A fairy tale to grow out of.
“Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea, and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee …”
The song, whose opening line is above, is about a mythical creature, the little boy who believes in him, and the sadness of growing up and leaving fairy tales behind.
I think it holds a lesson for us. The more I witness conversations, whether about politics, sports or societal issues, the more aware I have become of simple solutions. Our societal issues would vanish at a stroke if there were no immigration. A single brilliant player or change in strategy would win us the World Cup. Our economy would be successful if we only implemented one change in policy.
While I don’t think this is new, I do suspect that it has become worse. Sound-bite news reporting and social media encourage and almost enforce simplified expressions of one-stop solutions.
Anyone who is paying attention knows that the world itself has become more complex. Just about everything affects almost everything else, it seems. This doesn’t seem to have reduced the appetite for such instant remedies. If anything, it may have made it worse, because panic is not conducive to deep thought. There is an inclination to latch on to any appealing slogan that comes from the mummies and daddies (politicians and pundits) we would like to have rescue us from our nightmares. We grasp for magic bullets.
It doesn’t work and it can’t work. It is a fairy story.
“Dragons live for ever, but not so girls and boys. Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.” We too have to grow up. We need new toys like systemic thinking. We need wholeness.
Puff the magic bullet is a myth. It is time to let go of it.