spread of misinformation in modern society. Her article reads as a mini-literature review of various studies and experiments in psychology, and science communication that have explored the proliferation of misinformation, the reasons for its transmissibility and contagiousness.
As a Result of Good Faith:
Dermendzhiyska explains that the first reason for the spread of misinformation is our naiveté - that we too often rely on the good faith of our neighbours which makes us vulnerable.
Because the existence of human society is predicated on the ability of people to interact and [on] expectations of good faith.’ Moreover, myths can take on subtle, crafty forms that feign legitimacy, making them hard to expose without careful analysis or fact checks. This means that those of us too dazed by the job of living to exert an extra mental effort can easily succumb to deception.
As a Result of Repetition:
She points to the second factor of repetition, that the persistence of misinformation is due to the incessant repetition, a repetition that operates at an exponential scale courtesy of social media.
Another reason why misinformation resists correction is repetition. Once something gets repeated often enough – sensational claims on social media; urban legends passed from one bored time waster to another – it can trick us into taking it as true merely because of its familiarity. The illusory truth effect, as it’s known, suggests that the easier to process and more familiar something is, the more likely we are to believe it.
How to Debunk Misinformation?
She offers several antidotes to the spread of misinformation including the provision of alternate explanations, the development of counter arguments, and to evoke suspicion about its source.
To successfully debunk a myth, the authors conclude, it helps to provide an alternative causal explanation to fill the mental gap that retracting the myth could leave. Counterarguments work too, as they point out the inconsistencies contained in the myth, allowing people to resolve the clash between the true and the false statement. Another strategy is to evoke suspicion about the source of the misinformation
On the Science Comprehension Thesis
Dermendzhiyska, citing Dan Kahan, observes that the science comprehension thesis holds that people who have an insufficient grasp of science and will not undertake in the rational thinking needed to understand and unpack complex issues. According to this thesis the more knowledge and education subjects received, the more likely they would be to accept the scientific consensus. Yet a 2010 study conducted by Kahan showed surprising results. The study measured an individuals science and numeracy literacy against that person’s perceived risk of global warming - the study revealed that those with high literacy scores had a diminishing concern for climate change.
Kahan argues that rather than being a simple matter of intelligence or critical thinking, the question of global warming triggers deeply held personal beliefs. In a way, asking for people’s take on climate change is also to ask them who they are and what they value… Kahan found similar polarisation over social issues that impinge on identity, such as gun control, nuclear energy and fracking, but not over more identity-neutral subjects such as GMO foods and artificial sweeteners. In cases where identity-protective motivations play a key role, people tend to seek and process information in biased ways that conform to their prior beliefs…. This hints at a vexing conclusion: that the most knowledgeable among us can be more, not less, susceptible to misinformation if it feeds into cherished beliefs and identities
Read of the Week: Value(s) Building a Better World For All - Mark Carney
I have just discovered the Kindle app on my IPad and this has not been good news for my wallet. The first book I ordered this week was: Value(s): Building A Better World For All by Canadian economist Mark Carney. Carney served as Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 until 2013 and the Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020.
I have just started reading the book but am already struck by his clarity and ability to hone in on the aliments of the modern economic system.
An extract:
“What is value? How is it grounded? Which values underpin our value? Can the very act of valuation shape our values and constrain our choices? How do the valuations of markets affect the values of society? Does the narrowness of our vision, the poverty of our perspective, mean we undervalue what matters to our collective well-being. These are the questions that this book seeks to explore…. In many respects this book is a belated response to a question posed a few summers ago when a range of policy makers, business people, academics, labour leaders and charity workers gathered at the Vatican to discuss the future of the market system. Pope Francis surprised us by joining the lunch and sharing a parable. He observed that:
Our meal will be accompanied by wine. Now, wine is many things. It has a bouquet, colour and richness of taste that all complement the food. It has alcohol that can enliven the mind. Wine enriches all our senses. At the end of our feast we will have grappa. Grappa is one thing: alcohol. Grappa is wine distilled.
Humanity is many things - passionate, curious, rational, altruistic, creative, self-interested. But the market is one thing: self-interest. The market is humanity distilled. Your job is to turn the grappa back into wine, to turn the market back to humanity. This isn’t theology. This is reality. This is the truth.”
Until the week after next.
Thanks for reading.
FK