Causality

Back in 2017, I answered a question about the origins of the Second World War with the inclusion of a quote from one of the most perfect depictions of a weasel-villain from film: the Merovingian from The Matrix Reloaded…

You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.

The guy was creepy and despicable… but his logic was inescapable and applicable in the fictional ethics of his role.

Another quote resonates even more today:

Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.

I haven’t been living under a rock. I have watched what has been going on and, more importantly, I have been watching the reactions for the opportunity and motivation to capture my thoughts as they become more organized and detached from whatever emotions which were attached to those observations.

One long-held idea has been reinforced over the last few months – beware of the pendulum.

An idea or law might seem like a fine idea at conception. I cannot remember where I came across the quote, but to paraphrase the anonymous source: the true test of a law is how it could be used against you. The suppression of the rights of one’s political or ideological opponent one day might be the same efforts being used as retribution by those same targets later. The same behavior which is permissible as a form of redress and protest one day eventually will become a threat to the safety and order of another day.

Cause… and effect. Action-reaction. Social and political movements usually follow the same principles which govern physical sciences: pressure, force, physics… I’m sure smarter folks than I have come to a similar conclusion about Newtonian physics and sociopolitical parallels; it’s late and the Muse compels me to write quickly to capture my thoughts.

Dave shared an article which provided the spark – The New Domestic War on Terror is Coming. I made it about halfway through when two quotes stood out:

This [censorship] is all driven by a radical expansion of the meaning of “incitement to violence.

…[W]here a whole generation of angry … youth with very poor prospects followed a powerful leader who promised to take them back in time to a better place, and he led them to embrace an ideology that justified their violence.

Yes, I intentionally skipped over one word to show how reciprocal the idea actually is, politically. That should bother people; that it doesn’t seem to register – the ease by which this could describe either political end of the spectrum – brings me to a level of disconcertion I cannot remember in my entire life.

What happens when the realization hits that the pendulum has reversed its momentum and the prideful become the fearful? The victims become the vengeful? When those with confidence are backed into a corner?

Here’s the thing – I hate the fact that I closed the last post with an ominous tone, and I hate the fact that the brooding tone of this post isn’t fairing much better.

I have not given up on my determined optimism; the world cannot rob me of that which I will never part with. My faith in society isn’t irrevocably eroded… for some people, they are beyond hope and patience, but as a whole, I haven’t given up in defeat. We have access to lessons of the past which were written in blood, and we have the potential to not squander those priceless lessons in a much better direction than I feel we are headed… all it really takes is the curiosity to understand the factors which contributed to what has been endured and the resolution that we will not repeat the bad and improve upon the good…

…After all, the metronome for the most beautiful compositions is, in fact, a pendulum.