What's the Big Idea?: Simplicity

Simple solutions to difficult problems are exceedingly rare. Their attraction, however, is undeniable. The world is awash in cults, fanaticisms and miracle cures. Millions of media minutes are devoted to how we can stop climate change by dumping iron filings in the ocean, prevent cancer by taking massive doses of vitamins, or eliminate stress by tidying our closets.

Pantheons of pundits assumed that the fall of the Iron Curtain would automatically deliver open democracy and market civility to Russia. Hordes of strategists believed a military victory over Saddam Hussein and the Taliban would quickly bring peace and progress to Iraq and Afghanistan. Legions of large foreheads still think that liberalized trade will eliminate poverty, that genetic engineering will ensure food security, and that single-substance tests under controlled conditions will tell us what we need to know about living in a soup of contaminants. …