If there are no Solutions, then there are no Problems…

If there are no Solutions, then there are no Problems…
This was something I learned early in life. When we sense there is a problem or when we have factual evidence of a problem and can describe it and yet we believe there is no solution we are overlooking the obvious. For problems that seem to be irresolvable, what we have is a lack of knowledge “not an irresolvable problem.”
We cannot become aware of the existence of a “possible” problem without the backdrop of some sort of a solution. It is similar to how our eyes see light and shadows. If there were no light, we would not see any shadows. There might not be enough light to make out what is in the shadows yet that does not make the shadowy figure disappear. What is needed to have any inkling, intuition, hypothesis, or guess that a problem exists is some form of a possible solution to make the shadow of the problem visible to our mind.
The clinical psychologists N.H. Azrin, R.R. Hutchinson, and D.F. Drake demonstrated through multiple studies using rats in a maze that frustration generates rage. When the rat was trained to go through the maze and get their cheese and had successfully done so on their own. If a piece of Plexiglas was placed between them and the cheese, they became frustrated. If there were anything near them when they got frustrated, they would brutalize it, regardless of whether it was an inanimate object or if it was one of their family members.
This phenomenon has been shown to exist in humans, apes, chimpanzees, squirrels, fish and the list goes on extensively. What happens with humans is that we form a symbiosis with other humans. We use the maze of social etiquette, of shared belief systems to acquire our proverbial cheese, what ever that may be now.
Humans have a tendency of labeling things they learn about, especially if it gives them a sense of awe. They will then classify them in groups; upon doing that they prioritize the phenomenon. They then organize it, and this is seen and done on our social settings. Richard Dawkins came up with the name “memes,” Jung called it the “collective unconscious,” Eric Berne called it the “script”. It is also called our cosmogony, worldview, or colloquially “the way people see the world.”
Matthew Alper in his book “The God Part of the Brain” postulated that we have within our brain a biological urge to seek a supernatural explanation: That we “may be innately wired to perceive such universal concepts as a spiritual realm, a God, a Soul, and an Afterlife.” This could support both the claims of the Atheist as well as the claims of the Theist, Non-Theistic (e.g. Buddhism) and the Deist. If it is fact though, it does help in our understanding of the proverbial “maze.”There is a difference between faith and belief. Faith is what we feel and hold to psychologically when we have no evidence other than our own experiential feelings and thoughts to prove something. “Belief” on the other hand is when we do have evidence that we can demonstrate to others. We can look at our history books and we trust the authors to be telling the truth. We find statements from others about what occurred in the past. We can believe them or we can disbelieve them. Faith in this instance is not required. For example, whether Jesus Christ existed and actually was crucified and the major point whether there was a resurrection from the dead. This is a point of belief, not faith. Faith enters in when someone believes in something there is no demonstrable material evidence to support the belief.
People, like the rat in the maze get frustrated. When we act as a group, we normally will take out our frustration on another “group.” Outsiders are normally labeled for instance, the Jews labeled them Gentiles, the Muslims labeled them Infidels, the Christians called them Heathens, and Atheists label them Idiots. We then classify them by their atrocities, and prioritize their overall value in order to organize our efforts as a group to “change the enemy.” In this group process of the Karpman Triangle (victim, abuser, rescuer) the meaning of important words change. For instance Justice: Justice to someone who is in “victim state of mind” is used to show others what the abusers are taking away from them. As soon as the victim group is in charge they then become the abuser and punish their enemy for their wrongful deeds. Which brings us to “Peace,” this word changes its meaning for those who are in the “rescuer state of mind.” Peace is what is found if everyone will only believe as they believe. Once this occurs they can resume their rightful status at the head of the “pecking order” and all will be well for everyone. Freedom is the last word representing the malleable concepts involved here. Freedom is that which is normally used as a rallying cry for those in the “abuser state of mind” as they begin using actual physical acts of aggression against “the enemy.”
What do you think the rat would do if it had the ability of innovation and could look for new ways to get the cheese? If it had reflectivity and knew or sensed it was in “a maze” controlled by humans? If we can see the possibility of solutions then we can raise our standards instead of merely “trying to be better than” someone else’s standards. If we can see our belief system, we can alter it. If we cannot, it alters us.
Excerpted from “The Lyth of Lemmings” by Frank Mueller, (2007)