• Two Ways of Owning a Law

    edited by Alexander Becker

    The surprising difference between accepting a law and breaking it.

    There are laws for almost everything. And I am not talking about jurisdiction here. Not the social and societal restrictions and determinations of governmental authorities.

    Yet -- can every rule be bent and every law be broken?

    In science, there are a specific number of established scientific laws, or physical laws as they are sometimes called, that are considered absolute and inarguable facts of the physical world. Laws of science may, however, be disproved if new facts or evidence arise to contradict them. A "law" differs from those as hypotheses, theories, postulates, and principles, etc., in that a law is a general statement about nature that is considered proven beyond doubt.

    The laws of nature?

    The phrase Law of Nature has several meanings:

    • It can refer to a scientific generalization based upon empirical observation, i.e., a physical law.
    • It can refer any number of doctrines in moral, political and legal theory, also called natural law.

    The second law of thermodynamics --

    The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.

    The law of excluded middle --

    The law of the excluded middle states that every proposition is either true or false.

    Newton's first law: law of inertia --

    An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force.

    Finally, what about laws, named after people in general?

    Social and societal restrictions can be bent and broken, laws of nature, laws that by definition do not provide exceptions or exemptions, are best accepted and not directly fought against. Not even resisted.

    OK, enough common sense, this is the idea: Two ways to make history --

    1. The one who discovers a law of nature gets his name tied to it;
    2. The one who discovers that -- a physical law in particular -- can be bent or broken, gains immortality.

    The former is a mere observer while the latter successfully resisted a law of nature. Obviously, the law in question becomes void and obsolete. Now, choose between the latter and the former's experience.

    Change the rules and make them yours. Bend them until they break. Any rule that can be broken is worthless anyway. As a rule at least.

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