Understanding root causes of all challenges
6
78'<,1* medicine taught me that if you do not know the root cause of any problem and the methodology of causation patho physiology in medicine), then you can not manage or solve it. This assertion is very true for any other challenge as it is for all medical challenges.
+uman societies are always be devilled by a myriad of challenges. These range from individual, personal, family, community, medical, political, social, financial, economic, mental, psychological, environmental and up to national governance challenges. *eneration after generation, we seem to be bedevilled by the very same good old or bad old challenges. $t the end of the day, one wonders why this is so"
Common wisdom behoves that over subseTuent periods of time, we are supposed to learn from our previous experiences and mistakes, both as individual human beings, and also as collective communities of human be ings such as families, tribes, villages, chiefdoms, towns, cities, countries and national governments.
$fter learning from our previous experiences, mistakes, failures and successes, we are then expected to behave in different and much better ways than before. This is the received wisdom, right"
MISTAKES
But apparently, the fact of the mat ter is that, both as individuals and also collectively as social groups such as families, villages, chiefdoms, towns, cities, countries and national governments, we seem to be unable to learn anything from our previous experiences!
+ence we see historical mistakes or wrongs being repeated over and over again from one generation to another.
2therwise, if we ever learnt any thing from our past experiences, we definitely would not be repeating the very same mistakes generation after generation as we do. 5ight" The big Tuestion is why is this so" Why do we keep on repeating the very same mistakes which we previously com mitted"
Why do we keep on doing this re peating the same mistakes) generation after generation, both as individuals and also as social groups such as fami lies, villages, chiefdoms, towns, cities, countries and national governments. $re we really that incapable of learn ing from our own experiences, good people" 1ow here is the reason why.
2ne hundred percent of our natural and non memory based innate or intrinsic learning happens in the first decade of our lives. This is from the very first minute we are born until we are ten years of age. In fact, the maMority per cent) of that learning happens during the first two years of life, with the rest per cent) happen ing in the next eight years of life or so.
This natural, intrinsic and non mem ory based learning is the one which confers us with the basic character, personality and behavioural traits which we end up with and being known for as adult human beings.
The basic character, personality and behavioural foundations which are laid down during our first decade of life are so solid and run so deep that they are virtually impossible to easily change, uproot or replace.
EXPERIENTIAL
+owever, through subseTuent memory based experiential learning, our individ ual and original basic character, person ality and behavioural traits are and can actually be modified to some extent. But unfortunately this modification is not in a permanent or long lasting sort of way. It is the kind of modification which is forced upon us by the contingencies and exigencies of the situation which we may find ourselves in at any one given particular point in time.
+ence, when push comes to shove, when the going gets really, really tough, and when we are forced to let our guard down, we would always spontaneously, unconsciously and unintentionally default back to our original true character or the person who we really are, this being to the basic character, personality and be havioural traits which we acTuired in our very first decade of life.
This is the main reason or root cause of why we never seem to be able to learn from our experiences. $ppar ently, the experiences which we go through in life are not capable of completely or permanently changing the original default people who we really are deep down in our basic inner beings as laid down during the first decade of our lives!
2nce we understand this fact, then we would have understood why we never seem to learn from our mistakes, both as individuals and also as social groups such as families, villages, chiefdoms, towns, cities, countries and national governments.
But we would also need to under stand that we are not, and were not at all born with those basic character, personality and behavioural traits in the first place. We were taught, learnt and acTuired them insidiously, unin tentionally and unconsciously through the exposures which we got from the very first day of our upbringing.
PRACTICES
These experiential exposures were bestowed on us by the totality of the environment in which we were born and brought up. The totality of this upbringing environment includes our own parents, guardians, siblings, other relatives, community members, the whole national community and its governing institutions, norms, values, traditions, cultures, principles and practices.
6uch being the case as elucidated above, it can be said, and with a very high degree of accuracy and convic tion too, that the root causes of all our challenges on this planet are found in both our individual and collective upbringing as human beings.
2ur individual upbringing confers us with the basic character, personality and behavioural traits which we pos sess and exhibit everywhere we go as individual adult people.
6ubseTuently, our own individual character, personality and behavioural traits would then also insidiously influ ence the character, personality and be havioural traits of all the social groups which we belong to or interact with.
$s far as group behaviour is con cerned, it is received wisdom that any organisation would take on the complexion, character, personality and behaviour of its constituent members, but more especially of its leader.
+ence a family would mimic the collective behaviours of all family members, but especially that of the head of the family, be it the father or the mother. The same applies to a village, chiefdom, town, city, national government or country. )or exam ple, at national government level, a government which is composed of corrupt officials and led by a corrupt leader would soon find itself riddled with corruption through and through.
6uch a national government would also breed and spread corruption throughout all public government and administration institutions, and also to all those who work with, in or deal with it. It would also breed corruption as a way of life throughout the whole national social fabric. $t the end of the day, the whole country and its people would soon be well known for being very corrupt and also very corruption minded or inclined.
CORRUPTION
2nce corruption is deep rooted like this in any society, it would then spontaneously spread from one gen eration to the next as it gets to be insidiously taught to all subseTuent generations and thereby form the basic and intrinsic character, personality and behavioural traits of most if not all new born children in that society or country as would be insidiously taught to them during their first ten years of life.
The known example of a seven year old boy who demanded and got a bribe from his sister¶s boyfriend who had asked him to go and call his sister to come out of the house to meet him the boyfriend) is not fiction at all. This is what happens when bribery and cor ruption have been normalised. (ven children below ten years of age start to exhibit corruption tainted behaviours!
6o in conclusion, the root causes of all our challenges in this world are in our upbringing! It is the way we were brought up which gives us the character, personality and behavioural traits which we take along with us to kindergarten, elementary school, high school, college, university, work and everywhere else we go.
These traits determine whether we pass at school, college and university or not, and also whether we succeed in life or not. The biggest determinant of whether one succeeds in life or not is not cleverness or academic intelli gence, but character, personality and behaviour.
It is behaviour or the things which we do, which determine our altitude in life. Behaviour itself is determined by our personality, or the type of person we are or have become well known as.
$nd personality itself is determined by our basic character, or the kind of µinnate¶ human being whom we are or have become.
3lease note that regardless of how it seems to the contrary, character is actually not an inborn phenomenon but an insidiously, imperceptibly and unintentionally taught and learnt be havioural predisposition or trait.
While the root cause of all our chal lenges in this world is wrongful up bringing, the precipitating cause is bad behaviour! It is bad, wrong or inappropriate behaviour which trig gers challenges or problems.
CHALLENGES
)or example, drinking while driving is bad behaviour which may lead to the challenges of being arrested for drunk en driving, motor vehicle accidents or death. *ender based violence is also bad behaviour which may lead to the challenges of being arrested, Mailed or murder.
2ther bad behaviours with challeng ing conseTuences include prostitution, robbery, theft, drug abuse and so forth and so on. (ven in the world of leadership and politics, bad character, personality and behavioural traits which were engendered by wrongful upbringing have caused a lot of pain and the suffering of otherwise innocent people throughout this world.
3olitical leaders with bad characters, personalities and behaviours have collapsed their national economies through unbridled corruption, caused civil wars through tyranny and dicta torship, and led to international wars such as World War I and II, etc, etc.
In business, leaders with bad char acters, personalities and behaviours have collapsed companies, made many people Mobless, destroyed many national economies and impoverished whole countries.
It can be said with a very high degree of accuracy that the root causes of all the challenges which we face in this world today are due to the bad char acters, personalities and behaviours of our societal leaders as engendered by their wrongful upbringing during their first decade of life!
9ery simple but true.