Child of the Enlightenment

Wordsmithing again … someone once labelled me a cynic and a pessimist, and yet another labelled me as a critic.

Which is true, if any?

For what it’s worth I am a true child of the Enlightenment.

My end point is never pessimism, cynicism nor criticism.

When I identify a problem or an issue it is just the first step in the process of fabricating a solution, and in some cases also executing that solution (of course that is not always possible).

At times a solution has taken me a decade to conceive. That’s an unusually big gap in which the armchair observer could comfortably claim that I am a either pessimist, a cynic or a critic.

More often the gap is days or weeks, but it does sometimes take time because new information is needed.

I truly believe that I can conceive a solution to any problem. This isn’t true of course but that belief makes my efforts more likely to be successful.

What sometimes surprises me is how many people don’t understand the key learning of the Enlightenment; that gains in any area of human endeavour first require the objective identification of a problem, an issue or a dissonance. This may also involve making a judgement.

The next step is the gathering of knowledge, followed by the identification of one or more solutions, then stress testing these solutions prior to executing one or more of them. There is no endpoint – once a solution is found then the next set of problems have to be identified, and on it goes.

The identification of problems is an actual skill that requires just as much training as that required to create solutions. And it has to be continuously practised like any other skill.

It’s a process that has been well described many times over and yet is still not taught in schools as a basic life skill. It should be.

And you will note that in this blog entry I have identified a problem and proposed a solution. I can’t see anything cynical or pessimistic about that.

When I am critical it’s usually born out of frustration that problems are being ignored or because easy solutions are being by-passed, through the combined influences of stupidity and malevolence. However even this type of criticism is usually designed just to snap people out of their hypnotic acceptance of the impotent norm.

Although I have no interest in starting a crusade to get our schools to start teaching the skills of identifying problems, just by writing this blog I hope to influence the thinking of others that may not have placed any such a construct around this issue.

Sometimes it is the accumulation of ideas and opinions that eventually leads to positive change.