Ideas

“When two objects collide, there’s always damage . . . of a collateral nature”

Professor Moriarty

Sherlock Holmes meets his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, face-to-face in A Game of Shadows.  Detective and villain size each other up, announcing their intentions for the coming conflict.  In a spirit of diplomacy, Holmes asks his adversary if Mr. Watson, Holmes’ companion, could be left out of the fray, now that he is married.  Moriarty explains that this is impossible, “that when two objects collide there is always damage of a collateral nature.” There are always unintended consequences to any engagement (minute 1.45):

The concept of unintended consequences happens everywhere in life.  Consider these famous lines:

• Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.
• Be careful what you wish for.
• Flapping butterfly’s wings in one hemisphere creates a tornado in the other.

In one way or another, these aphorisms speak the same truth: every action has a consequence, intended or not.

During the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Secretary of Defense Colin Powell famously used the Pottery Barn analogy “If you break it, you buy it.”  His point was clear.  If the U.N. saw clear justification for military moves against Saddam Hussein’s regime, it would bear the consequences of its actions.  Powell foresaw the inevitable.  Every military intervention has a cost, some of which we do not plan.

Christian societies called “Temperance Unions” planned to outlaw alcoholic beverages in the U.S.  Collective efforts to curtail alcohol sale, transport, and consumption produced the 18^th Amendment to The Constitution in 1919.  During the next 15 years, organized crime ran rampant throughout America, circumventing the law, later repealed by the 21^st Amendment.   Did the Temperance societies see the violent end result of their efforts?  Probably not.

The Box, a 2009 film, presented individuals with a proposition.  A person will receive one million dollars for simply pushing the button in a box delivered to their home.  As a result, however, the individual is told that a person somewhere in the world, unknown to them, will die.  But nothing is, as it seems.  People may think they are unaffected when indeed the impact of any decision strikes close to home.

Decisions sometimes take the form of the classic “make a wish.”  What a man will do with three wishes is the premise for W.W. Jacobs’ story “The Monkey’s Paw.”  The first wish comes true but tragedy results.  Wishes two and three are then enacted to stop the first.  But to what end?  The reader is left to ponder the proverb, “Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.”

“Leave well enough alone” is another universal proverb worth pondering in the movie The Butterfly Effect.  The movie’s title supposes the theory that the beating of a butterfly’s wings in one hemisphere is responsible for storms in the other.  The film’s premise leaves the audience to ponder, “If I had the ability to change the past, would I . . . should I?”  Human choices always have consequences, intended or not.

Policy choices—political, educational, business—at times may create unintended cultural consequences. For instance, conservatives encouraged states to create laws defining marriage between a man and a woman in the 1990’s.  Now that liberals are using the same tactic to apply marriage to ‘same-sex’ partners in the 21^st century, conservatives must ask was the original tactic beneficial?

Political uprisings reflect the universal sentiment, “better the devil I know, than the devil I don’t.”  In 2012, the Egyptian people rioted against Hosni Mubarak because they were economically depressed.  Egyptians then rioted against Mohamed Mursi because they are being tyrannically repressed.  We cannot always foresee how our decisions will create unintended consequences.

“What we see may not be what is unseen” was a warning Frederic Bastiat gave to his country.  Bastiat was a French economist, statesman, and author who lived from 1801 to 1850.  Before and during the 1848 revolution, France was rapidly embracing socialism: taxes from the French people would support the programs created by French politicians.  Bastiat’s last essay, “What is Seen and What is Not Seen,” was a alarm, left unheeded.  In a paraphrase, Bastiat said

An act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects.  The first consequences are immediate, they are seen; we are fortunate if we anticipate later consequences, these are unseen.  A small, present good may turn out to have disastrous consequences.  A person must learn to discern between the fruit of what is seen and the destruction yet unseen.

Professor Moriarty was right.  “When two objects collide, there’s always damage . . . of a collateral nature.”  We make decisions.  We formulate choices.  We create laws.  We follow politicians.  We construct policies.  We craft economies.

And we live with the consequences, intended or not.

