Defying Newton

If Newton were to live in the current times, I am not so sure he would have a third law of physics associated to his name. Put differently, I would like to believe that at some level, most people today wish to defy Newton by trying to disprove his third law. For those that don't find Newton's laws appealing enough to remember it, the 3^rd law goes like this: "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction"!

Think of every single action in our daily lives and you'll find that there's some less-written about rule associated with each of it – be it obeying a traffic regulation on the streets, practicing basic etiquette when in public, or be it even the small little things that may border on the tedious for one individual but done for the betterment of others. I am not the saint that obeys it all either: for e.g., I don't shut off my phone when in public places, for I have the "crackberry" addiction of wanting to check e-mail; so I just put it on 'vibrate' unless that is too loud as well! I don't wait the mandated full 3-seconds at four-way stop signs unless I spot a cop around the corner! The list goes on…

Now, if I were to be penalized for each of the infractions I mention above, I probably wouldn't do it if the penalty bites me. I was talking to someone who had moved stateside recently, from India. He was talking about the 'affordability' of traffic tickets in India compared to here, and therefore being that extra bit careful not to be ticketed. How nice it is to talk about 'affording' not just material things, but traffic fines!!! It immediately struck a cord with me and pointed out a human trait – I am sure each of us has a disobedient side at some level. For most folks, that are law abiding citizens, I am sure that it isn't really a desire to disobey something in the first place, but we do it as long as there isn't a downside, or negative repercussions associated with it. More importantly we tend to disobey only when there's a fair chance of not getting caught at it!
This is equally applicable to individuals and conflicts: if Jack knows that there's only a 50% chance of him succeeding in a fight against Jill, he would think twice before doing it.

So, if there were to be an equal reaction to every "disobedient" action of ours, with an opposite effect, would we still knowingly incur the opposite effect? No! I wonder what Newton would say…