CLOates
15 August 2007
Norman, OK, USA
Where Are We Going?
And What Are We Doing in This Handbasket?
Solving our known societal problems is going to be very difficult now and next to impossible tomorrow. Industry, government, and academia are, here and there, banding together to try to formulate workable solutions. Below are some thoughts from the current president of one of my former schools, who is working with the City of Houston. He comments on the necessity of working together to take care of the problems before they take care of us.
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. . .
"The longer you postpone addressing a problem, the more expensive, complicated and politically difficult it will be to solve. And, therefore, the more unlikely it is that you will actually solve it. Maybe that's what Yogi Berra meant when he said, 'The future ain't what it used to be.' In Jared Diamond's book 'Collapse,' he outlines several failures of collective decision making that lead to the collapse of complex societies. The most frequent reason for such failure, he says, is that societies fail to solve a problem even after it has been perceived.
"We know what our problems are. We know they will not go away on their own and will be even more difficult to solve if we simply wait and hope. If we don't act, we will be culpable as our descendants struggle with the problems of an uneducated population, a fouled environment, inadequate transportation, and substandard medical care. Solving these problems is not rocket science; it is harder than rocket science. They require the full spectrum of knowledge, research, and resources that a city, is industries, and its universities can bring to bear."
. . .
--David W. Leebron in
"The City and the University:
Essentials for Success",
Rice Sallyport, Summer 2007
(Leebron is the president of Rice University in Houston, Texas.)
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It's time to get goin', folks. We aren't going to get anywhere good doin' what we're doin'. --CLO
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