I Can't See That Far

This post is dedicated to human stupidity; not general stupidity, but the kind of dumbassery that comes from being short-sighted beings.  We act in the short term without any real idea of the consequences down the road.  This is, absolutely, true for adolescents but it's very much the case in the adult world as well.

The Law of Unintended Consequences (Google it, there's a ton of examples out there).


I wrote about the law of unintended consequences a while ago in a previous blog post where I acted in a way that I thought was right as a parent and ended up being being wrong in the end.  I took a long time to make my convoluted point but here's the skinny:

People act to solve one problem without considering all the consequences that might create as a result; unintended consequences.

There are many examples of this:

Preventing forest fires saves lives and money 

Playground safety is paramount to child development

Computers will bring American kids into the 21st Century

Give each a read to see the variety in our ability to be reactive and short-sighted.

And, when I say we, I mean humans.  All of us.  I wrote about one of my own law-breaking moments as a parent in the Being Right post.   I'm sure you have your own examples of humans breaking the law of unintended consequences.

But I think, on some level, we make short-sighted decisions all the time.  In fact, it might be part of an essential learning curve we all need to, ultimately, get it right.

Last night I enjoyed an old school movie night with my kids.  We watched The Little Mermaid (on DVD - there was even a preview for The Little Mermaid 3 (never saw it) on DVD or VHS - so classic 1990s.

If you don't know the story, click here:

It gets quite "moving" 1:37 in.

Anyway, the broken law moment:

King Triton goes into a rage and blows up all the human relics his daughter, Ariel has collected.  She is into humans in spite of our short-sighted relationship with the MerPeople.

Ariel freaks out and, basically, makes a deal with a sea witch to get legs and land her prince (never does a Disney princess go after the hot middle school teacher in the lead role - always a prince, sigh).

The deal goes bad and the whole under sea community is at risk, blah, blah, blah the prince saves the day and everyone lives happily ever after.

King Triton thought he could make his daughter change her mind about humans by using force and a badass trident.  She had other ideas and BOOM it set off a chain reaction Old Triton never saw coming.

I deal with adolescents all day and I have three more at home.  The law of unintended consequences impacts all of my relationships - all the time.  

I'm wondering if it's just me but it seems that perhaps humans are not quite equipped to understand ourselves or the consequences of our actions very well.

However, as an educator and parent I believe this law may play a part in the formula for motivation and success.  Because, when we get it right, it's awesome to witness. It doesn't seem to happen often enough, though.

Check out this oldie but goodie about 21st Century education.   It says a lot about the reality for so many American school kids today and how short-sighted we are being in education: