I have been watching episodes of Law and Order Season 2, which aired in 1990. Apparently, it was the first series to introduce the forty-five-minute episode format and also the first to include both sides of the story (Law and Order). I am enjoying it – if you remember reading my blog about Right Vs. Right it helps me exercise my ethics muscle – it does make me wonder whether there is something that can be truly right or truly wrong. But what I am left wondering as I watch the episodes is that we are still facing the same issues two decades later – racism, abuse, drunk driving – in some ways it does feel like groundhog day.

Now, if we go back to Romans, Greeks – the politics, power play existed then and exists now. We have made some progress (I would like to believe so) regarding slavery etc., but I am not convinced that we have come any closer to solving the cause of the problem.

What do you think is the cause of the problem? The society we live in? The world we live in? Our leaders? Our parents? Or is the right question – WHO is the cause of the problem. The answer is Me, You, Us – Humankind. We are the root of the problem. We are the only constants since society’s humble beginnings.

Root Cause Problem Solving means you tackle the problem at the root and not alleviate the symptoms. If we don’t realize that we are the problem we will look outside to solve it.

A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys and they both look under the streetlight together. After a few minutes the policeman asks if he is sure he lost them here, and the drunk replies, no, and that he lost them in the park. The policeman asks why he is searching here, and the drunk replies, “this is where the light is.”

For example:
We all fall sick, but instead of trying to find out why we are sick we get medicines. Now do not get me wrong – medications have their place but isn’t it important to know why you fell ill in the first place.
There is so much violence in the world, and we have organizations like Samaritans, child helpline who can help you cope with that but do we ask ourselves why there is so much violence in the first place?

Something goes wrong in our life, and our instant response is – it was somebody else’s fault. She was micro-managing me. She is so overly critical of me. Do we ever pause and wonder what part did I play in what happened in my life? Humankind as a whole has faced and is facing problems. And if each one of us who collectively make this humankind look inwards and think about how we could alter ourselves, humanity would improve as a whole. But do we know how to do that? Are we taught how to do that? Are we even aware that this is a possibility? [Meditation, self-awareness courses are some of the ways]

Two things are certain – Change starts from within AND unless we accept our part in what happens to us we will never be able to do anything about it.