• by Gord Hotchkiss , Featured Contributor, June 25, 2019

In the real world, things never go in straight lines or predictable curves. The things we call trends are actually a sawtooth profile of change, reaction and upheaval. If you trace the path, you’ll see evidence of the Law of the Pendulum.

In the physical world, the Law is defined as: "the movement in one direction that causes an equal movement in a different direction."

In the world of human behavior, it is defined as: "the theory holding that trends in culture, politics, etc., tend to swing back and forth between opposite extremes."

Politically and socially, we’re in the middle of a swing to the right. But this will be countered inevitably with a swing to the left. We could call it Newton’s Third Law of Social Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Except that’s not exactly true. If it were, the swings would cancel each other out and we would end in the same place we started from. And we know that’s not the case. Let me give you one example that struck me recently.

This past week, I visited a local branch of my bank. The entire staff were wearing Pride T-shirts in support of their employer’s corporate sponsorship of Pride Week. That is not really a cause for surprise in our world of 2019. No one batted an eye. But I couldn’t help thinking that it’s parsecs removed from the world I grew up in, in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

I won’t jump into the debate of the authenticity of corporate political correctness, but there’s no denying that when it comes to sexual preference, the world is a more tolerant place than it was 50 years ago. The pendulum has swung back and forth, but the net effect has been toward -- to use Steven Pinker’s term -- the better angels of our nature.

When talking about the Pendulum Effect, we also have to keep an eye on Overton’s Window. This was something I talked about in a previous column some time ago. Overton’s window defines the frame of what the majority of us -- as a society -- find acceptable.

As the pendulum swings back and forth between extremes, somewhere in the middle is a collective view that most of us can live with. But Overton’s window is always moving. And I believe that the window today frames a view of a more tolerant, more empathetic world than the world of 50 years ago -- or almost any time in our past. That’s true every day. 

Lately, it might not even be true most days. But this is probably a temporary thing. The pendulum will swing back eventually, and we’ll be in a better place.

My question is: why? Why -- when we even out the swings -- are we becoming better people?

So far, this column has little to do with media, digital or otherwise. But I think the variable here is information.

Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, once said: “Information wants to be free.” 

But I think information also wants to set us free -- free from the limitations of our gene bound prejudice and pettiness. Wherever you find the pendulum swinging backwards, you’ll find a dearth of information.

We need information to be thoughtful. And we need thoughtfulness to create a more just, more tolerant, more empathetic society.

We -- in our industry -- deal with information as our stock in trade. It is our job to ensure that information spreads as far as possible.

It’s the one thing that will ensure that the pendulum swings in the right direction. Eventually.