The new book, all the rage is, Start with WHY, but Why? dare I ask?
I want to write a book in reply, titled, Dont start with WHY, start with WHERE. Because Why assumes there is a reason, whereas more times than not, WHY is a SITUATION, not a reason. Why are police in controversy? Why are young men from minorities being targeted? Why is America still so scared of terrorism? Don’t formulate some grand theory about racism or class, just go into those streets and meet those people and you understand that a thousand reasons wont do justice to the situation.
A why question implies that people have the luxury of an answer, as if the world must always conform to cause and effect logic, or that people always have the freedom to have reasons, rather than acting out of necessity. Most human complexities are compounded by answer-denying situations and once you give an answer, its immediately wrong because there is no one answer.
The answer is wrong because the question is wrong. Don’t ask WHY, ask WHERE and understand that WHY is a symptom of our infatuation with “Tidying up intolerably messy Truths.” WHY is not a doorway into the situation that will soon reveal the real geography of meaning, that “why you are” has everything to do with “where you are” and most of us are born there, which is a situation, not a reason.