Politics and pendulums

A lot of people, and organizations, assuming the status quo is immutable. So they talk like politics is all swings and roundabouts. Some days you’re up, some days you’re down. That the “pendulum will swing back.”

But societies aren’t pendulums governed by physical laws.

They ignore that many societies have undergone irreversible changes. Often sudden, sometime calamitous.

Organizations, in particular, get so accustomed to “normal times” that they have no crisis mode. 

I am reminded of this because Science magazine – who I have often criticized for underplaying threats to American science – is at it again. This week’s editorial argues that the real wins for science are all quiet backroom deals, and that loud protests don’t get stuff done. I’d analyze it more, but luckily, Joshua Weitz already did that.