The world's 2 biggest problems

If I could tell you with certainty that Republicans will win big next Tuesday, then I would have to ask you a question in return. And almost certainly, you could not answer it.

It's hard to know the motives of other voters. Good grief, it's hard enough to know our own motives! It's even harder to know if an event or news headline will slip between voters, their motives, their fingers and the ballot button they push next Tuesday.

Certainly, we hope that our fellow voters will join in and help to put an end to events that seem to have spiraled out of control, both here at home and in the world at large. Disease, war, riots, violence, terrorism, mass migration … the world has become an ugly place. Neither America's leadership nor its moral authority seem up to the task of putting things right. Humpty Dumpty comes to mind.

So once again the words "Character is destiny," observed back in ancient times and penned by Heraclitus, come to mind, both in the lives of people and of nations. Entrusting leadership to men or women of flawed or undeveloped character could have no other possible outcome. Now everything is politics. All that matters is power. America and the world be damned; we have to win the next election.

Flawed character reproduces itself. The entire upper echelons of our government are now run by men and women of seriously flawed character. So the events that we see spiraling out of control have all the makings of a Greek tragedy, for us in the audience as much as the actors on the world stage.

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Ah, yes – but on to my question that so few of you will be able to answer, although I hope many can. Because if you can answer correctly, there is yet hope.

What are the two biggest problems America and the rest of the world face right now?

Yes, I know, it's hard to decide on only two. And what if my two and your two have different rankings? My "twoth" and "your twoth." What then? Who is right?

OK, I will make it easier. There are only two problems that we face. What are they?

I ask because contrary to the popular wisdom of crowd mentality that "we have to do something," it helps to know what the problem actually is before we "fix" it. Just "doing something" at best invokes the law of unintended consequences. But often it goes further and the problem you "fixed" divides into two or more. You did read "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" when you were a child, didn't you? But then, what did Goethe know of human nature?

I may decide to post the answer in a column next week. But then again, I may not, especially if the election turns out in such a way that the answer doesn't matter anymore. But I will leave a few breadcrumbs for you in a blog posting on my novel site. And I have been known to lurk in the comments section here at WND.

Reconnaissance:an exploratory military survey of enemy territory (Merriam Webster). Also the first step towardArmageddon

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