Perhaps you'd feel better if it was more like...

All matter and energy must make a deliberate attempt to obey the laws
of nature under everyday circumstances. These laws may only be broken
under most peculiar circumstances that have nothing to do with everyday
life except possibly for the functioning of mysterious devices no one
understands properly (except Strange People in lab coats). Under these
circumstances matter and energy may do whatever odd thing they feel like
as long as they file a petition first.*

* All petitions must be filed during normal business hours. Petitions
may not be granted when the official stamp is being cleaned. Please do
not phone the official stamp keeper at home.

Russell McMahon wrote:
>>Yes, but discovering a new law would merely make the current "law of
> gravity"
>>a special case (or an approximation that holds under certain conditions),
>>just as Newton's "laws" are merely a good approximation which holds
>>under conditions much lower than the speed of light  under general
> relativity.
>
> I'm aware of all that, but my point is that I DISAGREE with it. It's not
> that I disbelieve it (although it may in fact be or not be entirely true),
> feel it's only a special case (hopefully it is) or have any better ideas
> that actually work. I just DISAGREE with it. It's rude and arrogant, it
> insists that we have to spend more energy than I want us to getting things
> off planet, and I don't like its face. It's still a law. ie it specifies how
> things are; like it or not (I don't). It does have the advantage of being
> quite important for holding things together. If the inverse square law were
> to vary by the minutest skerrick all planetary systems (and no doubt much
> else besides) would be in deep trouble - decay inwards or outwards. Inverse
> Square Law is not gravity per se but they seem intimately tied together. If
> anything in nature joins with me in disagreeing with gravity it must do it
> in a very circumspect and orderly manner- if such disagreement ever got out
> into the minds of average matter the universe would be a troubled place.
> Doesn't lead me to having too much hope that my disagreement will spawn any
> sort of revolution any time soon. One would be more liable to success in
> disagreeing with road rules :-)

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