Principle #2 - Everything is Linked to Everything Else

Perhaps this should be Principle #1. {I may renumber later...}

Physics has shown that there is practically no such thing as a "closed system". Everything effects everything else. This is known as Chaos Theory. The classic example is that a butterfly flapping its wings may make the difference as to whether or not a hurricane occurs, because of the ripple effects of one event effecting many others, which in turn effect many others.

This shows that we certainly can't control everything that happens in the world. But it also teaches us that what we do is important, because the effects are far reaching. While we can't fine tune ourselves to be perfect in all of our actions and their effects (maybe my flapping my gums here will cause a hurricane!), we should be conscious of the general patterns of cause and effect. In human actions, for the most part, actions that are good, positive, and done with love will have effects with similar qualities. Still, part of doing things that way means thinking things through, and not getting carried away with a blindered idea, even though it may conceived in a loving way, without considering the consequences.

Here are a couple of examples of getting carried away. Henry Ford came up with a great idea for building cars more efficiently, the assembly line. Industrialists, and folks in general, got carried away with this idea by building so many cars, and other goods on assembly lines, that today we are choking on the fumes from all the cars and factories, and of course we have this whole problem of global warming. On the other hand, if we just closed all the factories and banned automobiles, affairs as they are now run would pretty much come crashing down around us. People would not be fed or sheltered properly, as society groped for new ways, or tried to get back to old ways, to get things done. Quite possibly civil wars would erupt.

Everything is linked to everything else. Don't let the thought paralyze you, but also don't go off half-cocked into some mushrooming project, like Henry Ford did, without examining the consequences of your actions. In the context of this blog/book, let's especially emphasize the environmental consequences. But we do also have to take into account the effects on the economy - we at least want everyone to be sheltered and clothed, so we can't just shut everything down. If we are conscious of our effects, though, maybe we will naturally learn to do without the things we don't need, and to teach others to do the same.