Simple.
Monday, December 14th, 2009As recently as last week I espoused the view that the Republican party is better at “marketing.” They always seem to have the deceptively catchy little soundbites that get people on board.
But today I realized that I was mistaking cause and effect. It’s not that Republicans are better at marketing, it’s that marketing is better at Republicans. That is to say, soundbites are better suited to simple, black and white ideas. The Republican party, at least these days, seems to be a party founded on simplicity.
It is certainly a seductive idea that the Truth should be simple. In the search for physical laws, scientists often use simplicity as a litmus test for truth. The law of gravity (Newtonian) is a very simple relationship. G(m1)(m2)/r^2. Conservation of energy is an extremely simple notion.
However, I read an article yesterday that points out the following: Maybe not all physical laws are beautiful and simple, but humans are only capable of discovering the ones that are.
As Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”