MAN'S MOST SUCCESSFUL INVENTION?

MAN'S MOST SUCCESSFUL INVENTION?

By Andy Weddington

Saturday, 14 August 2021

The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small.  - Witter Bynner

The answer to the title question is not so obvious.

While working through a number of questions as to current events the answer occurred to me.

The problem. 

The problem is man's most successful invention.

Problems lead to problems that lead to problems that lead to problems, etcetera. 

Why there's nothing man touches, literally or figuratively, that cannot be turned into a problem. 

And no matter how genius any solution, if there really is such thing, it falls well short of the macro invention - the problem.

The beautiful problem.

Opportunity to exploit, to control, to realize fortune, to create more problems.  

To address, not necessarily solve, problems - to invent - it is imperative to assume nothing.

Absurdity must be a ground rule.

For instance ...

This little nagging virus thing. 

The gnat that will not go away.

What if covid vaccines, problematic from the start and proving more so by the day, prove more problematic than the virus(es)?

A couple weeks back, North Carolina reported 66 "fully vaccinated" died from covid.

Safe bet more "fully vaccinated" have since died. And not just Tarheels. 

Why just yesterday there was report that only "fully vaccinated" people are contracting a new variant of covid.

That's a problem. 

And a big problem that is logical.

Are they contagious to the not vaccinated?

How many will die? 

Man is master problem maker. 

And master at tinkering and making bigger problems; some purposeful, some unintended.

Moving on.

Since Afghanistan is an item, how about national security and the Oath of Office - sworn by civilians and military - to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic?

Identifying foreign enemy is not so much a problem.

They do things like surprise attack harbors, fly airplanes into buildings, blow up things and people, and launch cyber and bio attacks. 

But identifying the domestic enemy gets tricky. 

There's a problem.

Some questions that came to mind recently ...

When was the last time the Department of Defense, especially GOFOs (General Officers Flag Officers) - all of them, held serious objective conversations about what constitutes and how to identify a domestic enemy? 

That is, a serious analysis, embracing the absurd? 

Who holds the authority to make the declaration?

Who holds the authority to order action?

Has such training ever been done?

From ambling about public places I've sensed this enormous presence of a force of good. That is, Americans from all walks of life who just want to be Americans - free. 

That is a small problem, for some.

A bigger problem, for (that) some, will be when that force of good slays its internal enemies - obedience and cowardice.

Then, different problems. 

During childhood my siblings and I played with Fly Back paddles - a simple toy of three elements: Plywood handle, thin elastic strand stapled to paddle, and a lightweight red rubber ball attached at the end. 

The idea was to bounce the ball off the paddle repeatedly. It was a problem for a child. Practically impossible beyond two or three consecutive rebounds. And that was more luck than intent. [But I found time during college to master it.]

Anyway, dad, a super smart guy who solved complex (manmade) computer problems and saw himself the force of good, did not have time for the toy. 

He took a discarded paddle because of broken band, removed the staple and in big letters in black magic marker wrote on the paddle's blank face: For the Bottom of the Problem. [I wish we'd thought to bury that paddle with him.]

In context to today's header quote, dad solved a lot of (small) problems before there was any chance of them getting bigger.

Bottom line: America's politicians (and they're not the only ones) have created most of our senseless problems. Line them up, force of good, for a good old-fashioned paddling.