The Problem with Short-Termism — Learning Lessons the Hard Way with COVID-19

If you have ever stopped to consider our typical response to a global challenge — whether it's another instance of genocide, an illegal nuclear weapons program, or a financial crisis, or whether it is climate change, unprecedented migration, or a potential pandemic like Ebola — you will have noticed that our knee-jerk response is to find a solution based on short-termism (also known as expediency).

What I mean by an expedient solution is one that has three features: First it is reactive — we lurch from crisis to crisis attempting to put out the fire of the day. Second, it is based on a consideration of short-term benefits without regard to long-term consequences. Third, it is based on a narrowly-conceived self-interest that fails to take into account the broader common interests of an interconnected humanity. 

A consequence of this expedient approach is that we never get to the root of any of our global problems and successfully solve them. Instead we content ourselves with temporarily extinguishing the flames while the embers continue to smolder, waiting for the gusts of wind occasioned by the next crisis to restart the fire. How many times have we seen this phenomenon play out with repeated genocides despite our loud promises of "never again!" Nuclear proliferation and illegal nuclear weapons programs proceed apace despite our protestations that they must stop. The number of refugees worldwide is greater than it's ever been. Financial crises recur with greater ferocity and fears of potential pandemics have been averted only for us to find ourselves in the thick of a swiftly-moving COVID-19 pandemic without adequate preparation. 

Another consequence is that our solutions to one problem often sow the seeds of the next disaster: We sent arms and trained fighters to dislodge the Soviets from Afghanistan only to find that we had created a new challenge in the form of the Taliban. We then entered into a war to uproot the Taliban and ended up mired in a conflict that continues to this day.  

To make matters worse, our solutions to various global challenges are often incongruent with each other and end up undermining each other. In a quest to lock up much-needed energy resources in the form of oil, a country will agree to overlook the gross human rights abuses perpetrated by another country as China did during the genocide in Darfur, warning that it would veto any attempt by the Security Council to formally declare the killings in Darfur a genocide.

A recent example that illustrates the disastrous consequences of problem-solving based on short-termism involves the decision by the Ecuadorian government to build a dam. Its purpose was to meet the country’s energy needs and help lift its population out of poverty quickly. To achieve this goal, it borrowed vast sums of money from China . Unfortunately, in their eagerness to do the deal, neither Ecuador nor China paid adequate attention to the fact that the dam was built just below a volcano. Consequently, only two years after the dam was completed there already were 7,000 cracks in its machinery. In addition, large amounts of silt, trees, and bushes were piling up in its reservoir, rendering it ineffective. Not only did the completed dam fail to achieve the goal of alleviating poverty, but the Ecuadorian government soon discovered that it did not have the means to repay its debt to China. In the end, Ecuador has ended up worse off than it was before it embarked on this venture. Its energy needs are still unmet and China now gets to keep 80 percent of Ecuador's most valuable export, oil, making Ecuador even poorer than it was to begin with.

For decades we have ignored the glaring evidence that short-termism is an outworn habit that does not serve our well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic is now teaching us, in the hardest way possible, that we simply can't do business as usual anymore. It is time to change our collective dysfunctional habits now, chief among them the habit of employing expediency to solve global challenges. The prolongation of a universal crisis that is playing out across the world is forcing us to think ahead, plan proactively for a time when we can emerge out of a global lockdown, and revive our battered economies. We need to do all this while also preparing for the possibility of a second and third wave of infections caused by the coronavirus and while working on antidotes and a vaccine.

The obvious question is: Is there an alternative method we can employ to solve our global challenges that is more effective, constructive, and empowering than short-termism? If so, what is it? The simple answer is: Yes; we can opt for a principled approach to solving global challenges. What, you may ask, does this entail? Essentially it requires that we do three things: First, identify a set of shared foundational principles that can form the basis of a new system of global governance. Second, get a handful of national leaders who are trusted and have standing in the international community to agree to these identified principles and then seek the consent of all their fellow world leaders. Finally, get the nations to commit to applying these shared foundational principles methodically and uncompromisingly whenever they want to solve any given global challenge. 

For those of you who are skeptical that such agreement is possible, I would invite you to consider the universal adoption of a new principle of the "Responsibility to Protect" otherwise known as R2P at the global summit in New York in 2005. The process that was followed to achieve this goal is highly instructive and can be used as a roadmap to replicate a similar success in achieving global consensus around a set of shared global ethics.  If you would like to learn more about the process employed, you can read more about it in my book "Building a World Federation: The Key to Resolving our Global Crises." 

Fortunately, a number of prominent figures have been talking about the importance of identifying and agreeing upon a shared set of foundational principles or what they sometimes refer to as a set of “shared global ethics.”  A couple of blog posts ago I shared with you an analogy given by Professor Kishore Mahbubani, formerly Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and later Dean of the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He describes the world as a ship with 193 cabins, each of which has its own set rules and staff to govern its internal affairs. In addition to pointing out that the ship as a whole lacks both cabin and crew, he also observes that the governing rules being applied within some of these cabins pose a direct threat to the ship as a whole and may cause it to sink with all its occupants. Even prior to Professor Mahbubani's astute observation, the governing body of the Baha'i community in its 1985 message to the people of the world, titled "The Promise of World Peace," urged leaders to begin solving their problems by identifying the principles involved and then applying them, rather than turning to expedient solutions. Gareth Evans, former foreign minister of Australia and long-term head of the International Crisis Group similarly expressed his view that the only way to find viable and effective solutions to problems of governance was to first identify the principles involved and then apply them methodically. He bemoaned the fact that this was not current practice at any level of government that he had seen. Others who have joined the growing chorus calling for nations to adopt a set of global ethics include Pascal Lamy, former director-general of the World Trade Organization, and Ian Goldin, professor of Globalisation and Development at Oxford University. 

