Social problems have an uncanny ability to survive most attempts to<br >remedy them. Their first line of defense is to hide from public aware-<br >ness and then later to spring onto the scene as full-blown crises. As a<br >result， everyone wonders why a problem wasn t recognized until it<br >reached crisis proportions.<br > Actually， looking back， one can usually find that there were voices<br >warning the public about particular social problems in their early stages.<br >Look， for example， at pollution， the decimation of our natural re-<br >sources， racial unrest， energy shortages， and the declining quality of<br >education. But people pay little attention to warnings precisely because<br >the situation is not yet a crisis or does not personally affect them. The<br >public labels as an alarmist anyone who cries "Wolf" before the wolf<br > actually puts in an appearance.<br > Social problems remain hidden from public scrutiny through a<br > variety of techniques. One is the ability to camouflage themselves， to<br > appear to be something other than what they are. For example， poverty<br > is often attributed to laziness. It becomes， then， the natural result of<br > an unwillingness to work. To attack the social problem of poverty，<br > ways are devised to force lazy people to work. Hence， most remedies<br > for poverty are ineffective because the problem has more to do with<br > economics and emotions than laziness. While the war is waged against<br > the wrong enemy， poverty thrives.<br > Progress cannot be made in solving disguised social problems until<br > they are labeled by their right names. In order for that to happen，<br > someone has to be able to overcome a mind set and dare to think the<br > unthinkable-or the obvious.<br >