Friday, April 24, 2015
Limits of PR
Sometimes, in spite of all information given to the public, some citizens persist in their beliefs and actions. When their actions are harmful to others, PR ends and the law steps in. Consider this case. There are a significant number of well-educated people in California who refuse to vaccinate their children because they believe vaccines cause autism. Their children are endangering others who for health reasons can't be vaccinated. No amount of evidence and reasoning has been successful in getting these parents to protect their children. Hence, a bill is pending in the California legislature to ban unvaccinated children from school populations. Parents protest: They cannot see the harm in their actions. Everyone else understands. PR can't eliminate such blind spots. It assumes that reasonable people are willing to engage with a message. When citizens are unreasonable, communication ends and compulsion begins.
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