(taming wicked) PROBLEMS

April 29, 2014

(The three central ideas of this website are Taming, Wicked, and Problems.  This entry – Problems – completes an exploration of these foundational concepts, and is the first of several entries which will examine in more detail a number of issues and complications that arise when we say “Problem.” )

Pope Francis is worried.  This should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following recent events in the Catholic Church.  If you were  pope, or if I were, we would be worrying too.  After all, worrying is what popes do. What is Pope Francis worried about?  Since I have no inside information, all I can do is quote the American humorist Will Rogers, who said in the 1920’s:  “All I know is what I read in the papers…”

Among the many things that Pope Francis seems to be worrying about are these:  peace in the world; the spiritual needs of the members of the faith he leads; pedophile priests who abuse children;  bishops and cardinals who live in opulent mansions and drive expensive cars;  the poor and downtrodden people throughout the world who suffer; the role of women in the Church; income inequality;  the failure of trickle-down economics;  the destructive effects of unbridled capitalism, and on and on.  In short, what this Pope worries about are big, serious, complicated, messy problems.  And given the way things are going, it seems safe to assume that Pope Francis will have plenty to worry about for the foreseeable future.

In this respect, we all are like Pope Francis.  We worry.  While some of the things we worry about may overlap with some of Pope Francis’ concerns, most do not.  Some of us may worry about world peace, but most of the time we are concerned about personal issues:  financial pressures, health challenges, relationships with loved ones, career choices, job prospects, conflict and disagreements with others, getting old, an estranged child, and on and on.

Some of our worries may be important, others trivial; most are real, others are imaginary.  We may worry about something important that happened in the past, or something that we believe may happen in the future.  We think about – and often worry about – what we have done, or not done; about what others have done, or may do.  We worry about whether we will able to meet the challenges that we believe are coming.  What if we fail?  What will we do if we can’t measure up?  We even worry about worrying!  And, strange as it may seem, some people worry about not having anything to worry about!

What all of us worry about, the Pope included, are problems.  When we run into what we feel is a problem that worries us – things are not going the way we believe they should, for example – what do we do?  We begin to think about ways to make them better.  Actually, it is only then, when we are worrying about a problem, that thinking begins!  As the American John Dewey philosopher wrote in the 1920’s, “We only think when we are confronted with a problem.”

All Life is Problem Solving

So, no problems?  Then no thinking and no worrying.  Yet few of us make it through a day without some thinking and even some worrying, or without running into problems of one kind or another.  Problems, thinking about them, worrying about them and working on them, are part of everyday life.  This perspective – that thinking and worrying are always connected to our struggles with problems that we care about but are not able to solve easily or quickly – has led philosophers and psychologists to argue that dealing with problems is at the center of our lives.  There is no learning without problems to learn from, they say, nor is there any perception of objects or events, nor sustained effort, nor growth, without problems to provide us with both the context and the motivation to pay attention to what is happening,  and then to move to action.

Karl Popper, regarded by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as “one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century,” published a book in 1994 titled All Life is Problem Solving.  His central idea was that in order to live – to meet our needs and reach our goals – we must act.  Wendell Berry, American philosopher and farmer, agrees with Popper:   “One of our problems is that we humans cannot live without action; we have to act.  Moreover, we have to act on the basis of what we know, and what we know is incomplete.” And then Berry gets to the heart of the matter:  “…the question of how to act in ignorance is paramount.”

The continuing challenge of acting in ignorance will lead us sooner or later, and usually sooner, to making mistakes.  Our mistakes often create additional obstacles that block our way and hinder our progress toward our goals.  These obstacles, barriers and detours, are among the problems which make up our lives.  Since “all life is problem solving,” then what we must do with them is solve them, or at least try to.  Everything we value depends upon how well we do:   Growth, satisfaction, success, progress, even survival, are all contingent upon our abilities to go over, go under, go around or go through the obstacles that stand  in our way.  Actually, going through may be preferred:  “…the best way out is always through” wrote  the poet Robert Frost in 1915.

All life , in many important ways, is problem solving.  But not all the time.  There will be long stretches when we float along in calm water, enjoying the scenery,  with little thinking or worrying.  “Things are good,” we think, “I’ll have another sandwich.”   But it doesn’t last.  Before long we will find ourselves once again in the rapids,  the turbulent and unpredictable “white water” that threatens to swamp us.  And so, we pick up a paddle and get to work.

Making a Difference

Since, as Karl Popper insists, “life is problem solving,”   then the way we can make a difference for good in our lives, in the lives of others, at work, in our communities, and in our nation, is by finding and dealing successfully with important problems.

Pope Francis knows this.  On February 25th, 2014, The New York Times reported that Pope Francis announced a major restructuring of the “Vatican’s outdated administrative and economic bureaucracy as he established an agency to oversee budgets and financial planning…” He also created “a powerful post of auditor general to guard against financial mismanagement.”

“The changes,” continued the Times,” are the latest example of how Francis is moving to confront management problems as part of his broader mandate to overhaul the Roman Curia…”  Clearly, this Pope is planning to make a difference.

Among the requirements for dealing with our problems, writes John Gardner in his insightful book,  Morale, “is that we confront them, identify them early, appraise them honestly, and avoid complacency or evasion.”  Many of us are not good at this.  We find it easier to deny that they exist, or pretend they are not important.  At times, we find it convenient to suggest that someone else should handle them.  And sometimes we just seem to agree with Charlie Brown in Peanuts:  “No problem is so big and complicated that it can’t be run away from.”

If we realize that “all life is problem solving,” and “we cannot live without acting,”  then running away from them is a bad idea that will only lead to more problems.  What we know about  them- our meta-knowledge – and what we are able to do with them – our skills and abilities  – is central to living a successful and satisfying life.  Without them,   we will find ourselves in the middle of  dangerous  “white water” without a paddle.