Necessity (ananke) always determines the fate of man.

In the early days, necessity was determined by nature, which is to say “chance,” or “fortune.”  We cannot control nature; nature controls us.  For the most part.  Sir Francis Bacon  famously theorized that the purpose of modern science (and for that matter, human enterprise) is to relieve the estate of man.

Well, history teaches us that the human enterprise creates prosperity.  Prosperity creates softness.  Softness creates first world problems.

We have a first world problem. 

Can it be understood by 2500 year old philosophy?  Can the power of “nature” and the necessity it derives be fostered and imposed by human beings?  Can we substitute ourselves for the random chaos of natural occurrences?

Can we impose ourselves on nature?  Can we impose ourselves on ourselves?

If we can, it can only be by numerosity.  

People in numbers may impose the forces of necessity that determine beliefs and change the course of human events/history. 

According to Thucydides, necessity inverts values.  The salutary becomes vice, and its contrary is also true, in the face of necessity.  Folksiness and "aw shucks" are the Michigan way when the Sugar Bowl is conquered.  They are vice when incompetence results not only in losses but in physical danger to players.  

Thucydides also teaches us that necessity determines the content of our poems, our beliefs, our superstitions.  The word “dearth” (originally in a poem about famine) is changed to “death” during the plague in Athens at the height of the Peloponnesian War.  

“Hoke Springs Eternal” during the sugar bowl season.  What change do we make to the “Hoke” mantra during the Hoke era at its nadir?

It depends on the M community and its leaders.  What level of ananke can you create in these critical days?  

Who amongst you have the daring to guide the forces of nature, create necessity, and become heroes?  

Solve this problem Michigan.  The B1G, including my school, needs you.

Necessity, as proposed above, must force Dave Brandon and company out, and create a new future.