Is it worth trying to structurally solve some of the issues society faces today? This is a super broad question – one way to frame it is to think of times you saw something that made your heart double take (can’t think of a better way to say this). Maybe there was a bit of a shock factor, or you think something along the lines of wow is that really how that person lives – that really exists huh – that sucks – that’s pretty sad – even, I’m glad that’s not me. For me, it depends on the day, but I think about a large portion of the US population struggling to afford a decent baseline standard of living. Then I remember the US is pretty well-off relative to the rest of the world, and it gets pretty grim pretty fast.
Anyway, I was just trying to explain what I meant by “issues”. The specific issues we care about will be a product of our life experiences, but the commonality of the experience suggests there is something real here to investigate. I don’t want to get off topic onto a question of should we care about various issues. To that I say, we obviously all care – if you have enough capacity to think that an aspect of something can be better, then you care. That may very well be where your caring stops, and that’s fine. Still though, it kind of sounds like I’m asking if certain issues are worthy of being solved, but what I am asking is the following: assume we try to solve big social issues – is our effort doomed from the start?
I probably could have gone back up and just retyped the question, but for some reason I will not do that. I’m going to assume that solutions exist to some extent, otherwise I would definitely say it is not worth trying to find something that doesn’t exist – maybe you wouldn’t find it a waste of time. So, my initial answer to the question: yes, it is worth trying.
I assume a noble person would say it’s noble, and it’s generally good to try to do noble things. It was at this point that I (am not sure why) thought of the Joker from Batman and the word that naturally follows when one thinks of the Joker – chaos. Chaos.
Chaos is defined as complete disorder and confusion. Exactly. The world is chaotic. Physicists call this entropy. I like the definition below for entropy.
Think about it like putting a paper boat in a little whirlpool. You want it to sail its course, but the whirlpool doesn’t care about that, it’s just swirling water, and it is going to crush that boat. The point is we live in a world of entropy – a world that is both unpredictable and powerful. I wondered, suppose we find some solutions and implement some structural change that improves the lives of millions. By virtue of being structured and part of a system within a world of entropy, it seems that any effort will get washed down the whirlpool – eventually. In theory, that could coincide with the end of a government or even the end of the human species, but regardless it doesn’t feel like our solutions can be permanent, and that makes me doubt my yes answer to this question.
Ultimately, it can be a subjective question, so I’ll give a final subjective answer to close this out. Is it worth trying? If I’m being strict with my initial intent of the question, then no, but I’ll try to try for now. A bit of net positive for a period of time seems like enough of a win, and even if unsuccessful I’ve certainly spent time, even wasted, on less worthy things.
Copyright © 2023 Erick Meza
