The Power of Why
Posted: Friday, August 13, 2010
by Terrence Aubrey
Terrence
Did any of you experience the question and answer sessions with your children that revolved around the question why? It inevitably terminated in the rather weak "Because I said so" ,or the more honest "I don`t know". In truth we do not know the answers to many questions, but how can we, we are only guests here invited by God only knows who, to spend just a short while here on planet earth.
The beauty of a web site such as this is that we each have a platform to ask the question why and to question both the wisdom and motivation of our leaders. Is that not incredibly healthy?
I am conscious when writing and submitting articles that I am only expressing and putting in print my opinions and observations and very often I receive comments from people that completely disagree with my point of view. We are actually very lucky to have such an opportunity, both to agree and disagree, openly and without fear of consequence. Many people around the world do not have that freedom of expression.
Given the problems facing mankind right now "why" is a question more relevant than ever and if we see errors being committed by our leaders we should question them. We might be right, or we might be wrong, but equally so might be the leaders!
Why must we continue in a direction that seems fundamentally flawed?
Why do we continue to make the same mistakes as our fathers and our fathers, fathers?
Why do we in the west need to consume so much of the worlds limited resources?
Why do we continue to condone war as a valid means of making our point? Agree with me, or die.
Why do we in the west continue to pursue a lifestyle that is clearly unsustainable and worse, unachievable for the vast percentage of the inhabitants of planet earth.
And perhaps the biggest why of all.
Why can we not wake up from our individual and collective folly? Wipe the sleep from our eyes and see the reality of our individual and collective situation? Can we evolve, become smarter, wiser and happier?
Why not?
Terrence Aubrey,
www.confidentialmatchmakers.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (10 total)Why do people in the West continued to lead a life that is clearly unsustainable? Search in self-consciousness certainly gives good response.A recent survey showed that Americans live lifestyle that causes more mental health than India people who are happy with simple life with limited resources. Consciousness Search on it will also help the right answer.Interesting comment, yes as we allow our lives to become ever more complicated in the persuit of that which we have lost, we cause ourselves stress, that is clear.
My nephew asked my sister in law a question once, he said "how come" to her answer, she said"I don't know how come" and he replied "how come you don't know how come"Yes we are bombarded with many whys in this life, good article.I guess the smart answer might have been "how come you don`t know how come either? .........Why is a very healthy question and even a natural question. I certainly still have a sack full!
Good article Terrence- Yes, we are lucky to be living this country- even with all the flaws, it's still the best in the world- and so are it's people. SW kind of reminds me of America..... Thanks- Always- EllaI am English, live in Spain and have travelled all over including America, so I cannot claim any great knowledge of the USA, but I do know that there is the same mix of the good, the bad and the ugly the world over.
This is a fairly depressing view of the human condition - albeit pretty spot on! Unless one is prepared to campaign, campaign, campaign and in the process change the world view of what is good/right/wrong/desirable, we had better have an optimistic view of the ability of the human race to innovate, profit AND survive. The world may change around us, but human nature has never been known to change.Sorry and a little surprised that you found my observations depressing. Surely the recognition that something is broken is actually good news! Only then can we go about finding a way to fix it. Do you not think that is a positive beginning?
Terrance, thanks for the very perceptive article. The answer to all your whys, is that most people of the world have never been taught to think. So they go their merry ways plunging from one disaster to another in the same old way, instead of coming up with some creative thinking. I'm going to come up with an article which I hope will give thinking people some ideas.Thankyou for your comments, I would agree we do tend to blindly follow without to much consideration, but equally I do believe we are evolving all of the time. For example only 100 years ago many countries around the world were ruled by dictatorships, now no. Would the American people even consider a dictatorship?No we are doing better, only now we need to speed it up! The clocks against us.
This phrase is a good one, "Why do we continue to make the same mistakes as our fathers and our fathers, fathers?" I think we all learn from our mistakes. If we don't make them, we are perfect, speaking metaphorically, how will we learn our lesson?Thanks for the comment James, but no we do not need to repeat the mistakes of our fathers and our fathers fathers, well so far we were able to observe them and learn from them. Their gift to us?
Excellent article Terrence, if I may call you that? I'm a new fan. Yes, yes, yes... and yes. We won't though because there are too many reasons for too many of us not to. It's like the kids on the playground, will they ever all get along, no. Could they, yes. Be it greed or pride or ego or just one boy's need to have the prettiest girl, or be the boss, or etc. Divergent views result in divergent actions.Thank you for your encouragment David, I appreciate it. With all due respect whist I agree that competitiveness is a strong human driving force it does not need to be a competely negative aspect of being human. It can be harnessed as something very positive. I guess our very descriptive title gives us away "The Human Race". Now we need to know the prize for the winner!
I probably drove my folks nuts with "why" but I sure learned! Thanks for writing this pondering piece!My father did try to out fox me with "Why do you keep asking me why?"
Well Done and Well Said! To me, why someone does something is more important that what is done.Thank you and yes, very good point.
Hi Terrence.Very good questions; all of them.DianneThankyou Dianne, in some ways I believe the questions to be more important than the answers, if that makes sense! No the qustion is like opening the door, the beginning.
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