NO EASY ANSWERS

I read a column recently by David Brooks in the New York Times which really stirred my thinking. Brooks is one of my favorite columnists, and I frequently like what he has to say. He is a contradiction in terms: a progressive conservative, basically sympathetic to the philosophy of the Republicans without the vitriolic hatred and rantings of the far right and able to follow a compassionate social agenda.

In any case, Brooks was commenting on the extraordinary technological advances of the last few years, especially in view of the recent oil crisis. He states:

"In the weeks since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the political debate has fallen into predictably partisan and often puerile categories. Conservatives say this is Obama's Katrina. Liberals say the proof is the government should have more control over industry.

But the real issue has to do with risk assessment. It has to do with the bloody crossroads
where complex technical sysyems meet human psychology."

Brooks goes on to analyze the problems of human interactions with systems not understood. He at the end makes the point: "This isn't just about oil. It's the challenge for people living in an imponderably complex technical society."

I think that last statement sums up my deep concerns, as well. Here we are in this complex technical world---a world where in the last twenty years the knowledge accumulated is greater that the sum of all past knowledge---trying to live and deal with these complexities.

We love to look for quick and facile solutions, simplistic answers for our deep-rooted concerns. Unfortunately, the easy answers, in Don McLean's famous words, "took the last train to the coast"; in fact, they did so a long time ago. Assessing risks in this modern world gets harder all the time, and the answers just don't jump up at the ring of a bell.

Take the oil crisis. We are all frustrated. With good cause, residents of the gulf states are incensed at the spoiling of their coast, the loss of income, the long-term effects on wildlife, et al. The first thing we want to do is strike out, and of course the real villain is BP, a ready target for our collective wrath. Then we turn to the government and scream, "Do something!" The President in his Mea Culpa press interview a couple of days ago shouldered the responsibility and rephrased Harry Truman's famous adage that the buck stops at the President's desk and that he was in charge.

O.K., that is a lovely ringing phrase to have the President of the United States reaasure us that he is in charge. But of what? Who in the government has a ready solution to the oil spill problem? The President made a candid statement of fact when he admitted he was fooled when he thought BP and the oil industry had the rechnical knowledge to cure the problem. They don't; plain and simple, they have never dealt with a problem of a massive oil spill miles under water, so all we can do---and here the President can use his power to make it happen---is assemble the best brains available and use their collective power to seek a solution. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix, even with all that brainpower.

This world, whether in politics, war, economics, religion or just simply living, is fraught with problems that do not lend themselves to easy answers. The Euro countries thought they had the answers in their union, now in deep doo-doo. Bear Stearns and Lehman thought they knew the secrets of financial success, and now they are in the financial obit column. Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan were supposed to be military pieces of cake, but the cake ended up in our faces.

What we have to do is slog along, work to find solutions and accept the fact that this world is too much with us and that there is as much (or more) bad news as good news which we must deal with patiently and persistently. David Brooks is dead on: it is a challenge in this 'imponderably complex society". We must have the strength to accept this fact and deal with it realistically by thinking things out, finding rational solutions and not panicking by looking for scapegoats and easy answers.

That is our assignment for today and tomorrow. Happy Memorial Day, and try to remember the unlucky ones who died to help us live to see this new world, warts and all, but still our world of freedom.