Shouldn't We Ask Why?

As I continue to observe the antics of the UK election debacle from afar, with competing politicians explaining how they are going to make life better for UK citizens, I wonder just how many rabbits there are to be pulled out of the hat.  I am also curious why so many vote-winning initiatives (at least that's what the politicians think) are only declared when an election is in sight.  But what is also noticeable, is that election rhetoric largely consists of disassembling the nation's problems into clearly understandable 'chunks', for which the politicians will explain what is wrong and how they will fix it.

I am an apolitical systems thinker.  I don't have much time for politicians or the political system, but I'm not apathetic and I do have concerns about and feel a part-responsibility for many of the issues facing the planet.  Most of the issues require a systemic approach and hence my desire to become more adept at systems thinking.  Without going into the depths of systems theory,  let me just touch on one of the characteristics of a good systems thinker, which is the ability to synthesise as distinct from analyse.  We all know that analysis comes naturally.  We take things apart to understand them and then having worked out what each part does, we put them back together to understand the whole. But is that enough?  I don't think so.  Consider a clock and the 'vintage' really doesn't matter, so an old clockwork model or one with a quartz oscillator would be equally acceptable.  We want to know how it works so we take it apart and lay all the constituent pieces out on a table.  We have three pointers, a printed face, cogs, a spring for a clockwork version, an oscillator for the later model, a casing, etc.  We examine each component, work out what it does, how it fits together with other parts, and how the whole lot joins up to make the clock.  Bravo, we now know HOW the clock works!  But do we know WHY we have a clock?  Well it's to give an indication of the position of the earth's surface that we occupy, relative to the sun.  That is synthesis.  In the words of Ackoff: "Analysis focuses on structure; it reveals how things work.  Synthesis focuses on function; it reveals why things operate as they do.  Therefore, analysis yields knowledge; synthesis yields understanding.  The former helps us to describe; the latter, to explain."

Returning to the election, don't we need an understanding of the issues that we all face?  Let's consider three old chestnuts dominating the political debate in the UK - the nuclear deterrent, the health service and housing.  The main parties are explaining to the voters HOW they would fund the deterrent, fund and improve the health service and create more affordable housing.  I would suggest more pertinent questions are WHY does the UK need a weapon of mass destruction, WHY is the health of the nation deteriorating and WHY can't many citizens afford to buy or rent homes?  I would also contend that asking the WHY questions very soon takes you beyond the artificial national boundaries into issues affecting our planet.

When the UK elections are out of the way, I will focus my attention on the run-up to the US Presidential election and no doubt get equally frustrated! .... WHY?!