(Note: This article is very obtuse unless you know me and PeopleCount. If you don’t, start with this 2-article piece about the nuts and bolts of PeopleCount, or the site’s How it Works page. For more background, see the piece about how America has been blind to political accountability. A Guide to the Blog is also available.)
Obama failed. The Democrats failed. The Republicans failed. Bush failed. Before that, Clinton failed. Bush Sr failed. They all left us with a more dismal, less workable future. Why?
Ignore the central problem, it gets worse
They failed because they ignored the most central problem in America. When you ignore the most central problem, it gets worse.
What IS the most central problem in America today? It’s not climate change or pollution. It’s not income disparity. It’s not poverty or education or racial or sexual prejudice. It’s not economic at all.
Our leaders ignore, or skirt it
Google and Facebook and Twitter and Musk are not working on it. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings ignored it, and still do (though Jobs now has an excuse.) Peter Thiel and Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George Soros skirted it. The Pope’s were concerned about it, but none of them tackled it. Nor the Dalai Lama.
The central problem is not lack of knowledge. It’s not nuclear war, or any of our weaponized conflicts.
There’s one solution that is touted as being the most promising for reversing climate change, ending wars, improving prosperity worldwide. It’s taken seriously by world leaders, but isn’t yet valued in many parts of the world. But it also skirts America’s, and humanity’s central problem.
The solution isn’t enlightenment (though it would certainly help). The solution isn’t education, though that’s a side-effect.
Hints
A little over a year ago, Obama pointed in the problem’s general direction. He admitted it had gotten worse and he regretted it. Yet in his entire tenure, he failed to use the considerable power of his office or his persona to bring resources to bear on the problem. Never mind that he had no solution. He, and all of Congress failed to focus on it. Bush, Carson, Christie, Cruz, Fiorina, Gilmore, Graham, Jindal, Kasich, Pataki, Paul, Perry, Rubio, and Walker, and Chafee, Lessig, O’Malley, Sanders, and Webb all failed to focus on it. Many mentioned its edges.
The amazing thing is, most of the people above have the resources to actually FIX the problem, worldwide. But they’re not listening. They’re not aware. Many think it’s too hard. They think it’s part of the fabric of humanity.
Blind to our failure
Do you know what it was like before we knew about bacteria and germs? Most people were positive there were good and bad demons. They thought that sickness could be cured by blessing.
Humanity is walking around believing its mythology. You are going about your everyday life, ignoring our central problem. Yet, it could easily be solved.
Stirrings
There are a few small groups working on it, and one quick and effective solution is available. Larger groups are working on its edges, committed to unworkable approaches. But the media wants to ignore them until after they’re successful.
Gandhi and King and Mandela were on the right track, but their goals were too small. They addressed applied pieces of the problem, not the problem itself. And that was great. We can now stand atop their work.
Pride keeps it hidden
What keeps the problem in place is pride. You actually think that if there were a “most important” problem that you’d know about it. And you actually believe that if you learned about a simple solution, you’d recognize it quickly. You forget that we’re human. We’re really the same beings that thought diseases were caused by spirits.
If you want to learn about a solution, it’ll take about a week of spending time with me, if you’re bright. Building it would take six months and having it change our world for the better would take a year.
So far, people with resources that I’ve reached have not taken the time or effort to understand it, yet wrote it off as unworkable. Others have had their people filter out the contacts. Most simply aren’t reachable. And I am very, very frustrated…
PS: This is by far the most obtuse piece I’ve written (I think). Some are very straightforward.
