Toe in the Water

Tomorrow Today

Tomorrow Today

Do you ever listen to people’s answers to the question, “What would you do if you ruled the world?” I do, although the answers always horrify me. People throw out ideas in magnificent confidence that just this one rule here or this tweak there would make things so much better. And I’m sitting there thinking, “Did you ever think of the consequences of that action? Has it never occurred to you to wonder why it hasn’t been done before?” Or, if it has, don’t you know how it invariably goes wrong and results in the exact opposite of your intentions happening?

No one ever seems to face the fact that we’re all human. That we don’t have perfection in any way. That all our answers are inevitably flawed and will ultimately bring about disaster. “No one” means you don’t have special dispensation and the same goes for me. Both of us, if ever placed in that position would make the most awful mess ever imagined. And the reason is we’re human.

So, unless we’re prepared to start by admitting that we haven’t got a clue, we’re beaten before we start. The only way to mitigate our mistakes is to begin by preparing for the worst. We don’t instigate anything until we’ve already created the means to dismantle it hastily if it starts to go wrong. It is indeed a case of “work out your salvation in fear and trembling.”

Perhaps the best policy would be to duck the question by saying, “Absolutely no idea, mate.”


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