Knowing the why of the what

or how to make sense of a word-salad world.

We live in an age of constant information, misinformation, disinformation and are inundated, deluged, drowned in a slurry of stories about what is going on in our world.

From the moment we wake we are subjected to a chopped, over-dressed salad of words spewing out of our mobile phones, computers, television sets, radios and it does not stop. We are listening not just to a few people but to millions of mouths around the world.

For some people it is just too much and they close ears, eyes, and mind to all of it. Some learn to pace themselves in face of the surge and splurge of data, real, imagined and sometimes totally fabricated.

There have always been those who sought to control and manipulate their clan, family, tribe, village, town, city, State, or nation but now it seems there are those who seek to control humanity as a whole. I do not think it is possible but there is no doubt we are subjected to more images and stories than humans have ever been before.

And it takes a toll because we are hardwired, evolved, designed, pick a word, to make sense of what is going on around us and most particularly, to perceive that which might threaten our survival. War is threatening and so is death and uncertainty more threatening than anything. War, disease, death, suffering, trauma, violence make up most of the salad on our plate. No wonder we choke, cannot swallow, digest, absorb and feel like vomiting. There is just too much of everything and most of it we do not understand because it is impossible to have a facts-based approach to all of it.

Nothing makes us more nervous than the unknown. While there are of course exceptions because some people thrive on uncertainty, at some level we humans are hardwired to seek understanding, because therein lies the illusion that we can have some control or power over our unpredictable world.

So, if we do not have facts, we make up stories, or take up someone else’s story about why something is happening. The human mind is inventive and we are inventing all the time, making connections, and trying to make sense of what is happening. Our beliefs are part of a giant jigsaw puzzle except that when pieces are missing, we cut out new ones to fill the gaps in the picture. This is often done unconsciously because without a story we feel lost. If there is no Why of the What, we must create one.

We can no longer trust our priest, leaders, police, or any of the authoritarian figures of times past who would interpret for us and pronounce reasonably valid assessments of any situation. Perhaps they could not be trusted in the past, but people believed that they could and that made a difference. Now it falls to us, as individuals, to digest the nonstop, hearty, and often poisonous meals of information constantly plated up in noisy force-feeding.

If something happens, we want to know why. Well, most people do and in fact the most common word for toddlers is WHY. They are seeking to understand their world and that means knowing why something happens.

The why of the what is that which allows us to make a map to follow in the immediate and potential of life. Humans have made great progress in seeking to understand why something happens. Nomadic hunter-gatherers needed some understanding of the why of the what, but settled agriculturists needed even more. In our techo-toy world we spend a lot of time finding our way around the ever-changing laws and rules of the internet and a computerised world. None of this helps us understand the natural world or human nature and in fact distracts us from doing so.

The mechanical and material is much more easily understood than the natural or psychic world. This no doubt is why humans have made huge advances in science and medicine in terms of the material and mechanical even if they have failed to advance much at all in those regions where the why of the what is unknown or poorly perceived. We can perform wonders with surgical techniques but still fail to create good health, prevent disease or indeed, cure most diseases.

And that is because we are better at WHAT than WHY. If you do not understand why something happens you can only ever tinker at the edges and tidy up the What. It also applies to wars. If we do not, will not, or cannot understand the Why of the What we will never be able to solve a conflict or prevent others from happening.

War, like anything else, does not happen in a vacuum. It is too easy to paint one side as the goodies and the other as the baddies. Life and human nature are never so black and white. There are some basic rules, often ignored, that might be not right, that power does not give any person or State the right to steal, murder, torture or abuse and that principles of justice need to be applied to both sides to understand why they are fighting each other.

There were reasons why the First World War happened and the Second World War which had its roots in the punitive treatment of the Germans after WWI. There were reasons why the Germans and the Japanese went to war, some of them valid and some initiated if not pushed by their enemies, and others totally self-serving. War often happens when we least expect it and small wars become big wars very easily.

There were reasons why the Americans went to war in Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, just three of a very long list, although few of the reasons would be just, rational, or reasonable even if they made sense to those involved at the time. There are reasons why the Palestinian Resistance/Hamas attacked Israelis on October 7. Those reasons may be unknown, ignored, or denied by many but they remain reasons all the same. If Zionists had not invaded Palestine in 1947 and forced a colonial State onto Palestinian land in a genocidal onslaught of ethnic cleansing then October 7 would never have happened. If the Israelis had not treated the Palestinians worse than animals and inflicted a savage and brutal military colonial occupation on them, denying them all human and civil rights then October 7 would probably not have happened and Hamas would not exist.

And of course there were reasons/excuses why the Zionists and Jews did what they did in the way that they did. Choices were made by the Zionists, the Jewish colonists and those who came to call themselves Israelis which laid the foundation for constant war with the native people whose land they had colonised. There are no humans in history who have not resisted their colonial oppressors so the chance that the Palestinians would not ultimately decide their only option was war, was minimal. War very often results from a sense of injustice, often real, sometimes imagined, and sometimes a bit of both.

There are always reasons as to why people go to war and mixed in with it all will be valid as well as invalid reasons for resorting to such violence. Sifting through that will allow the why of the what to be identified.

We are not just story-tellers, we are story creators and our fears can be as easily soothed by the real or the imagined. This is why throughout history there have always been those who are targeted and persecuted, i.e. the ready scapegoat, whether an individual, a group, religion, nation, country or whatever. This is all part of trying to put together the Why of the What, whether it is a plague, a drought, or any threatening event. Someone must be blamed. A story must be told. Shared stories are the glue which binds us together.

The greatest human fear is perhaps being alone, abandoned, rejected by the group and this is why a story shared is a story empowered. The punishment in ancient times was abandonment by the group and variations on this theme remain a part of society to lesser and greater degrees, and a core fear in most humans. In tribal times being an outcast meant certain death and this experience and fear remains a part of our ancient unconscious heritage - a primal fear. This is what makes propaganda so powerful. It takes a brave person to reject the shared story and to think for themselves.

Humans have survived and thrived by better understanding the world around them and themselves, although the latter remains minimal. This ability to make connections and to understand why something is happening is the foundation not just of our survival but our capacity to thrive.

When we stop asking questions or when we are prevented from asking questions and demanding answers we are doomed. Freedom of speech is perhaps the greatest gift in our modern Western world for which millions have fought and died. We forget that at our peril. Everyone must be called to account in war and the why of it presented as demonstrable facts.

And to allow that to happen we need to accept the inherent value of every single human being and to apply the same principles to all equally. We need to hear and process all the stories before any judgement can be made about who is doing what and why.

One thing is certain, the search for the why of the what requires a commitment to the gathering of as many facts as possible, the application of high doses of common sense and a general appreciation of the need for compassion. We also need to retain a sense of humour as we face the insanity of it all and the impossible contradictions of the human mind.