Monday, May 07, 2007

Cho: the system worked, until it didn't

So the system worked. Cho was identified as a danger to himself and others two years ago. Except the system had gaping holes in it. Disaster must have narrowly averted dozens of times, but humans don't learn from averted disasters. We're just not built that way.

We only learn from true disaster, and then we learn as little as possible in the smallest possible domain. It's probably part of how we got through the day in simpler times, but it's an evolutionarily obsolete behavior.

Virginia might fix their system. Will Minnesota's Secretary of Health order a review of our involuntary commitment procedures in light of the Blacksburg tragedy? Probably not, though one can dream.

Somehow we need to do better.

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