Fatigue and Erosion

Picture metal…

It could be a thick I-beam, or it could be a length of wire; as long as your mental example is capable of bearing a vertical load, it will suffice for this thought experiment.

If that piece of metal can bend once while that vertical load is applied and immediate catastrophic failure is avoided, what happens when that bending motion is applied in an equal and opposite direction once again?

Depending on the type of metal, maybe nothing.

However, repeat the exercise… once, then again, and again… It doesn’t really matter how fast that bending motion is applied – eventually, that piece of metal will experience a fatigue failure and break with some component of heat associated with the failure.

Ah, yes, the rabbit hole of “The Invisible Sun and Friction” beckons:

We can discuss differences of opinions (even though I have been more reluctant to engage, lately), the laws are shaped by the shifts in society as a reflection of changes in what is – or is not – largely acceptable to the whole, and we can react accordingly when communication and legislation prove to be ineffective for whatever reason.
This is, essentially, a sort of friction which keeps us from abruptly sliding into chaos.
However, now that I think of it, too much friction… applied too quickly… generates excessive heat and can quickly escalate beyond the control of the individual, the society, or the nation as a whole. That “invisible sun” either expands or contracts – obliterating any trace of the life it once sustained.

What began as a discussion earlier tonight with my wife – the moral and ethical flexibility shown by some folks – segued into a discussion of the objective and subjective applications/justifications for that wonderful pathos/ethos/logos triangle which has been vexing me for a while now.

I wrote about it first in The Monsters Are Due:

Ah yes… the mob: Hungry for identification and persecution of the threat, and desperate for the vindication of mindless reaction; the lopsided scalene triangle of pathos, ethos, and logos – where the angle and leg length represent intensity and capability of action. In this case – ethos, the appeal of emotion – grossly offsets logic and ethical considerations and courses of action and destabilizes societal norms into the unbalanced and dangerous territory of scared anger.

And not too long later in Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Part II:

Ethos, pathos, and logos… ethics, emotion, and logic. It seems that we can only chose two and not all three:
            Ethics + emotion = illogical
            Emotion + logic = unethical
            Logic + ethics = emotionless

Of course, it turned into the metaphor I started with: induced fatigue failure. No matter what type of material, the care taken in construction/production/creation, or the deliberate and careful anticipation of potential points of failure, there is only one absolute certainty – that repetitive loads applied to any structure – or organization – will cause failure, eventually.

Last month, I mused on the idea of erosion in one of the few videos I have ventured to make when I don’t quite have the time (or quiet) to capitalize on the ever-elusive Muse when ideas become uncontainable:

…Why this is important is interesting, in my opinion, because […] this is the same thing that happens on a societal level… or on an ethical level…or on a moral level; […] once you have that small opportunity of either laziness of thought; laziness of ethics; laziness of morals where you take the easy route… where you take the path of least resistance, then it accelerates because there’s nothing really holding you back…
@5:08

Fatigue and erosion…

In reviewing many of my posts, I enjoy the political ambiguity I have managed to maintain over the years of writing here. It should be somewhat difficult to pin my political beliefs down as I have forced myself to be as vague as possible. This is deliberate – I try my best to understand all perspectives of issues and the possible consequences which may follow.

At the same time, my efforts to attempt to avoid discussing that which is being discussed ad nauseum at the moment have largely been futile. I dislike being yet another reactionary commentary in the din of opinion; yet, here I am – documenting my thoughts for the sake of my kids and a future audience about those exact reactions and my thoughts about the present. Therefore, for that sake of posterity I offer the following initiators of this post without qualifiers or declarations of support or outrage:

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

No. 19–1392

THOMAS E. DOBBS, STATE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION, ET AL.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

[June 24, 2022]

And…

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

NEW YORK STATE RIFLE & PISTOL ASSOCIATION, INC., ET AL. v. BRUEN, SUPERINTENDENT OF NEW YORK STATE POLICE, ET AL.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

No. 20–843. Argued November 3, 2021—Decided June 23, 2022

Fatigue and erosion… both are forces of nature, and – depending on the perspective – either constructive or destructive.