Monday, April 09, 2007

Lightning Bolts


I knew lightning was electricity even when I was a kid (Ben Franklin's kite ring a bell?). But even after six years of engineering univeristy (o.k. mechanical, but still!) I thought that all the little electrons in the cloud had to jump up and rush down toward the ground at near light speed to make a bolt of lightning. Turns out that isn't it at all. All the electrons are just hanging around radomly moving when a "force field" makes them all move a little less randomly and a little more towards one direction rather than just any old direction. Bam! Lightning Bolt. Trees split. Ear Shattering Blast! Well social movements are the same way. We don't have to walk in lock step. We just have to mill around a little more in one direction rather than any old direction. Bam! Social Change. Racism squashed. The Berlin wall collapses. Hungry people get fed. Women get respect.
I want to see more lightning bolts. I pray that we would all move faster in one direction than just any old direction! I pray it would be a good direction, because many evil directions exist.

2 comments:

Pamela Joy said...

Interesting theory you are expounding there Mr. Schnake. Perhaps I will use it as a contribution to the discussion in my class titled "social change".
Sadly we haven't spent nearly enough time expounding theory (in my opinion at leat) in that class... but there are some interesting ones out there. It's never as simple as you wish it was...

Béthany said...

Cool image. I'm rooting for prison reform and a socialist revolution as the next lightning bolt to strike.