The Big Picture

When I was studying broadcast electronics in my youth, I once encountered an exam question that asked for the probable cause of a malfunction in a described electrical circuit. I looked at the circuit, quickly identified a possible cause and wrote it as my answer.

When the exam was graded, I had answered every question correctly except that one about the malfunction. Disappointed at missing a perfect score, and certain my answer was correct, I challenged the examiner. He advised I reexamine the circuit for a more likely cause of the malfunction... the probable cause, which the question had sought. He was right, of course, there was a much more likely cause for the problem.

I never forgot that experience and through the decades since, have tried to look for The Big Picture. I haven't always succeeded, but frequently enough to know that first impressions are not always correct. How I wish everyone would discover that truth.

Environmentalists are, in my opinion, the worst offenders. They zero in on one conclusion and refuse to accept that they may be causing greater problems than the one they wish to solve. The most horrible example, of course, was Rachel Carson's attack on the pesticide DDT. Based on the belief that DDT would wipe out all bird populations, Carson's book Silent Spring sparked a movement that created a worldwide ban on DDT.

Carson and her adherents truly missed The Big Picture. DDT had almost eliminated the anopheles mosquito, which spreads malaria. Discontinuing the use of DDT allowed this mosquito to flourish and malaria to spread. The British newspaper, The Daily Mail, published this graphic to show the human price paid to satisfy the environmentalists posit that DDT must be banned:

Today, in political rhetoric, in discussions of the economy, in just about every phase of public discourse, we see examples of a refusal to look at The Big Picture. Even when results are indisputable, some still believe their original, narrow view was correct.

Each time someone makes an assertion about anything and asks for your concurrence, pause and look for The Big Picture. In so doing, you could be making a huge contribution to the general welfare.