Word: resistentialism

resistentialism: The theory that inanimate objects demonstrate hostile behavior against us.

I find this to be an interesting theory. For as long as I can remember, whenever my father, uncle, grandfather, etc. would get angry, seldom would they be overtly angry at someONE. More often than not, they were angry at someTHING. I have also found that this theory holds true. The following quote from A.Word.A.Day explains the it a bit better:

[Coined by humorist Paul Jennings as a blend of the Latin res (thing)
+ French resister (to resist) + existentialism (a kind of philosophy).]

If you ever get a feeling that the photocopy machine can sense when you're tense, short of time, need a document copied before an important meeting, and right then it decides to take a break, you're not alone. Now you know the word for it. Here's a report of scientific experiments confirming the validity of this theory:
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/exercise/report/clatri.htm

As if to prove the point, my normally robust DSL Internet connection went bust for two hours just as I was writing this. I'm not making this up.

-Anu Garg

"Resistentialism has long been used in our family to explain the
inexplicable: Why light switches, fixed in place in daylight hours,
elude groping hands in darkness. Why shoestrings break when we are
in a hurry... The explanation for these and many more daily
occurrences is that there is no such thing as an inanimate object.
Seemingly inanimate objects actually resist those they are intended
to serve."
Myron A. Marty; Hostile Inanimate Objects Have Their Murphy's Law;
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri); Sep 15, 1996.

"Reports of resistentialism abound in ephemeral literature as well.
The Peter Tamony Collection at the University of Missouri, Columbia,
contains dozens of newspaper clippings documenting the phenomenon ...
Among Tamony's clippings is a story about a lady in London whose
telephone rang every time she tried to take a bath. No matter what
time she drew the bath, day or night, the phone always rang -- and
when she'd answer it, nobody was there. Things eventually got so bad
that she stopped bathing altogether, which prompted her husband to
investigate the problem pronto... In the great scheme of things (think
about that one!), Jennings tells us, we are no-Thing, and Things always
win."
Charles Harrington Elster; Resistentialism: Things Are Against Us
(Including Our Own Words); New York Times Magazine; Sep 21, 2003.

---

So there you have it. A theory with moderate amounts of proof. I have lived this theory from time to time but what I've found is that "things" react. It all comes back to Newton's second law: "The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object." AND Newton's third law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

If I pick up a ball and hit it squarely with a bat, the ball travels away from the point of impact. If I kick a board with a well defined and powerful kick, the board breaks. (This holds true for walls, too.) If I am in a truly foul mood, electronic equipment around me is less likely to work correctly. Why the last one? I would theorize that this is because I am (when I'm highly irritated) giving off negative energy. The objects around me absorb this negative energy but are not unchanged by it. Thus, a devices chance of failure goes up the more negative energy it absorbs.

Objects also tend to react the way people anticipate them to react. Thus, if I'm in a bad mood and I'm expecting things to go awry, then sure enough, they go awry. If, on the other hand, I control my foul temper and attempt to remain calm or, heaven forbid, am actually in a good mood, things tend to go better. Try it sometime. If you can really change the way you look at things, (both physical things and the happenings of your life) you may find that things in general go better.