The forest for the trees

I read a paper a number of years back that said that we, as a race, had a problem understanding and responding to slow moving threats. Anything that didn't hit as a fire during a news cycle and sometimes something that was discussed too long (and wore off it's shine, as it were).

I've found this true, time and time again. The holocaust. Apartheid. Darfur, Rwanda. Aids. Global Warming. Universal Healthcare. World Hunger. The destruction of the South American Rain Forest. Corona virus.

It's because we have a hard time digesting the big picture. We've been so successful as reactive analysts that we try to break down to the detail and the doing without stepping back and seeing the big picture (continuously, as it changes). Its because we can be distracted with short term goals and by the explosion in a news cycle.

I was talking with a friend the other day and mentioned that I really get angry when people say in a meeting "we're not trying to solve world hunger" or "We're trying to boil the ocean". Big problems can be solved - but they need top be seen and kept in mind.

Some of us have the big picture firmly in view in this crisis and they are being attacked and torn at, by some who need to eat and by some who are greedy and do not care about who dies - those greedy people are taking advantage of those of us who want to eat, by pushing us to take risks, rather than feeding us. Because feeding us means using money (that we have paid into the system) and starving us makes money.

Right now the Corona virus dominates the news cycle, because we didn't pay attention to it when it didn't. Ignoring the warnings, the science, the root issue does not make it go away. It makes it worse. It's time to step back again and look at the big picture.

We need to feed people. We need to make sure they keep their homes. We need to make our social programs more robust and require business to pay into a business continuity insurance fund, so we can help them keep people in mind during hardship. To succumb to the idea that we cannot feed people, keep them sheltered and healthy, but can bail out businesses is to fall for the big lie, the short view, the small picture. We have the means, right now, to solve this. We just need to see the forest for the trees.

Stay at home for now, stay well. Demand better from your representatives. Vote out the greed in November.