As part of its mission to help heal the spirit of America, the Route 66 Spirit of America Museum is kicking off its “A Wiser Way Forward” series of essays and videos today (Feb 9, 2025). We are living in challenging times for America. It’s spirit is rapidly descending into a “divided States” reality from the “united States” vision of the Founding Fathers. And no matter which side of that divide you are on (a spiritual / sociological – not political – distinction), the museum’s position is that the United States vision of the Founding Fathers should be maintained (not abandoned) even if achieving it seems impossible to some today.
Helping people answer the question “What is impossible vs what is possible?” is a key part of the museum’s work as well. And the video recorded by museum founder, Steve Brant, today begins to address that question… by introducing the subject of Systems Thinking.
Einstein famously said “The specific problems we face cannot be solved using the same thinking that created them.” This is another way of saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Americans have been trying to solve the problems we face for a long time by using the same thinking that created them. And that is not their fault. America’s educational system does not teach the “new thinking” of Systems Thinking. It teaches Analytic Thinking: looking for what parts are broken and teaching how to fix those broken parts.
Systems Thinking looks at the overall design of the system in which those parts are breaking, recognizing that a part that gets fixed will just break again if the system in which it exists remains the same. Why? Because parts break as a result of flaws in the design of the larger system in which they exist. Parts do not break on their own. They are part of a larger whole. And studying that larger whole – and redesigning it to reflect the best “prevent parts from breaking” thinking known today – is how you not just fix a broken part today but prevent it from breaking again in the future..
The Route 66 Spirit of America Museum has a section dedicated to the work of three of the pioneers of this “new thinking” / Systems Thinking:
Drs. W. Edwards Deming, Russell L. Ackoff, and R. Buckminster Fuller. Their work will be detailed in future essays. But feel free to search for videos about them on YouTube.
The next essay / video in the “A Wiser Way Forward” series will preview the application of Systems Thinking to America’s problems … an approach the museum will be championing moving forward… including with a special project designed to leverage the fact that 2026 is both America’s 250th birthday and the Centennial of Route 66. By doing so, the museum’s plan is to piggy back a traveling exhibit on a variety of events happening around the country celebrating those two birthdays. Doing so will increase the possibility that the public will learn what a Systems Thinking-based pathway out of today’s crises could look like.
Thanks very much for your interest!
Here’s Steve Brant’s video from today…
