Cute Gerbil said on a CBC comment about an article on hidden sugars in foods:
Masked Critic: Health Canada doesn't need to take any stand. Being informed about things like hidden sugars and salt means it is up to each of us to take charge of our health. This has nothing to do with any business or government ministry whatsoever and everything to do with making informed decisions.
and while I do agree with the good looking rodent in a way, I disagree more than I agree. The facts are that there is just Too Much Information in this world, it is neither feasible nor reasonable that each of us should have to know everything. It seems perfectly reasonable and right that our government should provide trustworthy advice about such issues as our heath so that that it is easy to take charge of our health. Otherwise many of us simply won't, or if they do they will miss out on some of the other important information.
Unlike computers, I'm totally not sure what the capacity of our brains is, it could well be the case that 100 years of acquisition isn't enough to fill 10% of our brains or just as easily be the case that that much data could be twice as much as most of us can handle. Most likely, it seems to me, that there will be a great deal of variance that I suspect looks a lot like a bell curve. But my point isn't really whether or not we have the capacity for the data but whether we have the capacity to ingest the data.
The amount of conflicting information available with regards to health is truly staggering, our adorable varmint may believe that their health is the most important thing and thus they need to "take charge of our health" and therefore spend much of their life sifting through the reports and science but I'm sure there are many of us who feel we've more interesting things to do. I agree that my health is important but so is my mental health and having to sort through all this material does not help my mental health at all ... it just isn't that interesting to me. I DO agree I want the knowledge, I just want to be able to trust somebody else to do the research for me.
It's Not Just Health
That's the problem, there is so much more than just health that this applies to. Global Warming/Climate Change, Pollution, Financial Industry, Military Industrial Complex, World Politics, National Politics, Regional Politics (provincial/state), Local Politics, Globalization, Big Pharma, Big Energy, New World Order, Geology, Geography, Horticulture, Genetics, Global Food Supply, and I'm sure a number of other important issues I'm just forgetting for right now. Each of these issues is rife with information that is pertinent and important to each and every one of us. Now more then ever before we need more not less government oversight and regulation ... forget about the nanny state, I want a safe state!
