I'm often amazed (and frustrated) at how little curiosity there is in the world. Think about it: We go through our daily lives, surrounded by marvelous technology and inventions, and so few of us have any idea of how they operate. We pay our taxes and utility bills, and have no idea about the financial systems that allow the transfers occur. We get reports about the activities of government and businesses and their dealings and legislation, but have only barest notion of what is involved in carrying out their objectives. For the most part, we don't seem to care. If it gets done, if the lights come on when we turn the switch, hot water comes out of the tap, and the Internet starts fine on the first click, we assume that things must be going okay.
I understand the attitude. There's a lot going on in our lives. It isn't as though one person can keep track of all of the things that make life go in 21st century America. Just managing a job and a family and keeping up with a smattering of the news can seem like too much at times. There is simply too much for any one person to know, so we put our trust in officials or businesses that tell us that things are working. We exercise faith that there is such a thing as a public trust, a social contract, that will hold things together. We count on "the system" to correct problems that occur and keep on going.
But this presents a bit of a problem, doesn't it?
How do we know?
If we don't know how something works, how can we know whether or not it is still working, or working correctly? I'm not talking about a television or a phone. I'm talking about a law or an economy or a government. One side screams racist. The other side screams fascist. One side pickets a college speaker, the other an abortion clinic. The President issues a statement. The press covers it. All is well.
How do we know?
Unemployment is down Unemployment is up. Debt is bad, and good, and both. The recovery is robust, but slow. People are hopeful and scared. The politicians proclaim that everything is alright, and crumbling.
How do we know?
The truth is that most of us don't know. We believe what the people we listen to say largely because things appear to be going along, well, if not okay, then at least passable. There are problems in the system, but there have always been problems, and things have always kept going, right? Right.
Except when they don't.
Here's another truth: Big things don't stop quickly. A large ship at sea traveling at full speed can take over a mile to stop. A train can loose its engine, and keep right on going for quite a while. And if it happens to be going down hill at the time, it might even start picking up speed. Inertia is real, and it doesn't just apply to trains and ships. When GM and Chrysler were on the verge of bankruptcy, some people knew, but to a lot of people things were going along just fine. Enron? Great little energy company, making a fortune. Nothing wrong here. Venezuela. Greece.
America?
How do we know?
It's time, and past time, to start asking questions. It's time to understand how things work, at least enough to know if they are or are not working, because if history tells us anything, it tells us this: Our leaders are not going to tell that things are not working until it is far too late for the little people to do anything about it. And when that happens, whether or not they come out of it okay won't really matter, because most of us will not. It's time to take responsibility for our future.
How do we do that? The question is the answer.
That's why ask "Why?"
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