American politics is divided by competing answers to one fundamental question: what are the government’s responsibilities to its citizens?

The Founders agreed that citizens had certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that government maintained its moral authority only if it protected these rights. Their agreements stopped there.

The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade is an opportunity to examine the importance of first principles. First principles are the passions and ideas that drive our behavior. They are very different from corporate mission statements, which are easily ignored. First principles can’t be ignored because they animate all our actions, but first principles can be examined and changed.

I read an annoying essay with the clickbait-y headline “The Rich Are Not Who We Think They Are. And Happiness Is Not What We Think It Is, Either.” Instead of insight, I found an excellent example of the perils of our “data-driven decision making” obsession. Data may remove ignorance, but it does not make us wise, and decisions require wisdom.

To discern the truth in a headline, think like Edward Tufte, founder of information design and hero to Fortune’s Path: look at the context.