If Something Can Go Wrong, It Wiil

In 1949 an American Aerospace Engineer was in-charge of a testing flight project. Cutting the long story short, one day he observed that someone had arbitrarily plugged all the wires of a machine into misconfigured sockets. It was like wearing right shoe in the left leg and left shoe in the right; a mistake which could only be committed intentionally. However the engineer could not stop wondering why someone would do it on intention.

The engineer was none other than famous Edward A Murphy Jr. The conclusion he zeroed in on became a historical statement known as Murphy’s Law: “If something can go wrong, it will.” Initially no one did notice it seriously but gradually it surfaced as an inseparable substance in day-to-day life.

Recall, hasn’t it ever happened to you; that the day you miss the bus next bus comes late! Books that you do notice everyday hid themselves somewhere when you want to read them! Traffic Police, who never stops you, stops you the day you forget your license! The day you need an early leave your boss asks you for overtime!!

Such incidents always happen in life. When there is any possibility of going something wrong for you, it would. The law may be new but the message is ancient than human beings.

Do you know that the battle of Pearl Harbor could have been avoided if American President Franklin Roosevelt had agreed to meet Japanese Prime Minister Prince Konoye? If an American ambassador (Joseph Grew) had not undertoned the intelligence on looming attack? Even on the day of attack - on December 7, 1941 - Americans received two separate warnings on the imminent attack, but ironically fate deceived them on both occasions. The first warning came when the two army operators stationed near the Oahu island’s northern tip (Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii) observed unusual activity on radar. They reported it to a newly appointed officer at the Intercept Center who concluded that the radar was just showing the arrival of American B-17 planes which were due to arrive at that time. Factually they were Japanese fighter planes approaching to attack. The second warning came when The US Department of War, Washington, received an alert somewhere between 9 am to 10 am on the attack (remember the Hawaiian time is 3 hours behind the Washington time, meaning that when the alert was received Hawaiian time would have been between 6 am to 7 am; the attack took place at 7:51 am). But unfortunately at that time radio contact with Hawaii was broken, hence the alert was sent through commercial telegraph. Finally the message arrived at the headquarters in Oahu, four hours later to the attack.

Choices make history but history makes its own choices. It happened because it could have happened. Provided many options of undertaking a task, human beings would mostly select the option which is most disastrous. If there is a God, he would sure be funny. He is laughing on us.

Murphy himself was the first prey of his law. People completely misinterpreted his law. People took it as “Bitter experiences would occur throughout life, only luck can save you.”

The law as a matter of fact suggests that whatever happens we must accept it as a part of life. Life is reflection of selection and rejection. It is also a suspense thriller because you can never manage any disaster in advance. So the essence of Murphy’s Law is to look for fun in pain. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I can’t resist myself to quote Sidney Sheldon’s words here “Life is like a suspense thriller novel, you never know what is going to happen on the next page until you turn it.”

You can't avoid the disasters, but you can lead them away. It is like slowing down the vehicle if you can't avoid the speed breaker.