The Pendulum has Swung too far by Karl Wiggins

1972 President elect Richard Nixon, had resigned and left office ahead of impeachment. The challenge is that the pendulum does not just return to center and stop, because of momentum, and the natural inclination to over correct, it continues the other direction until once again, it stops and goes back and so on.Ī further example of this was the 1976 Presidential election of a little known Georgia farmer named Jimmy Carter. A 'Pendulum Swing' refers to the typically equal but opposite reaction to some event, organization, political party etc.įor example, when a particular political party in office performs poorly in the eyes of the voters, the 'Pendulum Swing' represents the voters moving in the opposite direction in the next election in an attempt to regain center or rest in the condition of their country. If you have three or more possible trends, the pendulum is out.The idiom refers to the inevitable return of the pendulum to center or rest, in doing so it moves past center in the other direction, only briefly reaching center or the point of rest. The same is true of whatever trends are suitable for the pendulum metaphor. Pendulums, most visibly those in 'grandfather clocks,' are supposed to swing back and forth in only one plane. Schlenker makes it entirely clear which way is the 'other way,' the direction in which the pendulum has swung too far. In the excerpt that you quote, I don't think that Mr.

As to which way the pendulum swings, or the trend is going, the 'other way' is presumably the opposite of whichever way the writer presumes is current, or has designated as the standard from which the 'other way' deviates. In this field and in many others, trends swing back and forth, just as a pendulum swings back and forth. Encouraging people to lean on excuses is a trend discouraging them would be a trend the other way.

He is talking about trends in counseling or psychotherapy. Indeed, you now see in the psychology literature recommendations that, in essence, therapists help their clients generate excuses to make them feel better, to try to focus them on why perhaps some of their problems are not really their fault, they're not bad people.' : 'But one of the things that my colleagues and I felt was that the pendulum may have swung too far the other way now. Because it's a lot nicer if you make up an excuse, for example, for missing a lunch date or turning somebody down than if you say 'I didn't want to go out with you because I didn't like you' or 'I missed the lunch date because I had better things to do.' : SCHLENKER: 'Much of the research showed that excuses can actually produce beneficial consequences in the sense of salvaging self-esteem, making people feel better, maybe even allowing them to keep stronger relationships with others. Where Does the Phrase ‘Eat the Rich’ Come From?

The Pendulum has Swung too far by Karl Wiggins