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Will alternative, nontraditional solve our major problems?

Francisco Miraval

Two things are true: we face major problems in our world and so far, the solutions we have tried did not solve those problems. There is, therefore, the opportunity to look and implement nontraditional solutions. But, will they work?

Many years ago, I learned that you cannot solve a problem with the same ideas that caused the problems. There is a need to find alternative solutions. However, some of the alternatives recently proposed to solve old social problems are worrisome and deserve a more detailed analysis.

For example, a Colorado coalition, arguing (and rightly so) that the war against drugs has failed, is proposing to legalize marihuana (the drug that causes almost two out of three drug-related arrests), as a way to diminish the power of drug cartels, thus promoting better relationships between Mexico and the United States, and even generating more income (salaries and taxes) for the state.

Another example. According to a recent paper published by researchers at Oxford University, if we accept that climate change is the result of human actions, and if we also accept that people will seldom modify their behavior, then, the solution to climate change is to change people, using bioengineering.

Those experts at Oxford said that we can treat people with some hormones to make people more altruistic and empathetic. We can also use those treatments to make people meat-intolerant, so they will eat less meat or no meat at all.

These two proposals are interesting and carefully developed. (That does not mean I am supporting them.)

For example, when the Prohibition was implemented in the United States from 1920 to 1933 to ban the sale, production, and transportation of alcohol, one of the most noticeable results was the emergence of new criminal organizations. And there was also an increase in the number of corruption cases among politicians and police officers.

For that reason, the coalition in Colorado proposing the legalization of the marihuana for personal use says that, if the prohibition of alcohol failed, the prohibition of marihuana has also failed.

At the same time, the experts in Oxford maintain that if we are the cause of adverse climate change, then we should be the solution. For them, that means we should not try to change the planet, but ourselves. And that means we should bioengineer smaller humans (they will consume less energy) who will procreate less frequently.

These proposals, again, sound interesting. But, the truth is that, in the past, there were nontraditional and innovative solutions for certain –real or imaginary- problems, with disastrous result. Think, for example, about the numerous genocides throughout history.

Obviously, with this attitude we have created a new problem: the old solutions do not work and the new solutions may have unwanted and unexpected consequences.

What should we then do? Challenge our way of thinking and our assumptions. Both the coalition in Colorado and the experts at Oxford assume that, with the proper tools, we can control and change people’s behavior. But, is that so?

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