Cause And Effect & Human Relations

In the simplest explanation, cause and effect are seen as causality. The influence of one event, person, or action in contributing to the creation of another. Mostly we think of this in the singular.

The influence of A contributing to the creation of B.

What if this isn’t quite the only way it occurs?

As with a lot of things, the realisation that it could be different came randomly.  

Driving home on Saturday evening, I was stopped at a traffic light when my attention was captured by a huge billboard across the street, a white background with only 3 words:

3 Body Problem.

I wondered what that was about. Then the lights changed and I was on my way forgetting all about it. Much later, turning on Netflix, the first suggestion was…

3 Body Problem.

It's a movie I thought remembering the billboard.

Reading the little snippet, it was about scientists and Netflix was showing me that it was a 98% match for me.

In the 1st episode ( sorry spoiler alert!) a scientist is bludgeoned to death with a belt buckle. The punishment for voicing an idea contrary to the prevailing belief.

2 days later, I was arguing with someone about something I did or rather didn’t do the night before which they were very annoyed about.

Without thinking I offered a rational explanation which was:

We can’t talk about why I did what I did yesterday without talking about what happened before yesterday.

Now men probably know this all too well.

Never offer rationality when someone is being emotional. It’s like switching from English for example to some other language. The person can’t understand you because amid emotions we have no access to logic.

When someone’s emotional they usually want to be heard and acknowledged and not offered a rational solution. Emotionality requires empathy and rational requires logical solutions. But it's one thing to know this and in the moment, it often flies out the window. As in my case.

What did I hear in response to my rational answer?

Crickets!

They couldn’t hear me and likely didn’t want to hear me.

Now why am I telling you about this?

Remember the bludgeoned scientist? As an aside, have you ever wondered where they get the ideas for their hypotheses anyway?

2 months ago sitting in meditation this time, a thought stormed into my mind. Yup. Stormed.

Not slide in nor waft in. Nothing so delicate or gentle!

It zoomed in and announced itself boldly.

The thought?

Yikes! If you are a meditator you know how startling it is when this happens.

Wracking my brain for what it meant I was saved when the other pieces came flooding in with the same speed it announced its arrival originally.

We think of Cause and Effect as singular. Where one event causes another.

Here’s the controversial piece that in times gone by may have rendered me the same fate as that scientist.

The idea that firstly cause and effect happens in the singular may well not be the full story.

I am no scientist but could Cause and Effect be more like links on a chain?

Each cause adds a link to the chain which produces an effect which links to another cause and on and on. Not singular at all.

It’s like Israel pretending their current genocidal war began with the Hamas attack on the 7th of October. The Hamas attack was simply the next link in the chain that began who knows when.

Maybe 1948 with the creation of Israel or maybe with the Holocaust? Each Nakba produced an effect which caused the next war and then we got to the 7th October.

All the while with everyone trying to portray 7th October as the origin of this mess.

Does this make sense?

How does the judgement day piece fit in? In my mind, until that point, Judgement Day was the final reckoning most religions talk about.

At the risk of you thinking I’ve completely lost my mind, what if it isn’t quite this way either?

What if every day is Judgement Day because EACH DAY we get to make a judgement of what the next link in the chain will be thereby changing a negative trajectory (cause) to a positive (effect)?

All the while bearing in mind it will not just impact the next event but have ongoing repercussions.

Would we not be a tad bit more careful?

It was 2 months ago, I started writing this article and mid way thought it a great way to have people question my sanity, credibility and intellect in one go!

I scrapped it.

Watching 3 Body Problem I realised you rarely do yourself a favour by voicing a contrary viewpoint but does it mean you shouldn’t?

You can’t unlearn what you’ve learnt so you approach life from this new standpoint and end up trampling the toes of people (everyone!) who believe otherwise.

The idea that cause and effect may be a chain not a singular event may seem ridiculous to you. I get that!

The world is renowned for treating contrary ideas with contempt.

What would the likely benefits be of thinking about Cause and Effect like links on a chain?

1. It would provide a greater perspective since we would have access to more data. We could look at 1-year, 5-year, 50-year trajectories before deciding. In the case of Israel would doing this make you less or more likely to consider the current war a genocide?

2. Compounding is a beautiful thing but it also has a dark side. It can compound negatively in as much as positively. When it comes to the share market, we can get seduced by the advertised annual return percentage. Throw in a few years of negative growth and the compound return you planned on is lower than the annual return.

Why? Because you don’t get paid that lovely advertised annual rate but the compound rate.

3. Looking at cause and effect as links on a chain gives us both hindsight and foresight.

We can make decisions based on the trend, not singular events. A big factor in deciding whether to sell and invest elsewhere.

How could you apply this in your job or business?

• Are you making changes based on a knee-jerk response to a competitor or considering the trend of the market?
• Before you resign from your job consider what the compound return has been. Positive or negative and what role did your behaviour play vs the company? Which is in your power to control?
• Also, interest returns are small in years one and two but speed up after several years so are you jumping at the right time because the cycle will start again with a new company?

What’s the final takeaway from all this?

1. Chances are my meditative epiphany is entirely incorrect. However, could a different way of looking at Cause and Effect eliminate more misunderstandings?

2. Seeing each day as Judgement Day gives you the empowerment to make different choices rather than perpetuate a negative momentum - it can be a choice to change the direction not a fait accompli. Particularly since the result will have ongoing implications.

3. Most of us think emotionally but in the quest for rationality, we can’t fail to appreciate they are 2 different languages.

Both are powerful but impotent when used against each other. If someone is speaking emotionally, it may not be wise to respond rationally.

(unless crickets are what you’re after 😊)

If a member of your staff / family / friend is upset, they may just want you to hear them out not necessarily take action on the cause of the upset.

If in doubt, it might be best to just ask, what do you need from me right now? To appreciate where you are at or to help you come up with a solution.

Food for thought?