Crisis and Inertia (5) β Derailing a Speeding Train
(This is part 5 in the βCrisis and Inertiaβ series.) In the first episode in this series I argued that societies and other social βobjectsβ (cultures, beliefs, institutions, ideas, ideologies, and so forth) are as inert as physical objects. Social βobjectsβ resist change β if they are moving in a certain direction, they resist a change in direction. The second notion in the tile of this series is βcrisisβ. A crisis is an event that changes a social objectβs momentum β that is, itβs path, speed, or direction. Crises come in several kinds. A minor crisis produces a (nearly?) immeasurably...