We have a common refrain in my household, used both in jest and for accountability:
“You can’t take the effect and make it the cause.”
This is lifted from the White Stripes song “Effect and Cause.”
“Well, first came an action and then a reaction
But you can’t switch ’em ’round for your own satisfaction
Well you burnt my house down then got mad at my reaction”
How easy we forget Newton’s Third Law.
The pendulum is always swinging. The harder it swings in one direction, the harder it comes back the other direction. And so on and so forth.
I’m writing this as a reaction. To dark things.
The dark things are a reaction, too.
So I looked more into Newton’s Third Law for any clues on when or how this can end.
When you apply the third law to bodies in motion, it only works when forces occur in pairs: one object creates action and the other responds with a equal but opposite reaction.
The outcomes, based on several attributes noted in Newton’s Second Law, are: motion, equilibrium, or deformation.
Since bodies are always in motion, there is no “final” outcome of this law.
Unless the forces don’t come in pairs. What then, Sir Isaac Newton? What then, Jack White?
I thought this post was destined for the bin when I realized I was applying laws of physics to ideologies.
Then a woman got shot in the face.
And suddenly physics seems rather important.
Addendum
In looking at song lyrics for this post, I came across a video of former congresswoman Donna Edwards reciting the same song to her colleagues.
Interesting.
