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| layout | title | date | categories |
|---|---|---|---|
| post | Why? Why? Why? Question Everything! | 2014-10-20 12:00:00 -0700 | philosophic |
Maybe the kids have it right.
Can I have juice? No. Why? Because you might pee the bed.
The child has learned that (s)he might wet the bed. This is valuable information. Always ask why. Question everything. Why not? Every question potentially brings in valuable insight. In this case the child may be able to understand why drinking juice near bed time is a bad idea.
The same applies for everyone. When an employee is told to do something in a specific way, it is always worth while to ask why. Learning why a job is performed in a certain way can motivate the employee now that it makes sense.
Perhaps an infantry soldier, let us call him "Jack", wants to know why he has to learn his sergeant's job. He is told that he might have to perform his sergeant's job should something happen in the line of duty. Now Jack is motivated to pay attention, considering that he could be forced into leadership if something horrible happens.
Later in life Jack gets a corporate job. Having learned in the military why it's useful to know your boss's job, he was able to fill in when his boss had to miss an important meeting due to a family emergency, which resulted in Jack getting a nice bonus that year.
Knowing why is useful for understanding the world around you. Why is cannabis illegal? A study says monkeys suffered brain damage from cannabis smoke.
Okay, how was the test performed? They pumped insane amounts of smoke into monkeys. Oh, cannabis wasn't the problem, a lack of oxygen was the problem. Interesting.
So instead of just hearing "STUDY SAYS BRAIN DAMAGE FROM POT", we look deeper into it and realize that the monkeys were actually suffocated. So we circle back, why is cannabis illegal?
Government is perhaps the most important place to ask why. Why do you watch everything everyone is doing on the Internet? Why do you need to track everyone? Why are we invading Iraq? Why are we funding rebels in other countries that have ties to our enemies in Afghanistan? Why are we keeping the Middle East in turmoil? Why don't we do anything about North Korea?
Sadly the true answer to all those questions is the same. Money. However, we get a plethora of interesting answers. To catch terrorists. To protect children. Oh wait, that's it for answers.
Why do we need to destroy privacy to fight terrorism? Not sure we have an answer for that one, but here is another: Why do we care about the children?
Why should we care about children more than others? More children can be produced rather easily, and children are not very useful. However, the children answer plays on the heart strings.
Somehow, in our infinite wisdom as a country, we have decided that our rights are up for grabs if it comes to protecting children. This is a demographic that very well might "be the future", but without the present, the future is lost. So which is more important? The adults or their children?
Seriously, always ask why. If your bosses or politicians don't like it, do you really want them in charge? Knowing the why and how will allow you to have educated opinions instead of simply rattling off whatever happened on the twitters this week.
So what do you think? Any good reasons not to ask why? Am I just bat-shit insane? Please send your thoughts below.