Are you committed to the problem?

I recently learned the difference between an etiology and a teleology.

The former is a way of thinking about the state of things based on causes. A cause creates an effect. And the effect determines the way things are.

A teleology is the opposite. Instead of attributing effects to causes, you attribute them to the purpose they themselves serve. Given this line of thinking, things are the way they are because we make them that way, because the effects serve a purpose.

While I’m not wholly convinced that effects are independent of causes, or that every thing that befalls us is within our control, I think this is certainly a useful dichotomy to think about when it comes to our problems, whatever they may be.

Because, of course, if we only explain things through cause and effect, then there’s no choice in the matter. Things are the way they are because of a cause we can neither change nor ignore. And if we can’t change the past or who we are, the problems and obstacles that confound us can often stay dormant and unresolved indefinitely.

Indeed, too much causal thinking can lead to absolute determinism—the belief that nothing can change (about ourselves or the world), and that we’re merely stuck with the way things are, forever.

The inverse is to acknowledge that maybe, just possibly, you’re committed to the problem (not to finding a solution). Because if you can’t change, then you don’t have to. Things can remain the same, while you can blame everything on the cause of your passivity. (An ingenious strategy to say the least.)

By not recognizing our choice—that we allow things to happen to us, or that we can choose how we act—we allow ourselves to become victims of our circumstances, while we forget how much freedom we have.

This is precisely why asking how we’re complicit is such a pertinent and powerful question to ask. Because sometimes the solution is not about fixing what’s causing this or that. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of noticing what we’re not doing—what we’re evading or avoiding—by choice or by fear.