Binding Chaos
Centrifugal force
An egalitarian force which acts in opposition to ponzi schemes and endogroups. This force serves to either strengthen the existing ponzi scheme by increasing the defending force or collapse it. This is an exosocial force.
Expanded explanation
Centrifugal force is the outward push that opposes the concentration of advantage. Where the centripetal force pulls energy and loyalty inward to build endogroups and ponzi schemes, the centrifugal force is egalitarian, working against them, and Marsh names it exosocial because it reaches outward across boundaries rather than binding inward. Its effect is double-edged in an interesting way: pressure against a ponzi scheme can either collapse it or, paradoxically, strengthen it for a time by provoking the defenders to marshal more force in its defence. So the outward, levelling force does not automatically win. It meets the inward force, and the outcome depends on their contest. This is the force behind altruism, exosocial expansion and the egalitarian drive Marsh treats as inherent to life.
In Heather Marsh’s words
Marsh defines it as an egalitarian, exosocial force with a two-sided effect.
“either strengthen the existing ponzi scheme by increasing the defending force or collapse it”
Binding Chaos
Examples
- Levelling from outside
- An egalitarian pressure that reaches across a group's boundary to oppose a concentration of wealth or power is the centrifugal, exosocial force.
- Resistance that can backfire
- Pressure on a ponzi scheme may collapse it or, by provoking its defenders, briefly strengthen it, the double effect Marsh names.
How others use it
In physics, centrifugal force is the apparent outward force on a body in circular motion, and Marsh again borrows the direction, outward, dispersing, away from the centre. The social force she attaches it to, egalitarian pressure against concentrated advantage, connects to her account of altruism and the exosocial expansive force. Pairing an outward levelling force against an inward concentrating one is her own framing.
Sources
Defined in the Binding Chaos series glossary, within the force-pair and endogroup material of Binding Chaos.
Recommended reading path
Then read in full: Binding Chaos.
A suggested order for exploring this corner of the theory.