"He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building" - The Prince
I reflect on what Machiavelli has written. Although I read (on others interpretation of this) people applying this saying to business. But I believe there is a more fundamental application to it, which is ourselves. If we look at our foundations, what have we laid for ourselves.
If we think of all the components of a building, everything depends on the foundation. It holds everything up and dictates a lot about the building. After the foundation is set the building is erected (takes longer that it implies in this sentence). Now going back, after the building has been opened and is operating, cracks are found in the foundation.
Do we patch the cracks, or do we go back and redo part of the foundation? Well it depends on the severity of the cracks. Some do not need much work to fix but when big cracks start appearing then more attention needs to be placed on them.
Looking at our world, I see we have created cracks in nature. Again, some bigger than others. Some barely noticeable. We have gotten into a habit of just patching the cracks, but does that really get rid of them?
We must drill into our foundations and break them apart and get rid of these cracks. If we do not, they will continue to grow and get bigger and will become a greater problem to deal with later on.