The system isn’t perfect it is perpetuating

The other day I was reading about a debate between several prominent authors and professors. The debate regarded the future of life. One side argued that life was improving, overall, across the globe. The other side took the counter point. They argued that quality of life will decline in the future.

As I read, I sided with the optimistic point of view. They provided better data. Almost all the main measures of quality of life have increased throughout the decades. They argued that there is no reason that this will end.

Yet many people feel that this is the pivotal time that will revert from improving to degrading. This is a narcissistic point of view. Feeling that we are the ones that everything revolves around is a common perspective. It isn’t just common today. Throughout history, we see that perspective.

The more I read, the more I felt the optimists presented the more logical argument. The pessimists stuck with typical criticisms. They argued that optimists keep their head in the clouds instead of reality. They argued that even though many are rich, they still want more through greed, so they are no better than someone struggling through poverty. They said there is the potential for great destruction, from a nuclear bomb, from cyber-attacks, and through world war.

If anyone reads this from the systems thinking lens, it is easy to see that they are describing different parts of the same system. The system has been around forever. It will continue to be around forever.

That doesn’t mean earth was around forever and will always remain. It doesn’t mean humans were around forever and will always remain. It points to the overarching systems of life. Those that drone on throughout history.

Many systems principles show us that there will always be good and bad. They will always be mixed together. They show us that perfection is a myth. The idea of being flawless is fictional. The idea of seeing everything in perfect harmony, however, can be achieved. It can be achieved because the system is as close to perfect as it can be. The reason is because it is made to perpetuate. It isn’t meant to make everything fair between all sides.

Yet, as humans, we can’t get around this unfairness. We want to see that the poor are taken care of. We want to eradicate illness. We want everyone to be better today than at any point in history. Because if those aren’t true, then the pessimists will rise up and claim the future holds great despair.

They aren’t wrong. The future will hold great despair. But it will also hold great beauty. It will hold triumph. It will hold improvement and growth.

This is why there isn’t a winner in this debate. They are both right and both wrong. We can improve the human condition on earth while still facing future hardships. They exist in the same system as the glorious moments. We can’t strip them away.

They both exist together within the same system. The system doesn’t care if you are uncomfortable at times. It doesn’t try to create fairness. It creates balance so that it can perpetuate. The systems and subsystems keep rolling along while we are too busy arguing about the future to see them.

If there is one thing that this debate contained, it was the idea that we can easily argue one side or the other for almost any system. At the end of the day, it doesn’t do much, other than provide interesting viewpoints from each side of the system. To gain understanding, we have to be able to see both sides and see how they exist together, inextricably connected.