Wasted Remedies

Groucho Marx said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies”. I say, “unfortunately, we’re stuck with it”.  The remedies must be wrong because there doesn’t seem to be a single political position that meets with unanimous agreement. 

Maybe this is just human nature.  Someone once said that 20% of the people will always disagree with anything you say.  That must have been some time ago.  Because today, it seems that 50% disagree with the other 50% all the time.  And here’s the confusing aspect to this dilemma;  both sides of every issue have “facts” to support their positions.

My opinion is that no one is ever completely correct on any issue.  Why? Because our issues are so complex that they cannot be completely  understood.  So what are we to do?  The first option I can think of is, nothing.  And that’s what most of us do.  When faced with facts that invalidate our beliefs we do nothing to change them.  Because everyone has their own facts, contrary to  Senator Moynihan’s famous admonition that you “can’t have your own facts”.

But why is this?  How can we all have facts that are contradictory?  Because as individuals we can only understand parts and pieces of our problems.  And our understanding is highly influenced by what we already value and believe.  Then, how will we ever solve our complex problems?  My answer is;  we won’t.  They will solve themselves.  That’s right.  They will work themselves out.  And depending on which way they worked themselves out, one or the other side will take credit for the solution.  At least that’s the way I see it.

I worked in organizational development for much of my career.  Organizations are very complex systems.  Too complex to really understand.  So we used a method called “Action Research”.  It consists of taking an action and then studying the reaction.  It’s a way of learning how the organization functions by its reactions.

I don’t think our sociopolitical problems get worked out.  They just evolve.  But politicians take actions anyway.  There are reactions.  Then they take more actions.  Then more reactions.  And each time there is a reaction something changes.  In most instances we don’t know what’s going to change.  It just does.  All of the “reactions and changes” eventually shift the overall situation.  The original problems disappear and we wind up with unanticipated new ones.  Sound familiar?

So here’s the good and the bad news:  The good news first.  You don’t have to change your mind.  Hang in there with your beliefs.  Now the bad news: Your beliefs and those of whatever political party you believe in make very little difference.  Ultimately sociopolitical problems evolve in their own way and on their own time schedule.

Now I’m not saying that we have no influence on the political system.  In fact, we do.  But it is never what we think it’s going to be.  For instance, my tiny influence is my vote.  In 2000, I voted for Mr. Bush.  I got a bunch of surprises.  The unanticipated reactions on the world have been enormous.  Could I or anybody else ever have anticipated them?  Of course not.  Why?  Because every action he took caused a reaction and that influenced the next action.  And on and on.  And now we have President Obama facing the reactions that were caused by President Bush.  And whoever follows President Obama will face reactions from his actions.

There’s a lesson here.  And it may be a stretch, so bear with me.  The lesson is “don’t take yourself so seriously.  Not even the guys with the, so-called, power have much influence on our circumstances.  In effect, the circumstances are in charge.  And no matter how vehemently you argue for your positions, they are not really going to change much in the world.  And certainly not the other person’s mind.

Robert DeFilippis