Decision Making
This afternoon, some friends and I were trying to decide what we should do for dinner tonight. Restaurant after restaurant was mentioned, yet no consensus was reached. We were using IM to communicate, which is not the most efficient method of quick decision making. At any rate, offers and counter-offers were made before we finally decided on Chili’s. Yea, I said Chili’s--the same restaurant that friends everywhere visit when they can’t decide on something else.
The entire discussion made me consider politics. If three friends can hardly decide on a meal for one evening, then consider the difficulty of getting 435 men and women to agree upon a single piece of legislation that could very well change the lives of millions of people.
At the end of the day, our compromise on Chili’s doesn’t hurt anyone (unless you consider the amount of grease and calories we will consume over the course of our meal), but it is indicative of the entire human condition regarding hard choices. When legislation and decisions are made on the basis of not offending anyone, the laws are rarely effective. The fear that leads to the compromise creates worthless laws that tend to snowball into more worthless laws.
Instead of complaining, we should pick politicians that will actually have the gusto to make hard decisions, regardless of the circumstances.