Looming Issues

What are the real issues in our world?

Have you ever really stopped to think about this? I will assume yes, because I assume most actually have, yet if we listen to the news media the social media, it is skewed toward some pretty ridiculous conversations that just don't matter - like what the sign should be on a shared toilet door. I have an idea.

WC

It stands for water closet. They could also have "toilet" too, though I think Americans would be offended by that word, as it describes what it actually is. But my point is, what the fuck do we need to have these conversations for, when there are so many other more important things to talk about in public discourse.

Better conversations to have:

• Developing clean energy
• Improving general health
• The needs of children
• Building healthy communities
• Violence in society
• Improving mental health

These are just big buckets, but if we really had to prioritize the world's resources, where do you think personal pronouns would come on the list - above or below children dying of starvation?

If you could solve one problem you see in the world right now, which would it be?

While it is probably impossible to solve that problem with a snap of the fingers, out of curiosity, is there anything you are able to do right now that would make even the smallest difference? Is there something that you can do that could move the needle just a touch, even if it is at your own local level?

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” - Albert Einstein.

I don't know if Einstein actually said that, but it will do for an example of why public discourse is important to solve the problems that we face. Because, so much of them are not actually understood well at the societal level, because they aren't discussed openly. Yet, solutions keep getting created, even though there isn't clear understanding on what the problem actually is.

Diversity in the workplace.

What did you picture when you read that last line? Why is it that there is an assumption that if a group of people are all from the same ethnic group, there is no diversity? Is the assumption that all people of the same race are identical? I don't know about you, but I think that people who might otherwise look the same, can be quite different. For instance, shouldn't diversity in the workplace also cover skill diversity? Are the skills of an accountant, those of a salesperson, and those of a programmer homogenous?

"We have a meritocracy here. Merit is based on the adjectives people use to describe themselves."

Should skin color or sexual orientation be the defining factor for identifying diversity? It seems that it is a pretty poor filter system to work out whether someone is right for a job or not. But hey, I don't think many people actually want a true meritocracy, because most people just won't cut it. Though, it isn't going to be a problem for long, as AIs and automation will replace many of us soon enough so that we can be clear on the topic - we don't have the merits.

You know those movies where everyone has to come together to fight the common enemy of aliens invading? I think that is about what we would need to have to even start the discussions of working together these days and, I have little faith we would reach any kind of consensus in time to actually have a chance of a positive outcome.

While big tech is moving so fast to make us irrelevant, we are very quickly heading in the other direction socially - going backwards. Rather than reducing trait-based prejudice, we are hyper focusing on it and making it one of the core determinants of our social lives.

I don't know where people find the time.

Really, I don't get how people can spend so much time on things that have so little relevancy in their lives, yet they see as the most important thing in the world. All-consuming.

all-consuming
adjective
completely filling one's mind and attention; obsessive.

How come there aren't many people obsessed with understanding the problems we face? I mean, most of us aren't even interested in building a simple priority list in our lives of things to spend our attention on. If people were to look at where they spend their time in the day and then evaluate how important those areas are and the impact they have on their lives - how does scrolling TikTok impact?

I am pretty judgmental, aren't I?

It is one of those things where people will ask -

"So what the fuck are you doing, Taraz?"

Something. Always something. I don't know if it is the right thing to do, but I am up for the discussion at least, rather than hiding away because people might feel uncomfortable talking about the problems we face.

Too controversial.

Is there really such a thing as too controversial to discuss? Have you ever thought about that? I mean, it is a discussion. Shouldn't we be talking about the things that interest us, and the problems we face? Problems often lay in controversial areas, and often when we start investigating them, we find out that there is a lot of inconvenient truth hidden in them - a lot of the "taboo" was false, and the problems are far simpler than we have made them out to be.

A simple problem doesn't mean an easy answer.

I think there are some conversations looming in society, and we are getting to a point that they won't be able to be ignored for much longer. We have ignored some issues for too long, created others and let them fester, and created an environment of survive, not thrive. At some point, we are going to question where all the resources are going, where our time is being spent, and realize, we are the cause of most of our own dilemma, because we chose to consume goods, rather than understand good.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]