The Forces Of Nature
Senior Year, Afghanistan & America’s Future
January 7, 2002
In the early fall of my senior year (undergrad), I was in the typical mess of having a desk covered with unopened and uncompleted graduate school applications. Time to buckle down. By chance, the top of the pile belonged to Cornell and it was time to begin. The usual stuff was easy...fill in the blanks…name, address, date of birth, etc.
Then came the moment of truth...”Please write an essay on what you consider to be your most significant thought and why you think it is so.” Sweet Jesus...I had never had a significant thought in my life and inventing one was a real reach.
As I pondered a future selling pots & pans door-to-door because all of the grad school aspirations were about to go into the garbage, I noticed that I was tapping a beer bottle on my desk with my car keys. It was one of those vacant-minded things that people without significant thoughts do to fill time.
Fixating on the keys tapping the bottle, I started to think about metal hitting glass...which led to thoughts about Fe (iron) and Si (silicon). One thought connected to another and WHAMMO...a concept concerning the Fungibility of sub-atomic particles exploded in my mind and I was off to the races.
A proton is a proton is a proton and the same with neutrons and electrons. Any single proton is identical to all others. A single neutron is no different than all other neutrons and, even though they are not discrete, there is no difference between electrons. Yet, in combination and under the control of natural forces they combine to form seemingly different elements even though the lowest common denominator of all element become identical sub-atomic particles.
Things only look different but under the skin they are all the same.
Relationships are everything and the goal of thought is to interpret relationships and not to memorize discrete information. Knowledge is a dynamic fluid.
I wrote the essay on the relativity of perception concerning different combinations of identical discrete particles that, in combination, create the perception of difference when, in fact, none exists.
The strength of the concept resides in its appeal as an analytic methodology, which, transcends all disciplinary bounds…a very subtle insight that crystallized all of the liberal arts education into a working analytic machine in a nanosecond of thought.
I really don’t tell many people about this because it could get me burnt at a stake.
The liberal arts ARE physics, chemistry, math, history, fine arts, economics, theology, etc...the compendium of thought. The trick is to study each discrete discipline and then somehow (hopefully) meld them into a thinking or analytical process. Much more of a “how to think” exercise than a ‘what to think”.
It’s almost like a unified field theory of intellectualism.
Here are all these seemingly different subject matters but it is your task to see why they are not unrelated but complimentary to the thought process. Like all the parts of an auto engine, they work together in the transfer of energy to something useful.
Thus, understanding the dynamics of the atom lends useful insight to the understanding of society because it affords a conceptual schematic to use as an analytic overlay. Protons, neutrons and electrons must all function together, and in the right balance, to produce the atom of a single element. Screw it up and you get another element or a reaction or both. Yet, the particles do not act independently because the forces of nature control them. The weak and strong nuclear forces, electromagnetic force and gravity organize them.
Now, view society. Is it any different? Not much. Or a corporation? Again, not much different. General Motors and the Red Cross are essentially the same creatures. One seeks revenues and the other solicits contributions…they both want money.
All of the components have to exist in balance for the organization to exist and prosper. Yet, external independent forces like the economic market, or even the temperature, control the dynamics of the organization. Thus, like in math, financial divisions or fundraising committees are just dependent variables. The fate of the single piece is dependent on the stability of relationships within the whole.
Hope you are still with me because we are boarding a flight to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has a long history of internal turmoil based on warring ethnic and tribal factions. The U.S. and U.N. are presently trying to figure out how to bring some post-war order to the country. Simultaneously, the U.S. is domestically pursuing and supporting a policy of multi-cultural diversity at home.
The U.S., which historically has been a very stable country because of a melting pot concept, is now trying to recreate itself as an “a la carte” society. No longer must immigrants be assimilated into a culture of commonly held beliefs and practices.
Rather, there is constant and forceful encouragement to remain culturally autonomous.
America is based on the evolution of human thought that started with the Renaissance and culminated in the Enlightenment. Scientific advancement brought down the rule of monarchs because it disproved the black magic of Kings being Gods on Earth (very condensed explanation).
With this freedom, humanity then advanced to the level of embracing social theories of natural rights that made individual liberties possible. In turn, this was the catalyst for the creation of the middle class.
Government and society expect its citizens to embrace the laws of the United States. These very laws are dependent upon respect for the individual...most importantly, the respect for others’ rights in order to protect one’s own rights. But, as is becoming clear, without a common set of beliefs through which people are assimilated into a common culture...POOF...BANG.
Thus, it seems so silly that we are in such a twist about the state of Afghanistan, which is a product of perpetually warring interests without common beliefs. Simultaneously, very powerful interest groups are trying to create the same mess in the domestic U.S.
Over time, the U.S., like an atom gone bad, is destabilizing itself. Ultimately, something unpleasant (much like the violent yet predictable dynamics of a fission reaction) will eliminate what once was recognized as America. Not to worry, the laws of nature will eventually bring equilibrium back to the swirling mess but, perhaps, in a different form.
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