Strength in Weakness

One of the inevitable debates in a society that strives for equality is the place of the weak. From one side of the debate comes the mantra that all people are fundamentally equal not only in value and by law, but also in what they produce for society. From the other side of the debate comes the insistence that some people really are special, in a way that sets them apart from other human beings.

The danger of the second position is easy for us to see. The word “aristocracy” comes from two Greek words: “aristos,” meaning the most meritorious, and “krasis,” meaning rule. Etymologically, aristocracy and meritocracy are synonymous. The idea of government by the fittest and best is appealing on paper, but how it plays out is anything but. Aristocrats end up defining “fittest and best” as meaning “me, and my friends and family,” while the weak are oppressed. Most nobles were not noble at all.

However, the first position is equally dangerous. Probably the clearest denunciation of total equality taken to its logical extreme is Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.” This short story paints in broad strokes a United States so overcommitted to the principle of equality that they handicap anyone who seems to show signs of excellence. If everyone is supposed to be equal in abilities, superior performance cannot be tolerated, and overachievers need to be cut down to size. Strength becomes a weakness.

The answer to this dilemma is probably counterintuitive, but a good metaphor comes from rubber.

The Weak Link

A team of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation recently discovered that introducing weak chemical bonds in polyacrylates (a type of rubber) actually strengthened the material. Prior attempts to strengthen synthetic rubber had severely diminished its other useful properties. Polyacrylates with random chemical structures and weaker bonds were nine to ten times stronger than those with strong bonds. What is more, they kept all the qualities that make rubber worth producing in the first place.

When envisioning the place of the weak in a society where everyone is equal, we often imagine them as carried by the strong. This is especially visible in fiction: superheroes like Thor or Superman have special power that let them save the day, while other heroes like Sherlock Holmes, Aragorn, or even Atticus Finch have special qualities that allow the rest of their entourage to ride along to victory on their coattails. This perspective is borne out in our expectations of reality: we want our politicians and our pastors to be intellectual giants and paragons of virtue. We think the world turns on the works of the strong and powerful. However, I believe that this view of reality is wrong.

The reason polyacrylates with weak bonds are stronger than polyacrylates with strong bonds is that any cracks in the structure follow the path of least resistance. In polyacrylates with all strong bonds, cracks go straight across the material. When not all bonds are equal, however, cracks following a meandering, indirect path that allows the stronger polymer chains around the crack to re-form into an even stronger structure than before the crack appeared.

Perhaps, in reality, it is the weak who carry the strong. I don’t just mean that some people have hidden qualities that society as a whole is too nearsighted to recognize. I mean that the people who are less talented, less intelligent, less motivated and even less naturally virtuous are actually the ones who keep the world from going under. The weak links are the ones who make us strong.

It is also good to point out that the strongest polyacrylates are structurally random. Polyacrylates with a regular structure – a “structured” structure, if you will – do not grow stronger with the addition of weak links, but weaker. To bring the rubber metaphor to its conclusion, when we try to order society with strength in mind, we bring about our own demise. Permitting randomness allows the emergence of positive effects we could never have dreamed of, much less brought about, on our own.

As God told Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)