A Problem Solving Perspective of Politics

Brief Updates

The 2021 Spring semester has started, and it’s been 2 full weeks of classes already. I’m finally enrolled in all of the classes I want – a healthy mix of robotics, Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

And since the new semester has started, there have been a bunch of webinars that have been hosted by various departments within my university. In one specific email of the Cornell Chronicle, I saw that there was going to be a webinar with former Republican Governor and Presidential Candidate, John Kasich. Personally, I’m more left-leaning and independent, but I do like listening to a variety of perspectives and think that hearing from politicians directly is more informative than through the filtered lens of media.

The First Impression

Going into this webinar, I wasn’t expecting much. I thought I would be casually tuning in and focusing on my coursework. However, shortly after the introductions, I was immediately interested and engaged in the conversation.

This entire webinar surrounds itself with 2 main ideas, spirtuality and focusing on solving issues at the local level. I will be going into these 2 ideas separately and how they can come together to solve different types of problems.

Spirituality

Spirituality is something that is often mistaken as religion. The two are indeed connected, but they are not the same. Spirituality is about the belief and the focus on self and bringing the self to peace. Religion is the way one engages in spirituality and is often tied to an identity (i.e “I am Christian/Jewish/Muslim”).

Although Kasich specifically focused on Christianity and Judaism in his talk, he also mentioned that other religions could work as well. In any case, this is understandable because he is more experienced with the Western religions. Kasich also never failed to mention that the ones who claim to be the most religious are often the ones who are being the most polarizing and negative, and not practicing “true religion”. This seemed important because it is important to recognize that we are all humans, and everyone has the ability to control their own actions. It is also important to recognize that not everyone is perfect. “None of are gonna be saints.”

When I listened to Kasich’s words during the webinar, and his focus on a “return to religious faith” as a way to create unity, I thought about my recent experience with spirituality and meditation. I’ve been reading into the aetheistic side of Hiduism/Buddhism, and it’s brought me a lot more awareness and peace. I still wouldn’t call myself religious in any sense, but I am spiritual and have a different way of life than I had before.

The type of problems that spirituality can solve are ones that are interpersonal. Whether it be meditation or through prayer, there is the opportunity to sort through one’s thoughts internally and process emotions. There is research that supports that meditation is can help reduce suffering in cancer patients, and with the increase in mental health issues, spirituality seems to be able to help people find a sense of purpose and direction.

Problem Solving at a Local Level

This may seem like the obvious place to start when trying to tackle a large problem. As the Confucious saying goes, “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying small stones.” What this means is that for all of the large and wicked problems, climate change, poverty, the problem solving starts at a small scale. Of course, in the age of globalization and the ability to communicate with anyone and travel to anywhere around the world, it is helpful to have larger systems to support the local efforts. However, the most impact is created locally.

This part of Kasich’s webinar focused on telling the students who were in attendance to go out and solve a local problem with friends. When people are focused on solving the same issues, there is an opportunity to bond and differences, political and ideological, go out the window. Everyone typically cares about the same things, but they have different ways of solving them (political differences, tackling bipartisanship).

Final Thoughts

All in all, I thought that this webinar was a really eye-opening moment for me, since it was the first time I participated in a political discussion forum out of the mainstream media. At large, I agreed with a lot of John Kasich’s points, and at the same time know that there are ways to expand upon his ideas to be more inclusive. He’s not perfect and neither am I, and by presenting my thoughts here, I hope to be able to spark a more inclusive discussion about problem solving and politics.

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