It occurs to me that solving problems that arise has become a no win situation in our current 'intellectual' climate.  Too many opposing factions are bent on partisan wrangling rather than searching for compromised solutions.  We seem to have lost our ability to negotiate.

I like the symmetry of simplicity and working solutions that  are born from common sense (we seem to be in short supply these days).

Starting from a point with an open mind seems to be a difficult venture with people who want to preserve the status quo (I can't blame them really......who wants to let go of their power base?)  But unless we all start working out real solutions this will all degenerate too fast for any of us to save.  I like David Suzuki's analogy:  We're all (human kind) are on a bus that's heading for a wall at 100 miles per hour and nobody is driving because we're all arguing over where we're going to sit.

So maybe we should ask: are we a part of the problem or are we apart from the problem?