justice: January 2011 Archives
I learned about diffusion and effusion in High School chemisty.
Don't go away - this is actually pretty easy to understand. Note that I have taken Chemistry three times (once in High School twice in college) and have never completed it. If I can get this, anyone can.
Basically, diffusion means that the random movement of particles leads to them being evenly distributed within a container. This is why there is breathable oxygen everywhere and carbon dioxide doesn't stay built up around our bodies - the gases diffuse throughout the atmosphere.
Here's an easy-to-understand video:
Diffusion is natural. It's different from gravity, however, in that it doesn't concentrate mass: it distributes it.
Imagine if the random movement of food distributed it evenly across the world.
Imagine if the random movement of wealth distributed it evenly across the world, so everyone had enough for clothing and shelter.
Could diffusion be the natural solution to suffering?
Don't go away - this is actually pretty easy to understand. Note that I have taken Chemistry three times (once in High School twice in college) and have never completed it. If I can get this, anyone can.
Basically, diffusion means that the random movement of particles leads to them being evenly distributed within a container. This is why there is breathable oxygen everywhere and carbon dioxide doesn't stay built up around our bodies - the gases diffuse throughout the atmosphere.
Here's an easy-to-understand video:
Diffusion is natural. It's different from gravity, however, in that it doesn't concentrate mass: it distributes it.
Imagine if the random movement of food distributed it evenly across the world.
Imagine if the random movement of wealth distributed it evenly across the world, so everyone had enough for clothing and shelter.
Could diffusion be the natural solution to suffering?
I hear a lot of arguments based on what's natural and what's not. So I thought I'd examine a few natural things.
I think greed is natural. It has a parallel in physics: gravity.
The more mass a body has, the greater its gravity and its inertia. As gravity increases, so does the tendency of things to become attached to the body, and the harder it is for things to leave the body.
Consider the Earth. Unless an object is moving pretty quickly, coming near the Earth means the object is likely to be ensnared by the Earth's gravity. And getting an object off the earth is no simple feat either: consider the size of the rockets needed to launch missions to the moon and other planets.
Or consider a black hole. This is an object so dense, with such strong gravity, that it can trap even light.
And so it is with greed. The more one has, the more one attracts and, by benefit of how much one already has, the easier it is to acquire more. And it is very difficult to relinquish whatever it is we have amassed.
But nearly every massive body has a danger: the more massive one is, the greater its pull toward even more massive bodies. This is why the moon orbits the Earth, and the Earth orbits the sun, and the sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy. And in the center of the galaxy? Most likely a massive black hole.
Black holes teach us something about greed, too. In order to continue to exist, they must continue to swallow things or, the current theory is, they will evaporate through radiation theorized by Stephen Hawking. Of course, very massive black hole take a long time to evaporate, but still, their lives depend on consumption.
Capitalism serves greed. Capitalism - not to be confused with free enterprise - is the valuing of capital, or wealth. In capitalism, merely having wealth is a means to acquiring wealth - one need not labor at all. For all the complaints about the poor being lazy, one cannot be much more lazy than amassing more wealth simply for having much wealth already.
But greed is natural and so too sloth, just as gravity and inertia are natural.
But not everything that is natural is beneficial.
I think greed is natural. It has a parallel in physics: gravity.
The more mass a body has, the greater its gravity and its inertia. As gravity increases, so does the tendency of things to become attached to the body, and the harder it is for things to leave the body.
Consider the Earth. Unless an object is moving pretty quickly, coming near the Earth means the object is likely to be ensnared by the Earth's gravity. And getting an object off the earth is no simple feat either: consider the size of the rockets needed to launch missions to the moon and other planets.
Or consider a black hole. This is an object so dense, with such strong gravity, that it can trap even light.
And so it is with greed. The more one has, the more one attracts and, by benefit of how much one already has, the easier it is to acquire more. And it is very difficult to relinquish whatever it is we have amassed.
But nearly every massive body has a danger: the more massive one is, the greater its pull toward even more massive bodies. This is why the moon orbits the Earth, and the Earth orbits the sun, and the sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy. And in the center of the galaxy? Most likely a massive black hole.
Black holes teach us something about greed, too. In order to continue to exist, they must continue to swallow things or, the current theory is, they will evaporate through radiation theorized by Stephen Hawking. Of course, very massive black hole take a long time to evaporate, but still, their lives depend on consumption.
Capitalism serves greed. Capitalism - not to be confused with free enterprise - is the valuing of capital, or wealth. In capitalism, merely having wealth is a means to acquiring wealth - one need not labor at all. For all the complaints about the poor being lazy, one cannot be much more lazy than amassing more wealth simply for having much wealth already.
But greed is natural and so too sloth, just as gravity and inertia are natural.
But not everything that is natural is beneficial.
This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.- Ezekiel 16:49, New Revised Standard Version
