Don't panic

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has overtaken the Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard source of all knowledge and wisdom, for two important reasons. First, it is slightly cheaper, and second, inscribed on the cover in large friendly letters, it bears the words: DON’T PANIC.
– The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

The problem with pork exports to Korea is a delicate matter. On this, Senator Girardi is right: the government must invest in a control system of its own to measure the amount of dioxins in the food we export. Not so much because this is a real threat, but because there are international standards that affect our exports.

But don’t panic. We are always exposed to all sorts of contaminants, and dioxins are only one part. Remember, it’s a matter of accumulation and prolonged exposure over time.

When you understand the basics of probability and statistics you don’t fall into panic so easily. I’d like the media to explain these things a little more. People don’t deserve to live in such anguish because of badly presented, or even manipulated, information.

Fear and the manipulation of statistics serve dark purposes and even business ones (for an example, I suggest that interesting piece of book-length reporting, La Guerra y La Paz Ciudadana, by Marcela Ramos and Juan Andrés Guzmán).

Overcoming illiteracy was a great step for our civilization. Believe it or not, illiteracy was an ill that afflicted most of the world’s population until very recently.

We still have to do the same to overcome innumeracy. That will let people question the information they are handed, which will not only make them freer but also spare them a lot of anguish.

John Allen Paulos wrote, some years ago, two very interesting and enjoyable little books on this subject: “Innumeracy” and “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper”.

Allen Paulos’s message is very simple:

You can choose to have some clear notions of mathematics or not to have them, but you should know that if you don’t, you are a far more easily manipulated person than you would otherwise be"

That is the message, one I have insisted on many times on this blog. I invite you to read Allen Paulos, and if you’ve already read him, going back to his books is not a bad idea.