Legislating gravity

Looking beyond the control of lawmakers

In 2007, before I went to work as his communications director, U.S. Rep. Bill Sali introduced a bill in Congress to reduce gravity by 10%. This, he argued facetiously, would reduce the weights of everyone on the planet, thus combating the problem of obesity.

Sali was trying to make a point about the limits of political power. That year, separate legislation was passed to raise the minimum wage, and it was the freshman congressman’s position that just as lawmakers couldn’t magically make a person’s work more valuable by act of Congress, lawmakers also lacked the power to alter the natural laws of the universe and lessen the effects of gravity.

A few months later, as we were discussing my possible employment, I asked Sali about the proposal, which had garnered a good deal of attention, and none of it positive. “Newspapers have been reporting that I want to suspend gravity,” he explained. “That would be crazy, because it would cause everyone to fly off into space. My proposal is to reduce gravity.”

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Credit for original thinking, to be sure. I was delighted to know that he put enough thought into the matter to recognize that the suspension of gravity, were it possible by congressional action, was probably unwise.

Either way, most people missed the point, chalking it up to a stupid politician doing stupid politician tricks. But all these years later, I find there is a philosophical golden nugget worthy of a deeper dive: Suppose that Congress or your state legislature or city council did have the power to affect gravity. Or make everyone 10% smarter. Or just a bit taller. Would we accept this? Should we?

Perhaps we lack the technology to alter the laws of physics, generally, or gravity, specifically. But we are at a point, because of advancements in medicine, computer engineering, and science that one could imagine the application of certain technology to alter the intelligence or physical characteristics of humans or conditions on the planet. And this could be mandated or incentivized by legislative act.

And why wouldn’t this eventually happen? Government already, very freely and much to the enthusiastic support of voters, coerces human behavior toward a desired outcome, so much so that people do not give that coercion a second thought.

Suspend gravity? Crazy! Manipulating people by determining how they earn a living, how they save, how they access health care, how much time they spend with family and friends? Normal!

Government uses financial incentives to prompt a teenager to enter a profession that he never would have considered. Government runs programs that shape how our final years are spent. Government tells us how old we need to be to hold a job, how much money we earn at that job, the number of hours we are to work, and tells us the types of medical care we are to receive through that job.

Government decides what we learn and don’t learn. Government shapes the way communities are formed or dissolved.

The names of all government interventions, already in existence, are too many to list. I’d invite the reader to think of their own, taking special care to note those things that seemingly occur without any government involvement whatsoever but are, in fact, a product of government coercion. Without casting a judgment about whether these interventions are right or wrong, this is an invitation to acknowledge their existence.

But laws can only be written insofar as they affect things that are known and knowable. Supporters of a policy can imagine the intended outcome of a statute or regulation on the known or knowable. Opponents of a legislative idea can emphasize the potential secondary effects only on the known and knowable.

A member of Congress can offer to reduce gravity because we know of the existence of gravity. We can define what it is. We can feel its effects when we jump in the air or when we set a coffee mug on a table. Other members of Congress can argue the value of leaving gravity untouched.

Beyond the known and knowable all are forces we don’t understand and perhaps may never understand but with equally profound implications on humanity. We might call these God’s plan, Shekinah, Qi, Karma, Mana, or Fate. Here, we speak of Tao, and marvel at how it profoundly impacts humanity but evades definition, legislation, or the designs of mortals to shape outcomes despite it.

Tao represents the natural law of the universe, and we should take care to honor that natural law. Often, we don’t, insisting that answers lie in the political realm. Just one more program to be created. Just one more law to be passed. But, of course, it’s never “just one” and the charade of lawmaking is never quite enough to satisfy the people who hold public office nor the people who put them there.

Humans write and rewrite statutes and regulations, fighting the natural order in the process. All along, Tao is left unchanged and will continue long after lawmakers, their successors and their successors’ successors have retired and their laws and programs and institutions have collapsed into dust.

Look, it cannot be seen - it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard - it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held - it is intangible.
These three are indefinable;

Therefore they are joined in one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark:
An unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
The form of the formless,
The image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.

Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao,
Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.

— Chapter 14, of the Tao Te Ching, translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English