Hi, Dan I don't think it's a Type I problem for sure. I think it's going to take lots of experts and non-experts both. I like the idea of what I would call Stage I solutions. There would be methods by which people learn to discharge their emotions and communicate effectively and nonviolently in our personal lives, helping us all to get calmer and to think more clearly about what to do about all levels of problems, including terrorism.
I was at a great communication workshop yesterday. One of the folks there was retired military. He thought that terrorists should be tracked down and brought to justice. There were other folks who were more interested in the "feeding people" types of solutions. Doing both things sounded good to me. We all got along with each other just fine, and were happy to learn about each other's views. My point is that more final solutions will come more easily and be more clear, once we first heal ourselves and our relationships with others. And that there is room for using more than one solution. Also, some problems can be solved a little bit at a time, by each of us working within ourselves, and within our families and communities, and also by being politically active with clear heads. I think also of the fascinating popular book The Tipping Point which tells how doing some rather small things sometimes causes big changes-- like getting rid of graffitti and arresting people who jammed up the turnstiles at the New York subway system caused a tremendous decrease in crime. Because of the fact that large crimes happen more in environments where no one is fixing the small problems-- Perhaps interpersonal communication problems are in the category of one of these small things too. I also think of the book Incredibly American which discusses the typical American way of sucess in business, which may also hold for success in other areas. Which is to fail miserably and then to figure out what went wrong and then ride to success on that knowledge. We may be doing this now in areas like airport security. Other nations could use this method of success too. Many of the things that are "American" are just human, except with more wealth and resources than most folks have. I think of some quotes I have read, I have forgotten who said them "The rich are different from us." "Yes, they are. They have more money." The U.S. is such a mixture of all the cultures in the world. Anything that anyone loves or hates in some other culture is found over here in the U. S. too, to some degree, for that reason. We've financed incredible solutions to some problems, and we've wasted incredible amounts of money on some of our mistakes. And while we've been focusing on the areas that were more important to us, our governement has used our tax money to do a lot of things around the world. And we've got a lot of different opinions in this country about those actions. And also a lot of clueless folks who were doing the human thing of focusing on what was in front of their face and seemed most important. For the middle class, this was usually our jobs-- We're a rather workaholic culture. We focused on our jobs, and our families, and failed to notice other things that were not right in front of our face. I, for one, wish we hadn't done that quite so much. Many people here had gotten so insulated and isolated-- that we thought, until last Tuesday, that we were magically safe from many of the kinds of pain that the rest of the world experiences. Time to wake up. Julie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Heidi and Dan Chay" <c...@alaska.com> To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu> Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 12:59 PM Subject: Re: the American way: We can solve anything > Hi Julie, > > You wrote, > > >> > You mention that the American way is that you can solve anything. I guess > it is. As an American, I don't even know if that is really true. I do know > that we Americans have had many experiences of solving problems that were > previously thought to be unsolvable. So I figure why not go for it and do > our best to solve this one too. > << > > There is a Harvard professor (whose name I've misplaced) who distinguishes > three types of problems: > > Type I problems are easily diagnosed and easily "solved," often by putting > an "expert" to work. A broken femur might fall into this category. > > Type II problems are easily diagnosed, but not easily "solved" by an > "expert" because "solving" it requires distributed constructive creativity > of both experts and non-experts. The social problem of lung cancer in its > connection with smoking tobacco, woud fall into this category. > > Type III problems are neither easily diagnosed to peoples' satisfaction, nor > "solvable" by "experts." A Type III will not be "solved" until the affected > persons agree on "the problem" in its complexity, and then agree on > potential "solutions" to work toward. In this category probably would fit > issues such as abortion/women's rights and jobs/environmental degradation. > > From my perspective, President Bush seems to consider this experience of > terrorism from which he intends to save America, as a Type I problem. Do > you agree? Would a "war on terrorism" be a Type I solution for a Type III > problem? I ask this with the quote in mind, "Our 'terrorists' are other > peoples' 'freedom-fighters." > > Best wishes, > > Dan Chay > "To learn is to create." - At de Lange > > * > * > ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, > Visit: > > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html