Divert More Power to the Shields!

In an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation titled “Hero Worship,” a young boy is the sole survivor of his ship. The android Data rescues him, and the boy becomes enamored with Data and starts emulating him. Near the end of the episode, the same phenomenon that destroyed the boy’s ship starts hitting the Enterprise. A series of shockwaves hits. Captain Picard repeatedly demands more power diverted to shields to protect against the increasingly powerful shockwaves. The boy tells Data that that’s exactly what the crew of his former ship kept doing. Data insists that they lower the shields immediately. Over Riker’s protest (“That’s suicide!”) and everyone else’s skepticism, they do so and the final wave passes over the Enterprise harmlessly. Diverting power to the shields was causing the shockwaves to resonate more powerfully, and another round or two of doubling down would have destroyed the Enterprise.

I think about this whenever someone suggests doubling down on a bad government policy. The only reason drug prohibition isn’t working, the thinking goes, is that we aren’t hammering the problem hard enough. Perhaps medicine is so expensive and inaccessible because we haven’t regulated the market enough. We haven't put medical billing sufficiently into the hands of third-party payers, and we haven't placed enough restrictions on the pricing, claims-handling, and underwriting functions of those third-party payers. Education quality is low because government isn’t spending enough; ditto for why higher education costs are rising. Watching pundits “explain” these problems feels a lot like watching Pickard divert more and more power to the shields. And whenever someone recommends dropping the policies that aren’t working, I get a distinct hint of “That’s suicide, Data!” Maybe I’m wrong about some of the causes of these problems, but it’s disappointing to see so many commenters be so completely sure of themselves and to utterly lack any capacity to be self-critical. The notion that “We’ve tried my solution, and it just doesn’t work” is impossible for some folks to process. Given that, “double down” is the only viable play.