In 1969, the United States put a man on the moon; the world stood still and watched. This feat dazzled reporters as well as everyone else. On an evening newscast, I heard a reporter ask, “If we can send a man to the moon, why can’t we solve our social problems here on the earth?” I liked this question. It sounded like a fair one.
I asked myself, what does the space program do that our social architects don’t do? Engineers try to model influences or forces, and reduce them to mathematical formulas if they can. A brief look at some of the engineering formulas that physicists and engineers use shows that the main element of these formulas is the inclusion of both initiative and a resistance. When we as friends, couples, families, churches, clubs, associations or government plan a policy or an event, we generally think only of the initiative not the possible interruption or resistance by Second Force.
Socially and culturally, “resistance” has negative connotations as in “armed resistances,” as it smacks of bucking authority. In engineering, however, the force of resistance is given the same value and importance as the initiative force. Western culture certainly doesn’t embrace resistance or rest as anything necessary or of value like our sciences do. In American society, most people either neglect or ignore this resistance/restful force as an important factor in life or business, or they act as if it is an adversary. They go to great lengths to avoid it or they refute that it is of any social value. You could say that a formula written for material things or energy cannot possibly apply to human beings or social groups.
When we consider the act of “doing something”, we think of the “start up” or the initiative part of it. But whether we know it or not, there is a companion force to initiating things. This is the force of resistance or rest. In order for life, a business, a machine, a planet, or anything to happen, You will find this pair of forces working together.
POLARITIES
Almost every creation story contains light and darkness, and male and female. In many kinds of literature there is the hero and the villain and the obstacle and the solution. In many cultural religions, there are the good and the evil; and in myths, the sacred and the profane.
Many other authors have done a wonderful job of describing the existence and description of polarities. This is also about a different way of seeing Second Force as it occurs in our everyday lives. Second Force is an obscure but potent force in all of life’s events. Your view of these forces may change as you read further. This change of perspective can bring increased understanding and serenity when you see how these opposite forces permeate every part of our lives, every day and how they are the basis of all of our creations, events and systems.
DEFINITION OF FIRST FORCE
DEFINITION OF SECOND FORCE
Complementary to First Force there is Second Force, which generally represents resistance or friction. When First Force initiates an organization or a separation or division of things, the consequences are that we must acknowledge Second Force. It is the momentum of a system that tries to maintain the status quo. It is a force that tends to resist or absorb action. This force tends to mix things and scatter them. It tends to consume, rust, and decay. In nature, it includes chaotic events that interrupt orderliness and predictability like the tornadoes, rain and windstorms, floods, droughts.
The influence of rest or RESisTance (Second Force) is a vital force that needs of a better reputation. There is no definitive word in the English language for what Robert Gibson and George Gurdjieff termed Second Force. The reason why such a term is lacking is probably because Western cultural understanding of this necessary force is also missing or incomplete. Some close phrases that might define the aspects of Second Force are “unintended consequences,” or “backlash.”
Words like resistance and receptivity can both describe Second Force. Consider a homeowner’s weekend project of making a concrete flowerpot. Liquid concrete is poured into a mold, which resists, receives and controls the flow of concrete into a shape. The mold is both a resisting and a passive force.
There is a famous quotation: ”Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” In other versions the word “evil” is substituted for the word “trouble.” This statement implies that this regularity of trouble, evil or Second Force is a clue that it is a part of the system that we all are trust into. It appears that we are advised to accept it, not to let it become a big deal and to go with the flow.
A popular phrase is just emerging in our American language, which is heard occasionally that comes close to describing this Second Force is “fundamental Dissonance.”
EVERYDAY EXAMPLES OF FIRST FORCE AND SECOND FORCE
The best way to see the endlessness of these two basic building blocks of existence is to see them in everyday life events.
KITES
“Kites rise against, not with, the wind,” says, the 19th century American writer, John Neal. In this activity, the first force is the wind and the second force is the string and kite resisting the wind. Together, these two forces create the balance of a kite flying. At the same time that the kite flies, with the resistance of the string, it rises against the wind.
MECHANICAL CLOCKS AND WATCHES
Mechanical clocks and watches “run” or operate when the first force of a spring or weight is met by or is resisted by the second force of an escapement. The escapement is a mechanism that lets the weight fall or the spring unwind at a slow and controlled rate. The balance of these two forces make a (non-digital) watch or clock that keeps time.
