The Caution of Humility

"Ending Bullying an Inexact Science."
This is not from The Onion; it is a headline from the HuffingtonPost. It implies a body of work investigating bullying and thoughtful self-criticism that attends it. Moreover it implies the value of such inquiry, that bullying is both a reasonable subject of research and that successful management is mere time and effort away. The headline itself is a wonderful bit of modern nonsense: Ending bullying is a hope or desire, not a science. Indeed, science has no aspiration or wish. But it is doubtful that there is not a Bullying Institute somewhere. And if there is one, the employees are certain to wear white coats.

This calls to mind Shimon Peres' lovely observation (a la Niebuhr): "If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time." This is an enlightening thought. How many of the difficulties facing us are problems and how many are facts of life? And how are we to distinguish between them? What screams for change and what for accommodation?

We are a restless and impatient people; we want to improve things. We want to clear the land, bridge the gap, raise the barn. Problems are challenges. But are they really?

Where in our cowboy restlessness and our charming Yankee penchant for tinkering does ambition--or simple foolishness--start to cloud our minds? Is everything to be overcome? Or do we work away at some targeted condition of life like Frankenstein, creating some monster imitation of a solution.