Over-simplification not answer

Jason Heale

I recently watched the classic 90s film “City Slickers”, in which Billy Crystal’s middle-aged character goes to a ranch searching for the meaning of life. By the end of the film, he has discovered that the meaning of life comes down to only one thing. It turns out that the “one thing” is different for everybody, and you must figure it out for yourself.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if the meaning of life and the solution to all of the world’s problems turned out to be just one thing? We know that is not the case. It seems, however, that some of our politicians have forgotten the complexities of humanity.

We have recently seen several depressing statistics — more ram raids, increasing gang membership and increasing truancy.

What can society do to combat these problems? The leader of the Opposition has opined several in the last couple of weeks, including boot camps, getting tough on gangs by banning patches and gatherings and holding principals and parents responsible for dropping attendance rates.

These suggestions are not inherently wrong. However, they have been the subject of criticism. In particular, by calling for parents to take responsibility, Luxon has “over-simplified a complex situation for political gain”, according to the Prime Minister.

There is nothing wrong with holding parents—primarily responsible for their children —accountable for whether their kids are at school. But to say that is the only reason is certainly reductionist. Saying that getting tough on gangs will solve the problem runs the same risk. The reasons that gangs exist are complex and multitudinous.

The Prime Minister doesn’t come away from accusations of over-simplification unscathed either. The country’s response to Covid-19 is also an example of reductionist thinking. We used only health-related measures to determine success in the fight against the virus: infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

Many other factors have also subsequently played into the cost of our response. These include the deteriorating mental health of our young people, falling behind on education, and missing out on essential rites of passage like school balls and graduation ceremonies. Then there are economic costs, rising unemployment, record inflation, supply chain issues, delayed life-saving diagnoses, deferred elective surgery and continuing burdens on an already stretched health system.

Any time we tackle problems as big as these, we must understand that we cannot reduce them to one thing. They are multi-headed beasts, and we must deal with them as such. Yes, hold parents and schools responsible, but also look at the social factors and the family situation at home. Keep people from getting infected, but balance that against the mental health toll, the economic toll and the social cost.

Each problem is an opportunity to look deeper than trying to find “the one thing”. We cannot reduce our society’s problems to their essential parts. While those parts do exist, they cannot be separated from each other, no matter how satisfying it may be. We must think bigger. It’s never just “one thing”.