WHEELS
CARS, WHEELS AND ROADS
An automobile can move only when the engine transfers initiative to the bottom of the tires and this force is resisted by the Second Force of friction from the earth. Paved roads are better than dirt surfaced roads because they provide more friction (Second Force) against the rubber tires. The balance of these two forces is a wheel that moves and carries things.
Steering of automobiles, boats and airplanes is accomplished by controlling where, and how much resistance is applied to the lateral direction from the pavement, water or air around the craft.
WORK
In the engineering world, “work” is defined as a force exerted across a distance. Thus, the force is the initiative part of the measure of work, and distance is the resistance ingredient. If distance doesn’t seem like resistance, imagine how distance stretches, pulls, pushes, lengthens and affects the original force in some way. The formula for work is:
In this formula, if either “F” or “D” has a value of zero, then the value of the entire right side of the equation is zero, and there is no work, and nothing is done. Thus without any distance (resistance), there is no work.
THE ZIPPER
For a zipper to zip, one hand needs to be on the zipper tong and the other hand needs to be on the end of the zipper. The hands then need to pull in opposite directions, one hand trying to move the zipper closure and the other hand receiving the force. Without the one hand to receive the force, which the other hand is exerting, the zipper doesn’t get zipped. Thus it takes two hands doing different things to zip a zipper.
MUSIC
A stringed instrument makes a sound when First Force of either a bow or a pick is resisted by the tension of the strings. What happens is a vibrating sound. The best arrangement of sounds we call music. Once tuned to pure pitches, First Force and Second Force interact and create pleasing sounds.
When notes or sounds are observed or listened to, there is First Force (the sounded note) met with the “rest” of an empty space (Second Force) between the notes. This alternation of sound and not-sound forms beats, yielding a variety of rhythms. In this case, the rest, by its striking change, resists the continuance of the note. Beats in rhythm are fundamental to all life, as a heart beating. Complicated or simple rhythms, along with variance of pitch, create melody.
THE PRINTED WORD
For communications, a solid white page is of as little value as a solid black page. When we use contrast by intermixing them, we begin to get some recognizable distinctions. The black print depends upon the white background to give it definition. The black is of no less value than the white. Both are vital to be able to read and write. Although it is difficult to assign First Force to the word or the background, the central requirement here is contrast. The affect that First Force and Second Force have can be described as a contrast.
COOKING
Part of the process in baking a potato in a micro-wave is for the potato to go through a reordering process in the very hot oven. Heat, causing the increased activity of the molecules, is the initiative; the potato receives and responds to the heat, becomes soft in the process.
Should there be yeast or baking powder in a cake, it becomes the active ingredient acting upon the more passive ingredients, causing them to puff up, or rise. When we prepare a salad, the knife (initiative) cuts the hard vegetables (resistance) on the cutting board, also resistance, allowing the knife to do its job, and then return to first position to do it again. Without a board or counter to stop (resist) the knife, it would fall to the floor.
KNIVES AND SAWS
One of the best knives to use when cutting bread or anything else is one with a serrated blade. This blade’s cutting edge is one that cuts, and then doesn’t cut, with each scalloped curve. Notice that wood saws and chain saws work the same way: action (initiative) and non-action (rest) work together. Serrated edges seem to act better in some situations than a continuous sharp edge.
ELECTRICITY
Electricity itself consists of electrons, the negatively charged particle (initiative), and positrons, the positively charged particle (resistance). The fundamental law for electric current is Ohm’s Law:
E = IR
HEAT AND LIGHT MACHINES
In an electric iron, stove or heat lamp, heat occurs when electrons (First Force) move across a conductor (Second Force) that has the correct amount of resistance to produce heat. In this case, the wire is chosen and sized so that it will create heat. The thinnest wire, providing the most difficulty for the moving electrons, provides the most heat.
A light bulb with a selectively chosen filament releases energy in the form of light. Just like the air in the flute, which was forced through a very small hole, electrons are forced across the resistance of a very small wire. A type of metal wire is selected that turns to a brilliant white when excessive electrons are forced through it. If the wire were not so small as to create high resistance, it would produce less light.
AIRPLANES
An airplane can fly when the wing (air-foil) is thrust (First Force) through and resisted by the atmosphere (Second Force). The airfoil’s underside is such a shape as to create a slower velocity than the air flowing along the topside and consequently a higher pressure. And a higher pressure on the bottom side provides the lift needed to fly.
GIVING SHAPE TO THINGS
When a potter creates a pot, there are two perennial forces present: the potter and the clay. One is initiative, and the other is resistance and receptivity. In industry, an extruded plastic toy or tool is created when fluid plastic (First Force) under very high pressure is resisted by a mold (Second Force). After cooling, the plastic has a desired shape.
