Have you been thinking about an alternative ending for the “Concentration camp” story?
If you were there, what would you have done differently?
I like to believe there is a solution for every problem we have, and in order to find it, we just have to step out of our usual box and think outside of it.
There is an old saying that a double-edged sword has one side pointing at the enemy and the other pointing at the wielder. Another one says, “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword,” lastly one of Newton's laws says, “Every action has its opposite reaction.”
Because the prisoners in the concentration camp used force to cancel the force, all they got in return was force. Therefore, they returned to the same starting point from which they began.
Let’s leave all these quotes aside for a moment.
The prisoners’ biggest and most unfortunate mistake was actually defining problem in the wrong way. They thought their biggest problem was the warden, and they completely overlooked the real issue, which was there from the beginning.
Their problem was not the warden but the deprivation of their freedom.
Regardless of how banal and funny it sounds, the only problem they had was that they were being held captive at the concentration camp in the first place.
A peaceful path would have said the only thing they needed to do was to find a way to get out of there. The other mistake in their plan was a grave misjudgment of character.
When planning or looking for solutions that crucially depend on people, we do not usually look for the strongest people. What we need instead are the most intelligent and trustworthy individuals. And, in life and death situations, we would most likely look for the people of such integrity and honesty which couldn’t be disrupted even at the price of their own lives. When you have people with perfect incorruptible integrity on your side, only thing left is to focus on technical realization of the plan.
Instead of having a fistfight, what about digging a tunnel?
What about investing in people who have the same problem like they have?
Instead of force, aggression, and revenge, they could have “invested” in knowledge and integrity.
Haven’t we, for all these years, invested in similar bullies?
In our case, bullies have nice suits and ties, loads of money, and silver tongues. Instead of abusing us physically, they molest our minds, morals, and needs.
Isn’t it time for a change?
Isn’t it time to find an engineer instead of a politician to resolve the problems we have?
Update 11 Mar 2017:
Today I have stumbled upon something really exciting. Few months after writing this post I’ve found real life evidance that I was right — about theoretical solution for concentration camp metaphor I have discussed in this post.
Following is the true story about World War concentration camp prisoners that decided to dug a tunnel to their freedom, many of them lived and got children that are there to tell the tale – the tale that to solve things engineering is right approach!
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