Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Laws of the Wild.

One definition of law is that it is a system of rules and guidelines enforced through social institutions to govern behaviour. There are certain natural laws too, whose governing body appears to be human nature in the wild - or maybe "fate". These laws and rules happen automatically, we don't need to strive not to fall foul of them, most will automatically fall foul of us, and frequently.
Some are well known, such as

Murphy's Law, the all-encompassing one : Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Some versions add insult to injury with... "and at the worst possible time."

More of these natural laws are:

Occam’s Razor, not so much a law, I guess, as a handy suggestion, but it is also known as the law of economy or law of parsimony, a principle stated by William of Ockham (1285–1347/49): “Plurality should not be posited without necessity.” The principle gives precedence to simplicity - of two competing theories, the simpler explanation is to be preferred. In other words, any time there are several hypotheses that could explain an observation, phenomenon or event, it is usually best to start with the simplest one. There's an opposite reaction to everything though, therefore:

Occam's Duct Tape - the opposite mental process to Occam's razor: to avoid simplicity, to leave no entity unmultiplied and to make as many unnecessary assumptions as possible when pondering an idea — this is sometimes referred to, jocularly, as Occam's duct tape.
Or:
Crabtree's Bludgeon - an observation which serves as a foil to Occam's razor, characterizing a very different cognitive process exhibited in certain kinds of people, which states:
”No set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated."

There's DeVault's Razor, which strips down Occam's even further:
"There are only two laws:
Someday you will die.
If you read this, you are not dead yet."

Moving on...

Jimmy Buffett's Law of Sanity:
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.


Sattinger's Law: It works better when you plug it in.


Onward to
Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

The Peter Principle: In any hierarchy, every individual tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Corollary: Work is done by those individuals who have not yet risen to their level of incompetence.

Not forgetting -
The Rule of the Great:
When someone you greatly admire and respect appears to be thinking deep thoughts, they probably are thinking about lunch.

Then we have


Evans' Law of Political Perfidy: When our friends get into power, they aren't our friends anymore.


Jacquin's Postulate: No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

Alley's Axiom: Justice always prevails ... three times out of seven.

Specht's Meta-Law: Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing, there is some ordinance under which you can be booked.

And

George Carlin's Driving Law: Everyone driving slower than you is an idiot. Everyone driving faster than you is a maniac.

Oliver's Law of Location: No matter where you go, there you are.


Then there's

Damon Runyon's Law:
The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.


My own blog even has its own law:
Unwin's Learning Curve: Experience is what enables us to make a new mistake each time.


Oh! - And there's always Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage.

Also I've discovered: Twilight's Obscure Law of Non-supply & Demand : when a woman finds a shade of lipstick that's just right, or a bra that fits exactly, or shoes that are always comfortable - these will have been discontinued the next time she goes shopping for 'em.


My thanks to the several "law" sources used when compiling a version of this post years ago - most of the links I saved no longer work - there's probably a law about that too!

10 comments:

R J Adams said...

Oh, isn't it the most frustrating of events, that darned 404 page "We're sorry, the page you're looking for is not available, or was never here in the first place. You're a total smeghead. Why don't you learn to cut and paste correctly." Or, words of similar effect. Only yesterday I spent hours perusing Google (a fruitless task at best!) seeking an answer as to why an aging laptop no longer had working Bluetooth. After spending hours checking out umpteen promising links, only to find none gave me the answer I was looking for, lo and behold, there on page 46 (or thereabouts) of the Google search engine was the exact similar problem to mine with the magic word 'Solved' in brackets next to it. Breathless with delight, I clicked on the sacred link, only to read, "The page you're looking for is no longer available. Please try our Home page for further information." The "Home" page was for the website of some Caribbean market trader selling bananas!
Obviously, the original question must have been from a numb-skull asking: "How can I peel a banana using Bluetooth?"

LB said...

Then there's the Golden Rule:

"Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return . . ." ~ Luke 6:31-35

The 'values' and goals of capitalism and empire are the antithesis of this.

Twilight said...

RJ Adams ~ My sincere sympathies RJ - that's something I encounter at least once a week. We shall call it
RJ's Law of Lost Websites:
After an uncertain number of months during which nobody has consulted a website, the website shall become defunct and unavailable at the very moment when a person consults it for the important information it contained.
(Or words to that effect) :)

Twilight said...

LB ~ Hi there LB and seasonal greetings to you and yours!
Yes indeed, that is the Daddy of all rules and laws.

LB said...

Twilight ~ I left a brief comment on yesterday's post (saying I enjoyed your story), but for some reason it didn't appear.

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season as well!

Twilight said...

LB ~ Oh dang! - Maybe it'll show up in moderation, I'll watch for it. Thank you for the good wishes LB! :)

Wisewebwoman said...

Great post. I know I had a few of my own, one involved having an argument with family members and losing the whole plot of where it started. We called it the "Gumdrops Law" after a heated discussion a few years back which had two of us arguing about completely different subjects and not being aware of it.

Happy New Year T to you and Himself. May it be a year of more pleasant memories and less health challenges.

XO
WWW

Twilight said...

Wisewebwoman ~ LOL! Good name for it too, WWW! Thank you for the good wishes. Some very similar ones are being wished and sent, at this end, for you and yours, in 2019. :)

Twilight said...

Received by e-mail from the UK, from "JD"

You forgot to include the most important Law of the modern world. Hutber's Law which is that "every inprovement makes things worse" This is mandatory for all products inspired by the 'brains' of Silicon Valley and also for all 'smart' technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutber%27s_law

You can demonstrate for yourself how it is everywhere; my TV is three years old and the remote control no longer works properly. I bought a replacement and that doesn't work either so the telly is obviously broken. Modern TVs cannot be repaired because of all the electronics inside and so I have to buy another one which will also be fully compliant with Hutber's Law and will fail even earlier etc etc. My old telly lasted 20 years and had to be abandoned when all TV switched to digital. Insert swear words of your choice at this point....... :)

Happy New Year!

Twilight said...

JD ~ Happy New Year to you too JD! Ah yes, I recognise that law, but wasn't aware of its proper title! Thank you for enlightening us. Husband and I were talking about it only last evening, when Netflix offered to give us an update of their system.
"Oh no! We know exactly what that'll mean! Anything that was useful and easy will be gone and something useless and irritating will take its place!" :-/