Problems and solutions, a quote, maybe from gore vidal(?)

A writer once wryly said, "There is no problem in the world that could not be solved... if people just acted the way I think they should"

Easy to see absurdity and illogic when written plainly like that.

But how often do we act using this premise, without awareness or remorse?

Perhaps it is more shielded. The less hyperbolic version is something I think nearly all of America would get behind:

"There are some problems that can partially solved if people just tried acting in the way I think they should."

We've removed the hubris and softened the tone, but the core is intact. I.e., an attitude of "I know things and how they work. People should try my way."

In Buddhism, there seem to be multiple critiques.

Importantly, Buddhism isn't defeatest or super-subjective, saying that it's too hard to understand problems or that problems don't have simple solutions. In fact, the Buddhist approach is quite simple to describe. All phenomena have causes. Eliminate any of the causes in the causal chain, and the chain is broken, the phenomena is released. That's simple to describe, but the hard part is the causes. And the causes are often in deep and\or subtle habits or intentions of the mind.

Buddhism also says that everyone's problems are made up of the same primary forces, like greed, anger, delusion or clinging and craving. But, the expression of those forces is highly varied, so there isn't a one-size-fits-all checklist. There are markers on the (eightfold) path and the 4 Noble truths. But it's not a multiple choice test or a list of facts to memorize.

Buddhism also thinks about whether it's skillful or unskillful to have this attitude. Unfortunately for detection and evaluation, it's not black and white; There are mixes of virtue and lack of virtue that are quite grey. It's good to want to help people. It's not so good to presume the answer. And, if you don't address underlying causes and motivation, a lot of solutions don't stick. Also, you could be wrong because what works for you doesn't always work for others. In general, there is a lack of humility and an oversimplification in the attitude of know-it-all. For skillfulness, there are two frames: skillfulness for you and skillfulness for others. For you, even if you are sometimes right, being a know-it-all is not skillful for calming one's own mind.

You can be right in what you say and wrong in how or why you say it.

Buddhism also has some Dunning Kruger style critiques that limit the skillfulness of you supposed knowledge for others. You don't know what you don't know. So, you might fill in details yourself rather than going and checking them. The actual problem in others is not the same as the problem you see. But you can't see that because of your limited imagination.

Everyone inherits their actions. And their actions and the motivations... That itself is a problem. In fact, that's often the main problem, and a hairy and messy problem at that.

Finally, the initial statement isn't wrong, even in the grandiose hyperbolic version. The Buddha said that all suffering could be solved. And it can be solved by the 4 Noble truths. But the Buddha didn't have a subtext that most listeners insert... That it's easy or fast or that if you don't see it you are wrong or dumb.

As an interesting related statement, the Buddha only spoke about one problem: suffering. So if you have some other problem, like problems at work or a flat tire or climate change, the Buddha didn't touch those, except insofar as he talked about the suffering underlying the problem. In fact, in the 8 worldly winds, he said that nobody can escape blame or praise or pleasure or pain. But one can learn not to be blown around internally by them.

I think the writer was Gore Vidal. I have not been able to track down the quote origin.