BATTERIES
Storing energy in a battery is accomplished by connecting the terminals to a charged source. Over a certain time period, the positive and negative charges of the battery will polarize and accumulate at each of the respective battery poles. Traditionally, one pole is the negative initiative or First Force) and the other pole is the positive (ground of Second Force). In this case, Second Force receives rather than resists the First Force.
STORIES
The traditional plot in a story or movie employs an issue, and the issue is polarized by contenders. Contenders show up as the good guys and the bad guys. It appeals to us when these two forces interplay with each other. The hero and the villain. The sacred and the profane. In my daughter’s high school English class, her teacher told the students, “I teach creative writing by requiring that students compose a plot in which there is are lots of obstacles, to be overcome.” Ahh, I said, there it is again. The obstacle is the resistance.
STRUCTURES
Structural trusses are beams that hold up buildings by a balance of these same two forces. The top member of this truss, under load, is in tension (First Force), and the bottom member is in compression (Second Force). Together they provide a stable structure.
WALKING
We walk in part by falling. We push up with one foot (initiative), then fall forward on the other foot (passive): the balance is a very graceful means of going forth.
ENERGY
The well known equation that defines the relation between energy and matter is:
E= MC²
E = ENERGY. Energy is synonymous with initiative, activity or First Force. It acts upon and generally moves physical things. It is received or absorbed in various ways.
M = MASS. Mass tends to be at rest; it yields to, accepts and absorbs energy. Mass impedes activity. For example, an obese man, with lots of mass, will move much more slowly than a lean man. Mass usually acts as Second Force.
C = Constant, The Speed of Light. Energy is not exactly equal to the Mass of something. The value of mass has to be increased by a multiplier to be equal to Energy. C² is the square of the speed of light. This constant is the intelligence, or Third Force that makes the Energy, First Force equal to the Mass, Second Force. (More on Third Force in chapter 3)
WEATHER
Our weather varies by means of these same two forces. First Force is the high pressure cell (initiative) and Second Force is the low pressure cell (passive or rest). The working balance of these two forces is the driving force that moves air masses around and thereby gives us the variety of weather that we have.
Once, as a student studying to pass the exam for a private pilot’s license, I was asked whether I preferred to fly in a stable or unstable atmosphere. I answered that I preferred the stable atmosphere. The instructor then described a stable atmosphere. All of the contents of the atmosphere would be uniformly dispersed. It would be a uniform gray haze everywhere, all of the time. There would never be a really clear sky, because the dust particles and the clouds (moisture) wouldn’t be gathered together to one side so that the other side could be clear.
I then realized that to pass the exam, the correct answer is that the best flying was to be in the clear and relatively calm part of an unstable atmosphere, or at a time and place when the moisture and particles are somewhere else, leaving the plane’s path in the sky clear at least for the time that I choose to fly. Without the polarization of our atmosphere, we would never have clear skies.
OUR LANGUAGE
Although there are no popular words for Second Force, our language has some hints of the interplay of the two forces. Some of these show our repeated observations of life’s responses to our initiatives.
“If it can go wrong, it will. ” (Murphy’s Law). We have developed this response to the irregularities of our environment and our relationships and termed these irregularities as wrongs. This wrongness is an unconscious label that we use for Second Force in the social part of our lives. For many people, this sense of “wrongness” brings about suspicion and uneasiness. However, life is more enjoyable and less mysterious, less random when we see Second Force as part of the natural balance of forces in which we live. We no longer need to fear Murphy’s Law.
“This is too easy” is another term implying that we expect a normal resistance to our initiated events.
The origin of the term may could have come from our sense that when we initiate an event, to some degree we anticipate something unexpected that could deflect it. Our initiative may or may not be fruitful; it could take off in an unexpected direction.
THE BIRTH OF BABY CHICKS
Baby chicks peck their way out of the egg shell. The resistance of the shell is life-giving to the baby chick hatching from the egg. If we “assist it” by removing a part of the shell, the chick often dies; at best any help that is provided from an external source (removing Second Force) decreases the chick’s strength and its chances of living. It is as if the chick needs the resistance of pecking its way out of the shell to have the strength to withstand the shock of life outside the shell.
MAGNETS
Magnets are perhaps the most obviously polarized of all things. If you cut a magnet, you will see the remaining two pieces of the bar immediately repolarize themselves. The bar magnet simply cannot exist without being polarized, no matter how many times you cut it. One pole is First Force, and the other is Second Force.