We Live In A Political World: #273 / For Every Action....

Isaac Newton

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Isaac Newton's "Third Law of Motion" is usually expressed this way: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Fair enough, with respect to those laws that govern our physical world. Most of us are convinced that this is an accurate statement of how the world actually works, in terms of physics.

However, does that statement reflect any reality in the "Human World," the world that we create ourselves? In other words, does Newton's "Third Law" accurately describe what must and will happen when we get beyond "physics," and start talking about how human beings interact?

Many people would say, "Yes," of course! Newton's Third Law definitely applies! If somebody pushes you, you push them right back, don't you? If they attack you, you'll attack them!

Employing Newton's "Third Law" in this way, with reference to human interactions, is actually more of a "justification" than an actual "law," since a "law" (at least when we're talking physics) is something that predicts what must and will happen. Still, as a statement of how our "Human World" works, Newtons "Third Law" still seems right to a lot of people. If someone does something bad to you, you should do the very same bad thing right back to them! In case this is your own view, please allow me to suggest that you read this book by Mohandas Gandhi, "My Experiments With Truth."

In early July, I read an inspiring New York Times' column by Nicholas Kristof, "Advocating Peace in the West Bank." At least, that's the way the title reads in the hard copy version of the paper that showed up on my front lawn. Online, which is where is where the link will take you, Kristof's column was titled, "Meet the Followers of Martin Luther King Jr. in the West Bank."

Oh, that guy! Yeah! Remember him? He's just like that Gandhi guy! King, too, repudiated Newton's "Third Law" when used to justify responding to unfair, even illegal, insults, attacks, and violence. He is not one of my "Five Guys" for nothing. A couple more of the "Five Guys" that I rely upon were just like King, when it came to responding to violence with violence, or responding to insults and injuries with injuries and insults delivered in return. If you can't figure out who I'm talking about without checking back, feel free to click this link to revisit that "Five Guys" blog posting.

Here are the opening paragraphs to Kristof's July 7, 2024, column. The Times' paywall permitting, I suggest that you read the whole thing:

A sign at the entrance to the Nassar family farm reads: “We refuse to be enemies.”

In a land torn apart by conflict, hatred and violence, this farm is an oasis of peace. Called the Tent of Nations, it is a monument to the idea that Arabs and Jews can live together in harmony.

The Nassars, a Christian Palestinian family, hold children’s camps and other programs on the farm to promote understanding and nonviolence even as they struggle to save their land from confiscation by Israeli settlers. They quote Martin Luther King Jr. and provide a model of peacefulness for their Palestinian and Israeli neighbors alike.

“It’s very important for us to show that nonviolent resistance is the key to change,” said Daoud Nassar, who runs the farm with his siblings Amal and Daher and other family members. “With violence, people will achieve more violence, will achieve more hatred, will achieve more bitterness and more enemies” (emphasis added).

My suggestion (and I am serious) is that Congress and the President invite Daoud Nassar to visit the United States, and ask him to address Congress and our nation. The purpose of this visit would be to allow the United States to consider a wholesale change in its approach to global affairs, and to put its money into realizing the "Tent of Nations" concept on a global scale, promoting nonviolent resistance instead of new weapons systems.

It is only "impossible" because we're not doing it! Where human possibility is concerned, Newton was just plain wrong!