Episode-2681- The Problem is the Solution if you Correctly Define the Problem
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Today we are going to discuss a permaculture principle many are familiar with, “the problem is the solution” but we are going to do so without really going into what most people see as permaculture. In other words while I may use some analogies to growing crops here, the problems we will discuss are going to be more main stream problems.
The key to making the principal of “the problem is the solution” it two fold.
- Understand this does not mean the problem is not in fact a problem. If we have an actual problem, and we have many of them we need to address it.
` - For the principle to work, the problem must be precisely defined in a very accurate manner. If we fail to accurately define the problem we will end up with the saying of many computer programmers, “garbage in, garbage out”.
In my view many times the reason we struggle so hard to solve problems both individual and global is a failure to correctly identify the actual problem. Today I will take on some of the largest and most sensitive topics in our world. Indeed I think you will see, when you properly identify a problem, the solutions to it become very evident, very quickly.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
- I want to change the principle from “the problem is the solution” to “the problem defines the solutions”
- Some Big Issues and how we identify the real problem to find the real solutions
- The concept of “white privilege”
- How can we “feed the world”
- How can we provide “health insurance to all”
- How can we solve “wealth inequity”
- How can we solve a “failing school system”
- What this pattern teaches us
- Centralization is often the problem, soooooooo
- Division is always the goal of the elite, sooooooo
- Failure to focus on what we control never fixes anything, sooooo
- The solutions really are often, quite simple, but simple does not mean easy
- Final Thoughts – How you know you accurately defined the problem
- Real solutionS (key on plural) become obvious
- Additionally often you will find the problem is more accurately problemS
- In general said solutions will have a broad consensus vs divisive
- The solutions will be largely decentralized and actionable
- The solutions will run counter to both sides of the main stream dichotomy
Resources for today’s show…
- Follow Life With Jack on Instagram
- TSP Facebook Group
- Join the Members Brigade
- Join Our Forum
- TspAz.com
- Good Enough – Molly Tuttle
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The terms white privilege and black lives matter are racist or groupist. The messages that I hear are these groups need to be elevated above another.
What was wrong with the colorblindness approach of the 80s-90s? A human is a human; I suppose I am a species-ist and prejudice against aliens, fauna, and flora.
Great podcast Jack. I found it educative. Many of us fall into the trap of being a pawn of those who sow divisiveness. The puppet masters. Ready made answers without really defining the problem (s). Group think. False advertising. I hope all will listen to this podcast.
This concept reminds me of one my teacher started teaching in 1953 if not earlier.
But, he first gave the anatomy of a problem: purpose – counter-purpose.
He taught that if you fully confront a problem, it will, basically, dissolve. Take the counter-intention out of a problem and it becomes a flow.
White privilege: For me, locating the source of this impulse is key. I believe it comes from long, long ago when certain groups wanted control over others to automatically devolve to them on the basis of inheritance. As the only way to show inheritance was outward appearance, (and the “white” trait being recessive), these groups decided to make it “illegal” to intermarry, etc. And that concept eroded into a general teaching that white was “better.” Oddly, in India they have had a caste system for thousands of years, and it persists to this day, even though you can’t tell a person’s caste from his outward appearance – you have to ask. This system, though, still preserves the control privileges of the upper caste.
Feeding the World: You have a good idea here. The ideal would be that everyone grows their own food. This has been done in many places. You are well aware of some of them. However, I don’t have the resources to grow my own food, yet I eat well. So there is more than one way to attack this one.
Health Insurance: For me, the big problem here is that “health care” doesn’t make more people healthy! So, this is a specialized case of privilege. And that feeds into the problem that people don’t know about nutrition basics, because the people who want to be the only ones privileged to deliver health care in this society see that knowledge as a threat to their privilege.
Income or wealth differences: There will always be these differences. Some people will push themselves harder “to succeed” than others. That’s just the way that is. There will probably always be some people in poverty because they have chosen that as their favorite disability. There are lots of ways to keep people out of total poverty, but the privileged want to keep the threat of poverty alive in order to maintain their control over the rest of us.
Failing schools: Yes, we don’t know the difference between schooling and learning. The important thing to learn is how to learn, not how to survive in a school. But, hiding behind the problem of schools, is again the problem of privilege. The people with privilege (about 10%) have figured out how to survive schooling a long time ago. Many of the rest of us worship schooling because “it works so well” for the privileged! That’s silly, but those of privilege would prefer that we continue to believe that.
What I see as a central pattern is: What I need to have a better life is to act like, look like, be like the people who I think have a better life than I do. But to the extent that those people got there or are there because they are actually taking more responsible, “high-risk” or “high-powered” roles in society, then that solution to getting a “better life” won’t work, because society doesn’t need to be filled with leaders and upper-level managers. The fact that the 10%, generally speaking, earn so much more and have so much better financial security than the rest of us I think has to do with the fears and tensions associated with privilege. The solution then becomes, essentially, making those people more sane. I have actually seen that approach work.
Problems: One thing we have to realize about this concept is that not all “problems” are undesirable. The fact that no sports team has won the season until the last game is a useful problem. The fact that I can’t tear a piece of paper in a perfectly straight line is a problem that we have already solved with several tools. Engineering is full of “problems” that aren’t solved yet, and so is life. You need some problems to have a game. The only problem problems are the ones that make life so difficult it seems not worth playing. All problems “solve” the same way (by finding the true cause, actually). But we only need to solve the ones that are too undesirable to live with.
Jack, do you find the traditional root cause analysis methods are useful for thinking about problems and solutions with a permaculture mindset? Or do they often miss the mark still?
Larry Cox: Interesting, but I’m not sure about your “making those people more sane” part. How is this gone about? Who defines sanity?
Dang…even the trolls come here to downvote comments? Wow! Their lives must be so miserable to waste time on that. I come here for education and community. If I didn’t like what I heard, I would tune into something else. I wouldn’t try to voice my disagreements with downvotes or negative comments/emails. I would just invest my time elsewhere. If the downvotes came with a well-thought out reply, then that would be different. People are strange….