Failure of the Present Total

Definition: As used herein, The Present Total refers to the totality of Strategies and Tactics a Population uses in a given time and Place to (A) satisfy its Needs, (B) Solve the Problems causing its Unnecessary Suffering, and (C) mitigate its Necessary Suffering due to Undesirable Conditions. Failure of The Present Total refers to the Inadequacy of The Present Total as Evidenced by the degree of Unnecessary Suffering currently present within the Population. Essay The Present Total refers to the totality of the Strategies and Tactics without knowing or asserting whether the Persons, Objects, and Events that make up the totality are (1) closely connected like the parts of a bridge or a financial system or (2) not particularly connected like a crowd of strangers waiting at a bus stop. Rather Failure of the Present Total simply says the totality is not working well enough. Failure of The Present Total is analogous to but not to be confused with catastrophic failure (e.g., a bridge collapsing) or systemic risk (e.g., the potential for a country's entire financial system to collapse) where all the pieces are Believed to be connected and so as a consequence of that Belief it is Understood that a failure in one piece potentially can "pull" or "push" many or all the other pieces into failure along with it. The assignment is not to find that one piece. Rather, it is to stand back, accept that the Totality is now working well enough, and then wonder why. Notice that the failure referred to in Failure of The Present Total is indicated by Unnecessary Suffering, not by Necessary Suffering that is part of the Human Condition. Also, Failure of The Present Total is not a concept in reference to the fundamental problem of evil, but rather has to do with the failure of practical Problem-Solving on the scale of a Population. A failed state may be an example of Failure of the Present Total. However, one should not focus too much on the "failed state" example. The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin was not a failed state, for instance, but it did represent a Failure of the Present Total because, for one thing, the Solutions Stalin implemented in obedience to the Ideology of Marxism-Leninism caused massive Unnecessary Suffering, e.g. the collectivization of the Soviet Union's farmers. Stalin and his closest advisors constantly had to rationalize that the Suffering their Solutions caused was necessary if the doctrines of their Ideology were to be implemented; necessary because they Believed those doctrines were the best Understanding of Reality. Failure of The Present Total is a useful idea in a practical sense of Causality because it presents a blank slate upon which a Person may develop an answer to the question: Why is there Unnecessary Suffering at this time in this Place which is the same question as, Why is there Failure in the Present Total? The way the question is structured suggests that an innovative answer may exist outside the structures of Ideologies such as the teachings of Marxism–Leninism, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or what have you. The thinker starts fresh. He or she Observes: Unnecessary Suffering exists in this Population. The Present Total is failing. Now - What shall we do about it? 1. Household suffering Suffering occurs in Persons living in Households. For example, infants start out Ignorant, which if left unattended leads to great suffering in adulthood. How do Households respond to Awareness of the suffering or the foreseeable suffering of their own Members? Do you recall the chairman of the department of surgery in the short story - Overwhelmed? There must have been significant suffering in that Household many years before the teenage son pulled the trigger and the old doctor retired. However Household Members did respond in that case, the outcomes indicate it was not Adequate. 2. The suffering of others Because humans are an empathetic species, the suffering of people outside our Households affects us. In general, our degree of empathy is in relation to the Proximity the suffering Person(s) has to our Household. According to that degree, we respond, first, by getting closer to the Person(s) and their suffering or by putting more distance between ourselves and "those other people." Do you recall the chief resident of surgery and his young, pregnant wife in the short story, Overwhelmed? Like that young couple, we feel a Need to respond to the suffering of others. The profound tragedy of the chief resident and his wife was that the option of Denial had been horrifically stripped away - they were keenly Aware - but there was nothing they could do. Nothing. 3. Groups of Households and suffering Anticipating the inevitability of the risk of unnecessary suffering, Critical Masses of Households could form themselves into Socially Cohesive Groups and from that perspective ask - How will we respond to unnecessary suffering of Persons within our Group and outside of it? However, we live in a Fragmented Society seemingly dominated by notions of “rugged individualism,” a term first popularized by President Herbert Hoover during his successful 1928 presidential campaign. Accordingly, each Household is supposed to stands on its own. Today, the notion of Socially Cohesive Groups of Households is not part of our Social Order. 4. Organizations and suffering When the first two approaches are not Adequate, and the third is not available, the only mechanism left that might respond positively to unnecessary suffering is Organizations - Businesses, political parties, units of government, nonprofits and “churches.” By default, they are necessarily sucked into the breach because of the Need of our human empathy. They must respond in one direction or the other along the continuum illustrated in Figure #3. Conclusion The totality of the first, second, and fourth approaches to (A) the well-being of our Bodies and (B) their unnecessary suffering - including the present absence of the third - has not, is not, and probably will not respond Adequately. If the Present Total were capable of doing so, it would have done so by now. We are witness to the Failure of the Present Total. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy