Newtonian physics, traditional biology, and Sri Lankan politics – Part 2

FULLY aware that Sri Lanka’s political landscape is often clouded by rhetoric and reduced to party lines, perhaps it is time we look elsewhere for insight: toward a language not rooted in ideology, but in nature and science.

- By Dr. Jayalath Bandara Adikarige

In times when traditional political analysis no longer suffices, metaphors drawn from Newtonian physics and classical biology may offer a more evocative lens through which to interpret the conduct of Anura Kumara Disanayake (AKD) and the broader evolution of Sri Lanka’s democratic experiment.

This is not a scientific exercise, but a metaphorical exploration. In fact, this is an attempt to read political behaviour through the same patterns that govern motion and survival. Just as physical objects follow laws of force and inertia, and biological organisms mutate to endure, so too do political actors move, adapt, and transform. When hopes rise and disillusionment inevitably follows, as they often do in Sri Lanka, it becomes vital to ask: what deeper forces are at play?

These metaphors will not be treated as academic curiosities but as powerful analytical tools. They help us ask hard questions: Has AKD already begun to mutate under the gravitational pull of political power? Can a movement born in resistance remain ideologically pure when courting statecraft?

Are we witnessing evolution or erosion?

In this spirit, we turn to the foundational principles of Newtonian physics and classical biology to decode AKD’s trajectory, and with it, to glimpse the possible shape of progressive politics to come.

5. Newton's First Law and the inertia of power

Newton’s First Law tells us that an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force. AKD’s political journey, especially his emergence as a national figure during the Aragalaya period, embodied a certain momentum: street level credibility, inflated moral clarity, and distance from the corrupt mainstream.