I heard the word "system" being referred to a few times today, so I feel like babbling a little.

How can a virus create more damage than a bomb, even though its energy content is less? How can the president of USA affect the lives of more people than a farmer in Ethiopia? How can a million catalyst molecules affect the system to a larger extent than the same amount of reactants?

Let us consider the case for the catalyst. A catalyst can only make the system reach equilibrium at a faster rate, i.e, non-selectively hasten both the forward and backward processes. The catalyst does not provide the energy or the entropy change for the reaction to take place. The energy and entropy change required is already provided by the reactants or surroundings, so whatever that is going to happen anyway, the catalyst makes it happen faster.

The virus is only using the abilities of the current bodily mechanism to replicate itself. The virus itself does not contain enough chemical energy to break the bonds in the crucial organs, but the human body itself does. The energy and entropy change required to kill a person comes from the person himself.

The president cannot make the people what they don't want to do. He only has the physical might of one person, and should the country turn against him, he cannot resist. Thus, a president needs to convince the people to follow him in order for him to have influence. His influence comes from what he can make his people do, not his own ability.

From the personal scale, each person is weak; it is easy for the rest of the population to kill a particular person if they so desire. Yet, we see people unwary of each other. It is so easy to kill and get killed, it is really a wonder that we are living in peace. I don't want to die yet, but I don't know how not to get killed. I can't resist if people want to kill me. For some reason, people aren't trying to kill me. Perhaps conscience, or consideration of consequences? In any case, I owe my life to the current peace I enjoy.

Lots of brute force always wins, but limited brute force may not. As it stands, each of us only have limited strength and power. Most of us would not have the ability to make an event that would not otherwise occur take place. Thus, it is crucial to make use of the system we are in to make events occur. Indeed, we are enjoying the use of many things that we as individuals would not be able to enjoy if we were on our own. To publish this entry, I would need internet access, the blogger tool, a computer, software, and powergrid. To go to school, there must be teachers, educational materials, grading systems, evaluation systems, maintenance etc. I can't imagine how I can have all these as a solitary human being in a forest.

As a person with the might of only one person, it is really not my "right" to have all these. All my "rights" would come from the ability to fight for it. If I can get hold of a piece of ruby, and no one can take it from me, then it is "rightfully" mine. If people are pissed off and they take it away, then it's their to keep until I can get hold of it again, by persuasion or by force. If a person wants to obtain certain things, he might want to learn how he can use the environment to his cause. If one wants a radio, it is certainly easier to work somewhere, earn some money and buy it, rather than to mine iron ore and refine silicon and build one radio from scratch. If one wants water, it might be easier to get it from a tap than to find a river.

The ability to fulfil one's desires comes from the environment, not so much from the person himself. It is helpful to learn the rules of the environment to use its energies and mechanisms towards the individuals cause, but ultimately, we are still at its mercy. We owe our existence to the environment, and what we get is more of a combination of luck and the environment's reactions to our actions, rather than what we "rightfully deserve".