I’ve been working on a report to the Falloonian Elders on the difficulty your species in this country has with identifying problems. I mean, you have a major problem with addiction but you seem to think the problem is the addiction element. You have a problem with crime and you think the problem is the number of incarceration facilities. You have a problem with ignorance and you think the problem is the lack of skill in taking tests.
I finally figured out how to describe it. My counterpart in Spain once described a bullfight to the Elders.
They were disbelieving at first and then aghast.
Anyway, since they were familiar with this barbaric practice, I used it to illustrate my report.
This bull comes into the ring and, correctly perceives that he has a problem.
He thinks the problem is that red cape they keep waving at him.
So, he applies the correct solution to the problem as he sees it.
But, the first real problem is the man on the horse with the long spear in his hand.
Strategic Analysis Gone Bad - C.W.
Still, he remains stubbornly convinced, (See DEA) that the problem is the cape and he applies his solution again.
This time the problem is the man with the barbed sticks. The bull is getting tired now.
Still, he remains convinced that the problem is the cape. Again, with one last burst of energy, he applies what has become an obsessive solution.
And … after the final charge at the red cape, he discovers, to his everlasting regret, that his greatest problem all along was the little man behind it with a sword in his hand.