I caused my coffee to brew.
I got the beans out, ground them, put
filter in pot.
I filled up the water, poured just the
right amount.
I plugged machine into wall, turning it
on.
I watched clear become my desire of
dark, rich brown.
I caused the coffee to brew.
I did not grow the coffee.
I did not make the grinder, filter, or
pot.
I did not make or lay pipes allowing
water to flow.
I neither designed nor built the
machine.
I was only a link in a long set of
chains.
I did not cause the coffee to brew.
Normally we think of cause and effect
as simple. Something is done that makes something else happen. A
useful way to live in the day-by-day. Cause and effects usefulness betrays the
more complex, the more subtle, the more beautiful of what the reality
is.
 |
| Kitty Lust |
Causes require connections. I open the
tuna can, the cats come. The can and cats must be setup a special
way in order for cause and effect to work. Each cat must be
within ear shot of the opener or they do not know of the
potential tuna. If the basement door is closed the feline returning
from the litter box may be unable to reach the can in the kitchen.
Most of the time, we do not think about the special setup that allows
causes and effects.
Causes do not always have the same
effects. My cats Pan and Dora run to the kitchen when I open a can.
Do I cause Pan-Dora to run? The creatures smell food and follow their
desire for tuna. The fact that I'm the one opening the can means
nothing to Dora or Pan. If I allow them to gorge themselves on the
tuna and wait a few minutes to open another can, they do not often come running again, rather lick their paws and ignore can, tuna, and
me.
 |
| Dreams of my cats |
Different things can cause the same
effect. Sometimes, when I'm cooking dinner, I'll open a can of peas
or carrots or maybe tomatoes. You can hear the cats come bounding from where ever they lay, claws on wooden stairs launching themselves
with abandon to their hoped for treat. Most of the time the can
opener is not opening something they want. But just on the off
chance it might be, they come anyway.
Effects follow causes. I have never
once seen the Pan/Dora run to the kitchen expecting tuna while I am
in another room. Maybe, when away from home, if I left a web-cam in
the kitchen, I could detect such behavior; but I'm pretty sure it
would be a waste of time. It seems safe to say that without the
cause of the can opening, the kitchen running does not occur.
 |
| Cats think they are in charge |
Some effects have many causes. We have
a little plastic mouse with a red beaming laser light for a nose. If
I push the button between the mouses ears the laser light lands on
wall and floor much to amusements of my pets. Pan especially likes it
when the light leads her from room to room. She runs with all
her might chasing the red darting prey. Getting Dora to run to the
kitchen where the cans are opened is no mean feat. I can get Pan to
do it a half dozen times before she tires and just watches the light
move about. The opening of cans are not required for the cat to run
to the kitchen with desire.
Correlation is not causation.
Sometimes I make tuna fish sandwiches and put them in plastic bags.
When I take these bags out of the fridge and open them to eat, a cat
in range will come to investigate the smell. This led me to
understand that it was not really the can that drove the cat, it was
the tuna. The can is merely a correlation. The furry creatures had
connected the sound of the can opening with the oily satisfaction of
eating fish. The idea that because you relate one thing to another
does not mean that one thing is the cause of another.
This seemingly little distinction, that
correlation is not causation, leads us to a totally different sense
of justice when cause and effect are applied to the law. Our sense of justice
is closely tied to our innate ideas of cause. If you break the law
you will be punished. The words 'you break' point to the
cause and 'punishment' is the effect.
 |
| We have law for reasons of causation |
Consider the heroin addict who craves
his drug like my cat craves tuna. His body drives him to acquire the
drug. His desire overpowers his morality and he becomes able to make
the mental leap that theft is a viable way to obtain the chemicals his body
screams for. In this sense the addict has been driven to
change his morality, his sense of justice by chemical demand.
We make assumptions about cause and
correlations always with insufficient information. Can we say the
addict is responsible, that he is the cause of the theft? Do we say
the drug is the cause of the theft? Perhaps it was his mother who
took drugs while he was in her womb that setup this chain of events?
Or maybe the pusher who convinced him as a young boy that heroin was
fun? Perhaps all are culpable, perhaps none.
Dora will often jump on the counter to
look for tuna after I leave the kitchen. She knows that tuna was
there and if I don't see or hear her jump onto the counter, there may
be an unexpected treat. Dora also knows that if I find her there, or
become aware, I will chase her down with a squirt bottle until fur is
wet. Dora does not like wet fur. Not at all. When Dora wants the
tuna, her desire often overpowers her sense of consequences.
Sometimes I'm not around and she gets what she wants. Dora knows
that the effect does not always follow the cause.
Human nature looks for the simple cause
and the simple effect. Its useful, but not often accurate to assume
the easy and direct relationship of cause and effect. So next time you judge
remember to be 'just', 'be claws' it is the right thing to do.
Media shows us fiery plane crashes,
crazy people shooting up schools, cataclysmic storms and we watch
these dramatic events unfold with terror. Yet their actual threat to
us is very, very small. The images and sounds we hear skew our
opinions and voting patterns out of proportion to the reality of the
threats.