Dr. Mark Eckel believes the consequences of Leviticus 26 ought to be taught from pastors, parents, politicians, and professors everywhere.  

We might have the best of intentions but our actions may cost us more than the original price.

We all do stupid things.  Pushing ‘send’ on an email, hurrying an unedited ‘tweet’, or posting Facebook frustrations often leaves us in a place we would rather not be.  We can be dumb, ditzy, and delirious.

But what happens when we do ‘smart’ things?  Sometimes ‘being smart’ gets us in trouble.

“Don’t get too big for your britches” is a phrase I remember from childhood.  “He thinks he’s ‘all that’” is the 21^st century equivalent.  Just about the time we think we’ve “arrived” we find our destination eludes us.  Decisions backfire.  One choice eliminates options.  Human intervention often creates problems even with the most benign, beneficent intentions.  The negative outcomes of human action are all around us.

Alien and the three movies that followed scared us on screen.  But aliens from space may be a metaphor for what we do to ourselves.  Alien animal species transported from one habitat to another is one example of many.  Laws restricting the movement of wildlife are in place for a reason.  The consequences of humanity’s undisciplined freedom can ravage an ecosystem.

Want a pet from another country?  Not a good idea.  The Burmese python introduced into the Florida Everglades created more problems than it solved.  Intentional or not, release of the python into the national park has endangered indigenous and endangered species.  There are always consequences to our actions.

The Macquarie Island Ecosystem is a classic example of unintended consequences.  Shipping cargo to the islands in the early 19^th century brought rats residing on transports.  So cats were brought in to solve the rat problem.  Soon the cats overpopulated the islands.  Toxins were then used to exterminate cats.  Miss Cellania explains:

With the cats gone, those 10,000 rabbits who were immune to the Myxoma virus began to multiply again. The Tasmanian government came to the conclusion that all non-native species had to be eradicated at the same time. That would be the only way to restore the nature preserve to its intended use for the original sea animals. The current eradication program began in 2010. But even that has its problems. The poison bait used to eliminate invasive mammals is working its way through the ecosystem. Just last year, we learned of the death of thousands of seabirds that ate the carcasses of the poisoned mammals.

Introduction of a predator into a certain ecosystem which eliminated the immediate problem created many more.  Aliens take many forms and have multiple consequences.  We might have the best of intentions but our actions may cost us more than the original price.

How can we be sure not to pay for something we did not want?  What is the best way to operate in life if the future is unseen?  What can we do to limit and lessen “getting too big for our britches”?   We need to remember that we are finite, fallen creatures living in a fragile creation.  We need to understand that Universal Laws govern creation, whether we have a God-centered view of life or not.  We should strive to preserve the thinking of the past, to ignite reformation in the present, and to anticipate the possible impact of our decisions for the future.

Futuristic thinking was the concern of Frederic Bastiat.  His essay “What is Seen and What is Not Seen” ends with a quote from Francois Rene de Chateaubriand.  Chateaubriand was a French ambassador living in the mid-19^th century who served after Napoleon fell from power.  What Chateaubriand says about history in Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb can be applied to all of life.

There are two consequences in history: one immediate and instantaneously recognized; the other distant and unperceived at first. These consequences often contradict each other; the former come from our short-run wisdom, the latter from long-run wisdom. The providential event appears after the human event. Behind men rises God. Deny as much as you wish the Supreme Wisdom, do not believe in its action, dispute over words, call what the common man calls Providence “the force of circumstances” or “reason”; but look at the end of an accomplished fact, and you will see that it has always produced the opposite of what was expected when it has not been founded from the first on morality and justice.

May our search for morality and justice begin with Righteousness.  May our perception of doing what’s right be tempered, aware of possible unintended consequences.  And may we understand that unintended consequences will be overcome by The Outcome of The One to come, Jesus (Revelation 19).

Dr. Mark Eckel believes in the tension of “the ideal and the real.”  God’s laws are intended to limit and lessen the consequences of human behavior.  God’s laws are compromised only because of human sin.  God never compromises His own perfection, nor lowers His standard.  He does, however, lower Himself, stooping to our level so as to save us from ourselves in The Person and Work of Jesus (Romans 5).