If it can happen, it will happen

Is “if it can happen, it will happen” pure cynicism, a long-ago mathematician’s theory, a quantum mechanics idea, a version of Murphy’s law, or common sense? Perhaps it is all of these.

Cox and Forshaw will tell you it’s a quantum mechanics idea in their  book, as the subtitle suggests. I agree with them.

Or maybe French mathematician Émile Borel thought up the idea in 1943. Or maybe it was in Morgan in 1866

Many of us see it as a version of Murphy’s law. When I was in the Navy, we saw Murphy’s law everywhere because that was just the nature of ships, oceans, and wars.

People will always debate where the law came from, but apparently –as Wikipedia says, “Though similar statements and concepts have been made over the course of history, the law itself was coined by, and is named after, American aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy Jr.; its exact origins are debated, but it is generally agreed it originated from Murphy and his team following a mishap during rocket sled tests some time between 1948 and 1949, and was finalized and first popularized by testing project head John Stapp during a later press conference. ”

Common sense tells us that the old Chinese curse, ” May you live in interesting times” doesn’t really mean “interesting,” but “bad.” I think Murphy would agree. Lately, the times have been playing out abnormally as a cosmic SNAFU as those of us in the military abbreviated “Situation Normal All Fucked Up.” (Parson mon français.) Or, as the Austrians might say, “Fatal but not serious.”

SNAFU is people drinking all night in a bar while climate change is causing the seas to rise up to the doorstep. Hell, maybe “if it can happen, it will happen” is pure cynicism as we see our politicians arguing about how many angels can dance of the head of a pin while ignoring what’s really important.

Actually, I think that everything that can happen has already happened. We just haven’t noticed it yet.

–Malcolm