By far the most compelling reason for adopting a set of global ethics is this: Just as there are physical laws that govern our lives — such as the law of gravity — so too, are there principles that govern our social reality. The most important of these principles is the oneness of people and nations. These laws operate on us whether we choose to recognize and acknowledge them or not. However, let us be clear: We ignore them at our peril. Imagine what would happen if we were to build an airplane without taking into account the law of gravity. No one would want to fly in it as the result would be disastrous! Why then, do we think when building institutions and organizations that govern our societies — whether political, social, financial or otherwise — we can ignore certain principles and truths about who we are as human beings and our relationship to each other without consequence? We flout these social realities at great cost to ourselves. It is no wonder that our social institutions are crumbling.  

Let us then commit to working together to replace our destructive habit of short-termism with the empowering, future-building habit of seeking principled solutions to our global challenges!

We’re Birthing a New Global Order — It’s Going to be Messy!

Famous 20th century psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, pointed out that while we are often faced with situations in life that are beyond our control, one thing that no one can ever take away from us is our choice about how we react to these circumstances. This precious freedom to choose our reactions can spell the difference between living a life fraught with fear, anxiety, and a sense of helplessness, or one that is infused with a sense of meaning and purpose, and marked by serenity, inner peace and joy.

While the coronavirus pandemic and its twin, the global economic recession threaten each and every one of us in multiple ways, we would do well to  remember that in the midst of this turmoil, we retain individual and collective choice. We can either choose to respond to these twin challenges with fear, anxiety, and a complete loss of hope — all of which trigger feelings of apathy and lethargy that ultimately cause us to procrastinate making decisions and taking constructive action. Alternatively, we can choose to perceive these same circumstances through a different and more empowering lens: What if we view these disasters as a collective test that offers us a prime opportunity to birth the kind of world we have been longing for, a world of peace and security in which the dignity and nobility of each human being is universally acknowledged and upheld? Choosing to view our reality in this light has several benefits: We free ourselves from the intense mental and psychological suffering — the deep unhappiness, depression, fear, and anxiety to which we otherwise subject ourselves — a suffering that depletes us and affects our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Not only do we then become ineffective actors in shaping our destiny, but we also become an added burden on others. This shift in perspective also has the incredible benefit of energizing us with hope. It offers us a vision of what is possible despite the circumstances. It also provides us with tremendous motivation and energy to act tirelessly and with focused determination and perseverance to create the world we want and deserve.  

When I look at everything that is happening, I can't help but think that our global society is going through a period of metamorphosis akin to the one that the caterpillar goes through before it becomes a butterfly. There are a couple of features of this process that are particularly relevant and shed light on our current process. The first is that once the caterpillar cocoons itself, it begins a dual process of destroying its old self while simultaneously preparing to emerge as a completely transformed creation. During this period of cocooning, the butterfly releases enzymes that literally dissolve its former shape, turning it into a messy liquid goo. At the same time, small clusters of cells called "imaginal discs" that have always been latent in the caterpillar and that are the building blocks of each part of the butterfly-to-be start to multiply and prepare themselves for the emergence of this wondrous new creation. This building process quickly accelerates eventually yielding a fully-formed butterfly. These twin processes of integration and disintegration occur simultaneously. Yet, while it’s going on, to all appearances the process seems messy, chaotic, and unpleasant and unlikely to result in anything good. The second feature is that the new creation is of a higher order than the old, with greater capacities: While the caterpillar is earth-bound, the butterfly has the new-found ability to fly and, in that sense, to literally rise above and transcend its former limitations. It also has a broader perspective and is able to see a wide range of possibilities. The third feature is that despite the initial paucity of imaginal discs, they multiply rapidly in the midst of all the disintegration. Ultimately, the butterfly is read to emerge at exactly the right time, when there is nothing left of the caterpillar.

What if this process mirrors exactly what we are currently experiencing? Our old world order is crashing down around our ears. It is undoubtedly messy and painful. We are literally experiencing the implosion of the social, economic, political, environmental, and religious systems we have painstakingly built. Isn't this likely to be happening because these systems  are clearly not fit for us at this stage in our collective historical evolution? Dare we not hope that what will emerge from this is a radically new global order founded on a radical shift in our very conception of society and of our reality as human beings? We are already beginning to see some leaders of thought observe that it is time for a completely new approach. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Henry Kissinger observes that no one country, not even the United States, can go it alone to overcome the virus. He asserts that “addressing the necessities of the moment must ultimately be coupled with a global collaborative vision and program.” A few days prior to that, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres raised the clarion call for a massive, multilateral response based on “shared responsibility and global solidarity” to build a better world. He urged us to remember that, “we are only as strong as the weakest health system in our interconnected world” and observed that our world has irrevocably changed, saying, “We can go back to the world as it was before or deal decisively with those issues that make us all unnecessarily vulnerable to crises.” 

Let us then grab this opportunity to develop the capacities, powers, moral standards, and institutions fit for our current stage of development. For this to happen, however, we must hold a vision of the kind of world we really want and deserve — a better world founded on the awareness of the oneness of humanity, a oneness that is the operational principle of international life, including our institutions and the principles upon which they are based.