Chreods
Another phrase used to describe such systems, is to say that the pathway of change is canalized. For the pathway itself one can use the name chreod, a word derived from the Greek, which means ‘necessary path’. many types of change in society have a more or less well developed chreodic characteristic; once they have got started in a certain direction, it is very difficult to divert them. ... As an example of what the idea of chreods, or canalization, means in an everyday context, consider the accumulation of wealth in a community. ... It is unfortunately common experience that in our society, and in many like it, the rich tend to get richer , and the poor poorer.
Conrad Hal Waddington (1977)
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
Everybody knows the fight was fixed: the poor stay poor and the rich get rich.
Leonard Cohen (1990)
Jeeps are hardly synonymous with
poverty,
On the theme of poverty and inequality
but they too can get trapped in ruts. Ten metres back up the road and the rut would have seemed optional. But once into it, the walls tightly govern what happens next. Possibly a
metaphor
To a page on an aspect of metaphor
for Waddington’s metaphor about evolution. The pattern is everywhere. Consider how hard it is to see when we ourselves are trapped in some pattern of behaviour; all we see is the restricted view of those walls: our current situation and the options it has. To an outsider those walls are part of a larger landscape; much as the Jeep’s view of the up-coming ruts. A smoker trying to give up, pushes off the next cigarette for half an hour (deep within these walls) - the friend wants the packet binned. For humans it is
point of view,
On the importance of Viewpoint.
for society - relative power, for evolution - pathways of change. Cigarettes, wealth, canalisation; the pattern is the same. Humans beings span such categories; what is crucial is seeing how the weak stay weak, and the powerful gain
power.
A little on power.
Waddington was the founder of epigenetics and a major contributor to evolutionary theory, he died in 1975. His most accessible book Tools for Thought appeared two years after his death. It was published by Jonathan Cape, and then as a Granada Paladin paperback, the quotes are from pages 106 and 108 of the paperback edition. The song Everybody Knows was on the L. P. I’m Your Man written and arranged by Cohen, it was produced by Columbia/CBS records.
Our Jeep was photographed struggling in the province of Sơn La, northern Vietnam, in December 2010.
Above, hovering on blue introduces a link: click to go, move away to stay.
Saturday 14th February 2026
...guide to this site