Don's Pendulum Theory (conceived with the help of others)

It’s pretty simple. I discussed this many years ago with a friend of mine Nick. He had a lot of input to this.

Look at everything (good or bad) as a pendulum. It swings from Bad to Good to Bad (or vice versa) again. Here are some examples:

Public Opinion- When things are running well people tend to get as liberal as possible and that is a good thing. Progress happens when people are open to new ideas. Limits are tested and new boundaries are set. People question old beliefs like the world being flat and the sun revolving around the earth. Then things get too liberal and people start to realize that not every new idea is “the best thing since sliced meat”. We get things like polyester leisure suits, iron on elbow pads, tattoos, Jerry Brown and Yoko Ono. When it gets too unreal the pendulum stalls (for an infinitely small time) and starts to swing the other way. It picks up speed as it heads towards neutral (the bottom of the swing) and life appears to be heading back to normal. This is evidenced by people shunning their once coveted liberal ways. When this happens people quit wearing body piercings, don’t dye their hair shocking pink and wont’ listen to Yoko anymore. They start questioning whether their actions might have been due to too much alcohol, crack or mass hysteria. They seem to head into “normalcy” for a while. But as with any other pendulum the swing continues into the conservative side and we get things like Hitler, Bush and the Osmonds. People now become very paranoid (WMD’s, WMD’s, the sky is falling) and will allow the ruling regime to take their freedoms away in the name of allying fears. They dress much more like people on their ways to funerals or Amway meetings. They listen to Muzak and people named Barbara (Streisand, Mandrel, Bush). In general they act like mutants from Stepford or zombies. It gets so bad that people actually believe that Fox news has anything to do with news. Then the pendulum swings the other way again.

Nature- Every weather change shows this. It’s a nice sunny morning, the birds are wheezing, the clouds are wafting by and life is good. By mid morning the clouds are darkening (the pendulum is moving to a higher pressure zone) and it’s looking a little like you should have brought a coat. By three for four the wind has picked up, the squirrels are hiding and you definitely wish you had packed an umbrella. Then the pendulum nears its apex and all hell brakes loose. Noah would have been scared. The rain torrents down, there is no way you can drive without going 3 mph and you swear that the next time your mom says “take your rubber shoes” you’ll listen to her. The storm plays out and the pendulum starts to swing the other way. It becomes nice out and your figure “Ah it wasn’t so bad” and you relax. Now this may take several days or even months, but the pendulum keeps swinging. Now you get up and it eighty degrees at ten AM and your lawn is brown. You burn your hand on the steering wheel and wish that you had paid your mechanic to fix your air-conditioning rather than buy that new “hot and need to have” item that didn’t get your laid anyway. You notice your neighbor cooking eggs and the soles of his shoes on the sidewalk. Kids are crying due to the heat and you swear it sounds like Yoko. Even the road kill is simmering. But then as always the pendulum starts to turn again.