Some Ideas Work This Way

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Some Ideas Work This Way

Shape memory.

It's a good term, but I think it is incomplete.

This reminds me of a cybernetic system moving through space and time. It can be taken off course, but it later self-corrects to it's original trajectory.

Like an airplane on autopilot that is blown off course by a gust of wind. Or a house heating system programmed for a specific temperature when a door opens and it's cold outside. They veer off a bit, then return to their default setting.

 

Some ideas are like that. For example, the idea that an elite class rules over others by right. No matter how many political systems are created and justified by appealing to reason and equality, the systems always devolve into an oppressive elite class being on top just because. 

It might be interesting to make a list of such ideas...

Michael