The Problem with Solutions by Robert Jensen

[Jcrowley]

Published on Tuesday, January 2, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
The Problem with Solutions
by Robert Jensen


Remarks to the second “Last Sunday” community gathering in Austin, TX, December 29, 2006.

I’ve been assigned to talk about solutions to the pressing problems we face, but I’ve never been very good at following orders. So, instead I’m going to talk about the problem with solutions.

<snip>

Over and over I’ve heard that, not just after Last Sunday, but ever since I started doing political organizing. While I understand the sentiment, I want to suggest that the first claim is inaccurate, and the second request is dangerous. First, we -- not just the so-called “masses” out there, but we in here -- have not yet fully grasped the nature of the problems we face. Second, as we are struggling to come to terms with the depth of those problems, we have yet to face the fact that there are no solutions. In other words: (1) None of us is as smart as we would like to think, and (2) as we start to recognize our own collective ignorance, we will have to face not just what we can do but what we can’t.

Perhaps paradoxically, that is where I find hope -- in facing honestly the condition of the world that we have desecrated and the limits of human intelligence to reconsecrate that world. It is only from those realizations, I believe, that meaningful action is possible.

When I say we don’t know the problems, I don’t mean we aren’t aware of what is plainly in front of us: Disastrously destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a house-of-cards economy, enduring racism and sexism, cascading ecological crises, and a corrosive culture that values profit over people. But how deep does our analysis go? How well do we really understand the inherent pathology of capitalism and patriotism? How many of us have dared to stare down the ugliness and raw brutality at the core of white supremacy and patriarchy?

And have we honestly assessed the tension between those aspects of our human nature (our capacity for greed and violence) that created those problems and those aspects (our capacity for solidarity and love) that make transcending these problems possible? As the song goes, “all you need is love,” but the problem is we also have a lot more than love swirling around in each of us.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0102-52.htm

[sbyte]

1. Thats the way. But how, ? dilemma's loom

Sometimes you just have to step out of the way before the ledge falls down upon you. It seems like chicken shit but at least it is safe. Then, as I peer into what you talk about I find agreement. My terms for some of this is that, "We are all creatures of habit" Each day I wake up to find my brain has erased much of what I was into thinking about. It takes all day to reconstitute, so some of the better thinking is done later in the evening. your point (1) is that it is good to remember short comings and be more humble which helps to avoid the pitfall of arrogance an narrow minded assumptions. There are many techniques to analyzes problems, I remember a five step plan from collage that observes, describes, ?, ? then makes judgment's.

Some problems look to me,(am I jumping to conclusions?) require a philosophical approach, with engaging commentary and conversation at a higher level. To avoid a dilemma when you have two competing sets of ideals or religious Ideals that are like sticks in the mud that can not be compromised. Then the resulting power struggle. And the dragging and tearing down of a thoughtful approach to the forceful one. And the Tit for Tat back and forth reactions. How far can you tear it apart? Till you get to survivor level mentality and reality at the war torn strata.

Will it be the Might that makes it right? Survival of the strongest and "terrorist" resistants?
Or the building up of a complex rich culture of competing ideas and ways of life which coexist "peacefully".?*!%^()$.
(I digress)( I hate dilemmas)